Plus: Cohere co-founder calls out Sam Altman for AGI hype.
It’s a sign of the times that a press conference ostensibly focused on relief from the trade war also contained commitments to the country’s military sovereignty.
On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced support for industries impacted by US tariffs, particularly automotive and agriculture. Included in the announcement was a new “Buy Canadian” policy, requiring domestic and foreign suppliers contracting with the federal government to source key materials from Canadian companies in defence procurements.
Standing beside Carney on the podium was Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, who had just accompanied the prime minister to Germany as part of a trade delegation to push our critical minerals and meet with manufacturers bidding to build submarines for the Royal Canadian Navy. While there, Joly encouraged Canada’s banks and pension funds to get involved in defence spending, noting BDC could be a “helpful” catalyst.
BDC CEO and president Isabelle Hudon has read the mission briefing. This week, she sat down with BetaKit’s Josh Scott for a lengthy discussion about the ways Canada’s largest and most active venture investor will get “more aggressive” in supporting the nation’s defence tech. I encourage you to read it.
It’s not the only defence tech news this week: two Canadian companies have reached the second phase of a NATO accelerator program, while Dominion Dynamics has a new partnership in its quest to build a mesh network to detect Arctic vessels. You can find all of BetaKit’s defence tech coverage here.
Depending on your perspective, an explosion of Canadian defence tech could be an encouraging or concerning sign (perhaps both). But there’s no denying it’s happening. On Friday, our prime minister spoke of responding to a “rupture” in the global political order, and this is part of it.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
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Vistara Growth wants out of “tweener” category as private credit firm gears up to close fifth fund
The Vancouver investment firm has already raised more than $370 million CAD for Fund V on the back of strong support from existing limited partners.
In its 10 years of operation, Vistara claims it has raised more than $900 million CAD over its five funds, with 40-plus investments, more than 20 successful exits, and zero losses. In an interview with BetaKit, founder and managing partner Randy Garg attributed his firm’s growth and performance to its consistency.
Tech and business groups embrace Competition Bureau study into small business loan fairness
Canada’s Competition Bureau has launched consultations on how it can best research improving the lending landscape for Canada’s small- to mid-size enterprises, which is dominated by big banks. The study will also look at how non-traditional financial lenders—such as FinTech companies—could benefit from increased competition.
“Improving access to capital and opening up markets is always a good thing,” Laurent Carbonneau, CCI’s director of policy and research, told BetaKit.
SINs among customer data accessed in Wealthsimple security breach
The personal information of some Wealthsimple customers was accessed without authorization following an Aug. 30 security breach.
Wealthsimple told BetaKit the incident affected “significantly fewer” than one percent of its 3 million customers, which would amount to fewer than 30,000 clients. All impacted accounts have been notified by email, and no funds were accessed or stolen, the company said.
“Academically disingenuous”: Cohere co-founder calls out Sam Altman for AGI hype
Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst fought back against industry hype around artificial general intelligence in an appearance on the 20VC podcast last week. The computer scientist called out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for both touting the technology’s power and raising concerns about its potential threat to humanity.
“I think that was academically disingenuous and did a disservice to the technology he loves,” Frosst said.
This week, Frosst’s company announced that Marzieh Fadaee will take over its research division, Cohere Labs, as Sara Hooker leaves the position. Fadaee previously worked under Hooker as a staff research scientist, where she focused on complex problems and fundamental research in language understanding.
White Star Capital wants to lead Canadian seed rounds with new $50-million USD fund
Recent data from the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association shows a steep decline in pre-seed and seed investment activity in Canada. In an interview with BetaKit, White Star general partner Sanjay Zimmermann said he is “definitely concerned” about the state of early-stage Canadian VC.
Securing backing from a slew of Canadian institutions, White Star hopes its new fund will help turn things around.
SRTX names BonLook co-founder Sophie Boulanger new CEO
The appointment of Sophie Boulanger as SRTX’s new CEO comes just months after founder Katherine Homuth stepped down as part of a critical fundraising deal for the textile manufacturing startup.
SRTX told BetaKit that it has called back “well over a third” of the employees it temporarily laid off in response to US tariffs earlier this year, and that Boulanger will assess staffing needs “to ensure SRTX has the right team in place to support sustained growth.”
Ontario bets on made-in-province healthtech with streamlined Innovation Pathway
The Government of Ontario has launched a new, streamlined system for reviewing and adopting healthtech solutions called the Health Innovation Pathway (HIP).
Canadian tech entrepreneurs and other leaders have long argued that Canada’s existing approach to public procurement is a problem. Industry advocates expressed excitement about the HIP’s potential to address some of those barriers for healthtech in Ontario. They argued that its success will depend upon how well it prioritizes engaging local entrepreneurs.
New era at Mila as Hugo Larochelle named scientific director
Hugo Larochelle has been appointed the new scientific director of Mila, Montréal’s AI institute, filling a role once held by his former academic supervisor, Yoshua Bengio.
Larochelle tells BetaKit his priorities are to maintain Mila’s “high calibre of research” in AI, help professors and students commercialize their work, and support the creation of new startups.
InBC CEO Jill Earthy leaves after “mutual decision” with board
After nearly four years as InBC Investment Corp. CEO, Earthy told BetaKit her departure was a “mutual decision,” made in collaboration with the Crown corporation’s board of directors.
Daniel Muzyka, a member of InBC’s board, will take over as acting CEO. Muzyka will handle InBC’s day-to-day operations while the board starts a “competitive” process to find a permanent CEO.
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