Also: Canadian VCs had second-highest year on record.
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The main news of the week
Shopify Changes Employee Compensation Model: “Being a manager now has no impact on compensation.”
After Shopify rebuilt Indigo’s website after a ransomware attack, the company has (again) improved its employee pay. In the new model, Shopify employees are designated a manager or crafter and are evaluated on their ability to manage direct reports or deliver products and projects, respectively.
Semiconductor company GaN Systems is to be bought by Infineon for $830 million.
The two companies announced a limited agreement on March 2 in which Infineon will pay $830 million in cash for Ottawa-based GaN Systems. The acquisition remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Recent Alberta, BC budgets have targeted talent shortages with otherwise minimal new technology investment.
The provincial governments of Alberta and BC released their latest budgets last night, each with big investments in infrastructure and funding to address the shortage of affordable but skilled workforces, but little in the way of new technology funding.
From table to door: KitchenMate expands smart food kiosks into the condo market
His return to work was not as immediate as some had hoped. So where are the workers? For office workers, it’s still mostly at home, and for people in cities across Canada, home is usually a condo building, which is the new target market for KitchenMate.
Hootsuite follows Twitter’s lead when the company cancels free plans
Like Twitter, Hootsuite has gone through tough times of late: refocusing its priorities and focusing on monetization. For Hotsuite, this included three rounds of layoffs and a change in CEOs that affected more than 35 percent of employees.
How to build a diverse talent ecosystem for Canada
In an op-ed, AJ Thibando, Chief Strategy Officer of Palt Skills, argues that an educated workforce alone is not enough to solve the talent crisis facing Canada’s creative landscape.
Canadian small businesses also need open banking
According to a recent study by MasterCard, 90 percent of disabled small business owners, 79 percent of Indigenous small business owners, and 71 percent of small business owners have looked for new digital tools to manage their businesses in the past two years.
Recent funding, acquisitions and layoffs
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Van – Fresh Prep Got Peco (read more)
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Keith – Miovision Acquires Micro Traffic (Read More)
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TOR – Northleaf closes $675M in latest PE funding (read more)
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TOR – Genecis receives investment from Amazon (read more)
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TOR – Glowstick – $1.3M (read more)
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TOR – Uplinq – $820k (read more)
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TOR – Obsido – $815k (read more)
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OTT – Fed launches $250M development program (read more)
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MTL – Sonder lays off 14 percent of workers (read more)
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MTL – Paper Major Gets Clarity (read more)
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MTL – AssistIQ – $2.5M (read more)
Inventures 2023: The Breakthrough Innovation Event
A one-of-a-kind experience, Ventures is a platform for conversation, gathering and creative collisions that attracts more than 3,000 investors, entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
It’s where you find new technologies, talent, capital, customers and markets. Hosted by Alberta Innovates, Inventures brings the world’s brightest minds and boldest ideas to Calgary for three incredible days of learning, sharing, inspiration and fun.
The diverse program includes eight curated program tracks with over 150 sessions and 300+ speakers, keynotes, expert panels, startup peak events, networking opportunities and more.
Register for Adventures 2023 today.
Panache’s Chris Neumann returns with Founder Fuel and features “Shitty” VC
“There’s a special place in hell for investors who deliberately screw over their founders without any empathy for their journey or the challenges they face.“
Chris Neumann of Panache Ventures joins to answer listener questions about his blog post, the Canadian startup scene, and what VCs are talking about.
Generative AI tests the worst: misinformation or bad faith of the user
“This whole thing with ChatGPT is just history replaying itself. We need to stop looking at technology and innovation as the definitive silver bullet for all the world’s problems and instead understand that it increases injustice at an exponential rate.
Feminist founder and CEO Dr. Sara Saska walks through the current relationship between DEI and tech before exploring the dangers of biased information and bad faith users in generative AI.
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