Mar 13, 2023

Plus: Ten things worth reading on International Women’s Day. Share on: Welcome to BetaKit’s startup stories of the week! Here, you will find the week’s most important news, features, and editorials published on BetaKit. If you prefer this update hit your inbox every week, make sure to subscribe to the BetaKit Newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page. Top Stories of the Week Toronto’s venture funding in 2022 may have dipped from a record-breaking 2021, but still far surpassed 2020 and 2019, signalling a “return to sanity” for the city’s tech sector. Meanwhile, the Waterloo Region saw a continued decline in venture funding activity throughout 2022, culminating in a four-year low in deal volume. The Plan requires participating companies in the Global Talent Stream to demonstrate how their hiring of international talent is having “positive impacts” on the local labour market. It’s an aspect of the program that some in the Canadian startup community see as a time-consuming barrier built into a program meant to streamline hiring talent from abroad. Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs QUE – CAN Health Network expands into Québec with $30M ( read more ) TOR – Cohere secures funding from Salesforce ( read more ) TOR – Wattpad lays off 15 percent of staff ( read more ) TOR – Firehood hands out $100K in prizes ( read more ) Make 2023 your year for innovation Mitacs and the Canada Foundation for Innovation are collaborating to help Canadian startups and tech innovators jumpstart their business with access to project funding, state-of-the-art labs, and business development and research experts. "Let's be blunt about it: we as a country are extremely good at invention … we're horrible at innovation." Dan Breznitz, co-director of the Innovation Policy Lab at the University of Toronto, walks through the reasons for Canada's failure on innovation, the origins of the CIC, and who he thinks should be its first CEO. "There is a special place in hell for investors who intentionally screw over their founders with no empathy for the journey or the challenges that they are going through." Panache Ventures partner Chris Neumann joins to answer listener questions about his blog writing, the state of Canadian accelerators, and what VCs are talking about. Subscribe to B|K: The BetaKit Newsletter Subscribe to B|K using the form below to ensure the best from BetaKit hits your inbox every week. * indicates required