🏔️ Funding for innovators in the Switzerland of Canada
🏔️ Funding for innovators in the Switzerland of Canada
The city of Kaslo received $971,000 for the Kootenay Lake Innovation Centre. Welcome to the Weekly Briefing.
Good afternoon! For those of you interested in tech news from B.C.’s capital, I invite you to subscribe to the Victoria Tech Journal. It’s exactly what you think it is: home to a similar weekly digest of the best tech and innovation stories and can't miss links from around the South Island, every Sunday. » You can subscribe here. Now, onto today’s briefing. It’s 978 words, a 3-minute read.
Kaslo receives $971K for Kootenay Lake Innovation Centre
The funding for the courthouse turned coworking space uncovers both the past and present of worklife in the Kootenays. » Get the full story.
5 lessons every tech employee can learn from the TV show Severance
The program revolves around the biotech company Lumon Industries. » Start reading.
Vancouver-based Spare and Rockmass Technologies chosen as 2022 C100 Fellows
The startups were selected out of a record 450 applications from Canadian founders based all around the globe. » Get the full story.
‘We need to disassociate the tech from the people’: guest editor Anthonia Ogundele
The founder and executive director of Ethos Lab Educational Society writes about the lack of diversity in tech right now. » Start reading.
Natalia Williams joins Hootsuite as chief product officer
The ex-Mailchimp exec will be based in Hootsuite’s new Atlanta office. » Get the full story.
Fortinet inks partnership with PGA Tour Canada
The Burnaby-based security firm will sponsor the Fortinet Cup. » Get the details.
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🤝 Funding and deals
Terramera received $1 million to continue to develop its low-cost soil-health and soil carbon quantification technology using proprietary sensors, imaging and data analytics as part of a larger platform called the Terramera Intelligence Engine. » BC Gov News.
Six months after a $40M funding round, SkyHive, a workforce analytics company with offices in Vancouver and Palo Alto, received a strategic investment from Deutsche Bank and incorporated itself in Europe. » Continue.
Vancouver-based Headcheck Health, a tech-enabled provider of concussion protocol management, signed a deal to become the concussion tech partner of USA Cycling. » Continue.
Grin Technologies and Moment Energy are receiving $670,000 in funding for their EV conversion and EV battery recycling products from the B.C. government. » Vancouver Sun.
Well Health Technologies announced that it made a strategic investment in Tali.ai to develop an AI-powered voice assistant for health practitioners. » Continue.
🗞️ In other news…
The B.C. government, Innovation Asset Collective (IAC) and Innovate BC announced a partnership to provide business owners and entrepreneurs with IP education and resources. » Learn more.
Tesla, Block and Victoria-based Blockstream have teamed up to mine bitcoin off solar power in Texas. » CNBC.
Dapper Labs’ Brittany O’Hagan discussed the UFC Strike NFT community, headlining a panel at MINT Collective, and the future of the company. » Boardroom.
Jonathan Rhone, CEO of Axine Water Technologies, announced that’s he decided to step down from the role after 8 years. » Continue.
Clio officially reopened offices through its Distributed by Design hybrid work model, a strategy CEO Jack Newton teased to us last summer. » New York Times.
Founder accelerator On Deck announced its top 100 companies in 2022. Two Canadian companies, Commit and Codex which are both from Vancouver, made the cut. » Get the full list.
Dr. Jaimie Borisoff has been appointed director for the MAKE+ research team at BCIT Applied Research. » Continue.
Production volume for the province’s film and TV industry hit $3.3 billion in 2020-21, up 13 percent from the previous, per the Canadian Media Producers Association. » Business in Vancouver.
East Side Games Group appointed board chair Jason Bailey as its new CEO. » Proactive Investors.
Finhaven Technology Inc. announced that its Finhaven Gateway Inc. division is officially registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a money services business. » Continue.
💡 Ideas and insights
Thomas Gunton, founding director of the Resource and Environmental Planning Program at Simon Fraser University and former deputy minister of environment for B.C., writing in the Vancouver Sun: Canada’s new climate plan contains serious gaps
Sean Hinton, founder and CEO of SkyHive Technologies, writing on LinkedIn: Reskilling for the Metaverse
Kookai Chaimahawong, ESG Partner at UpperStage Capital, joined the evolution podcast to discuss building financial literacy and creating communities for change. » Listen.
Roger Patterson, CEO of Later, writing on the Entrepreneurs’ Organization blog: 3 strategies to combat digital distractions
Chris Neumann, partner at Panache Ventures, shares how founders can discern an early-stage VC’s ability to help them raise their next round
Tessa Seager, CCI’s B.C. director of government affairs, writing on her organization’s blog: The Data Economy Has Changed. B.C.’s Privacy Law Needs to Change Too.
Marius Adomnica, a partner at Segev LLP, joined the Business of Esports podcast to discuss the law as it applies to esports and video games and what we can learn from current cases. » Listen now.
Chris Neumann, partner at Panache, writing on his personal blog about why—after years in Silicon Valley—he came back to Canada
Mike Stephenson, CEO of addy, writing in Entrepreneur: Discord Is a Social Media Platform Built for Gamers. And It Is My Favorite Tool as a Leader.
Karn Manhas, CEO of Terramera, writing in Worth: In An Uncertain Era, It’s Time To Lean Into Your Company’s Chaos
Dave Dinesen, CEO of CubicFarms, writing in Entrepreneur: How Technology is Fighting Agriculture's Unsettling Age Problem
Ryan Wong, CEO of Visier, writing in Entrepreneur: Workers Are Disengaged. Here's How Employers Can Win Them Back.
Carrie Oehm, social media lead for NBA Top Shot, writing on her platform's blog: The WNBA Player's Choice Challenge