Calgary’s Wagepoint has rolled out two new products aimed at streamlining and modernizing payroll for small businesses. Founded in 2012, Wagepoint provides payroll software for small businesses in Canada, offering features like auto-calculated pay runs, automatic tax remittances, and integration with other small-business accounting software like QuickBooks Online or FreshBooks. The company says more than…
Montréal-based SRTX, the maker of Sheertex “unbreakable” tights, struck a deal to sell to fellow Quebec textile manufacturing startup AYK International on Tuesday, following a tough year for the company. As part of the sale, SRTX is filing a notice of intention (NOI) to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, which allows…
Liam Gill is a former startup founder, investor, and lawyer who leads the Capital Program at MaRS Discovery District, where he supports Canadian startups in raising the capital they need to grow and scale. Last week, the federal government unveiled a $6.6-billion Defence Industrial Strategy that will play a key part in its push to…
Prime Minister Mark Carney admitted that Canada has underinvested in defence and relied “too heavily” on the United States for protection over the past few decades—a situation he said has become untenable amid economic threats and challenges to Canadian sovereignty. “This has created vulnerabilities that we can no longer afford and dependencies that we can…
The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) has halted trading of XTM’s stock, $PAID, on the Canadian Securities Exchange as customers of the company’s subsidiary, Everyday Payments, allege their money is missing. The halt was issued at 9:22 a.m. EST on Tuesday morning, with CIRO citing “pending news” as the reason. The halt follows the penny…
Toronto AI company Cohere has released a suite of new multilingual AI models that support more than 70 languages on any device, even offline. “The future of multilingual AI … will be a vibrant ecosystem of many models, shaped by many voices.” The base Tiny Aya model (Tiny Aya-Base) contains more than 3.35 billion parameters…
Here’s a sign that Toronto-based Shakudo has been building belief in its product: the software startup has managed to convert some of its customers to investors. Shakudo achieved this through a $7-million USD Series A2 round that brought on new backers with close ties to some of its clients, which include Canadian grocery and pharmacy…
THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Finding parking in a city has always been a small daily nightmare. In places like Los Angeles, drivers can spend more than 80 hours a year circling the block, and cities across the globe, from London to Frankfurt, offer little relief. But Vienna is taking a different approach: instead of…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Between the nonstop news cycle, workplace demands, and life’s everyday challenges, maintaining focus has never felt harder or more important. From rising interest rates to relationship stress to the mental clutter of daily life, distractions seem built into modern existence. But whether you’re managing a team, working solo, or…
In 2022, the federal government commissioned a report asking Canada’s VCs what they thought about BDC, the Business Development Bank of Canada. The report offers a candid evaluation of the Crown corporation and Canada’s largest direct and indirect venture capital investor, but here’s the thing: the report was effectively forgotten, and its recommendations were never…
