Plus: Cohere pitches security and productivity with general release of North.
Shopify is once again Canada’s most valuable company by market capitalization, beating analyst expectations in its Q2 earnings and showing no ill effects from rising consumer costs and other trade war uncertainties.
The shade cast by Canada’s tallest poppy could have overshadowed earnings week for several other publicly traded Canadian tech companies, were it not for BetaKit. We have you covered with coverage of Mogo, Thinkific, and Propel below.
That many companies reported positive showings this week is an encouraging sign, especially given how much more common it was for Canadian tech to return private than go public last year.
With a contingent of almost 80 privately held Canadian technology companies currently returning over $100-million USD in annual recurring revenue, could we see one of them slide open an IPO window that has remained closed since the end of 2021?
Well, as Thomson Reuters Ventures’ Tamara Steffens told our Alex Riehl last year, the scrutiny of the public markets can be “brutal,” with many opting instead for secondaries to secure capital and refresh cap tables. Global secondary volume just hit a new record of $103 billion USD during the first half of 2025.
I’m sure many public market hopefuls are paying close attention to the fortunes of design software company Figma, which saw a record-breaking first day of trading at the end of July. Figma has shed about $21 billion USD in value from its peak in the days since, and is now trading below its IPO opening price.
Canadian tech companies unwilling or unable to navigate similar market volatility will likely keep their faces pressed to the glass. 1Password, for example, has already said it is biding its time until 2026.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
Invest in Canada’s Clean Energy Future with RheEnergise
Canada’s clean energy leadership is evolving, and energy storage is the next frontier. RheEnergise, a Montreal-based innovator, has launched an equity raise on FrontFundr, giving Canadians a chance to invest in a breakthrough: High-Density Hydro™.
This next-gen long-duration energy storage uses a proprietary fluid 2.5x denser than water, enabling deployments on small hills instead of mountains. It’s scalable, cost-effective, and built for Canada’s unique landscape, unlocking tens of thousands of untapped project sites from Ontario to B.C.
Each RheEnergise system delivers 20–100MW of clean power with 4–20 hours of storage, each project is enough to power thousands of homes while supporting wind and solar integration, grid stability, and lower energy costs.
With 80% round-trip efficiency and 13,000+ viable sites in Ontario alone, the opportunity is massive.
Join the clean energy revolution. Invest today on FrontFundr and help shape Canada’s net-zero future. Investing in exempt market securities is risky. For details on this Accredited Investor-only offering, please visit FrontFundr.com/RheEnergise.
Shopify regains status as Canada’s most valuable company with strong Q2 earnings
Seemingly defying the pressure of ongoing trade uncertainty on retailers, Shopify beat its forecasted revenue growth in Q2 on the back of rising merchant sales.
The Ottawa-based e-commerce company posted 31-percent revenue growth year-over-year as its revenue hit $2.68 billion USD ($3.69 billion CAD).
Shopify’s stock price responded by surging more than 20 percent on both the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange on Wednesday, surpassing the Royal Bank of Canada to regain the title of Canada’s most valuable company by market cap.
Crypto giant Ripple to acquire stablecoin payments platform Rail for $275 million CAD
San Francisco-based crypto company Ripple has acquired Toronto-based stablecoin payments infrastructure startup Rail for $200 million USD ($275 million CAD) in a mix of cash and equity.
Rail develops financial infrastructure for standard currencies and digital assets, including stablecoins. Ripple said the deal will add Rail’s virtual accounts and automated back-office infrastructure to its capabilities.
“With Rail, we are uniquely positioned to drive the next phase of innovation and adoption of stablecoins and blockchain in global payments,” Ripple president Monica Long said in a statement.
Cohere pitches security and productivity with general release of North enterprise AI platform
With the full release of its agentic AI platform North, Toronto-based Cohere is hoping to capture more security-minded enterprises.
The technology is a workspace platform that performs tasks when users create custom AI agents through text prompts. The company claims these agents can speed up and automate what it calls monotonous tasks, such as generating reports or summarizing documents.
In a virtual demo for media last week, Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst said North “is a tool for augmenting and automating all of the work you can do behind a computer that you would rather not do.” He added: “That’s really where we think AI is best suited.”
Blue J raises $167.4-million CAD Series D after AI tax research platform more than doubles its revenue
Toronto-based Blue J, which provides AI-powered tax research software, has raised a $122-million USD ($167.4-million CAD) Series D round on the heels of rapid growth.
The company claimed it has doubled its revenue and customer base in the first half of 2025, as well as increased its headcount to more than 80 employees.
“We are essentially hiring across the board and will move as quickly as we can to find the right talent,” Blue J CEO Ben Alarie told BetaKit.
Harvey to bring AI legal platform to Canada with new Toronto office
San Francisco-based generative AI scaleup Harvey is opening a new hub in Toronto this October to support both its growth in Canada and broader product development plans.
The company said it selected Toronto for its strong engineering talent pool, academic institutions, and AI community as it kicks off “a long-term investment in the Canadian market.”
The fast-growing legal software provider, which was most recently valued at $5 billion USD, intends to hire for more than 20 engineering, sales, and customer success roles in the city by early next year.
Rozvelt bets on hardware for hunters amid tariff-spurred funding crunch
Montréal-based consumer hardware startup Rozvelt has launched pre-sales of its breath-control hunting headgear and raised $450,000 from angel investors, despite a challenging early-stage fundraising environment clouded by tariff uncertainty.
“We closed the round at the worst time [in] 20 years,” founder Nicholas Monette told BetaKit, adding that he believes Rozvelt could have raised three to four times its final amount had it not been for tariffs.
PEI BioAlliance appoints Sandpiper Ventures principal Lauren Ledwell as CEO
Charlottetown-based bioscience industry group PEI BioAlliance has appointed Sandpiper Ventures principal Lauren Ledwell as its new CEO. She succeeds founder Rory Francis, who is retiring after 20 years at the helm.
PEI BioAlliance board chair Charmaine Noonan said that “Ledwell’s leadership in the innovation economy as a tech entrepreneur, investor, and mentor is a significant asset for the continued growth of our sector.”
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars & More
NYC – Canadian-founded Clay now valued at $3.1B USD
VAN – Mogo cashes out some WonderFi stake ahead of acquisition
VAN – Thinkific reports modest growth in Q2 earnings
CGY/SSK – LiORA secures $5.1M to scale soil remediation platform
SSK – TeamLinkt closes $8.3M to develop sports admin platform
KW – Descartes acquires Finale Inventory as it navigates tariffs
TOR – Propel posts another record quarter in Q2 earnings
MTL – Pathway acquired by US telehealth firm Doximity for $87M
The BetaKit Podcast — How Canada can be a leader in space (and save the world)
“This isn’t just about doing something cool because space is the next frontier. This is a key domain for economics, for national security, sovereignty, job creation, and everything.”
A company trying to achieve Canada’s first commercial rocket launch. Three startups solving for the future of humanity. One founder sending messages to his future self to ensure he achieves his dreams. This special episode contains select highlights from BetaKit Town Hall: Most Ambitious, featuring speakers from NordSpace, Deep Sky, Xatoms, MycoFutures, and Verto Health.
Ready to Tackle Real Marketing Challenges? Join Motion.
Motion is the control center for creative strategists. Motion helps brands scale paid social campaigns by turning complex ad data into clear, actionable insights. Its platform includes visual ad analysis, competitor tracking, and automated reporting.
Backed by a recent $30M Series B raise, Motion launched AI Creative Strategists—virtual teammates that analyze creatives, run research, and use real data to generate winning content.
Want to solve real marketing problems and make an impact?
Motion is hiring across engineering and customer success.
Explore open roles at one of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies: motionapp.com/careers.
Feature image courtesy Nicholas Cappello via Unsplash.