Blue Action Canada has opened applications to participate in the second cohort of its Victoria accelerator for ocean technology startups. “Canada has all the ingredients to lead the next wave of the global blue economy.” Rupert Hayward,Blue Action The accelerator claims to be the first in Canada dedicated to the blue economy, which is structured…
Computer scientist Alan Kay once said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” While Kay uttered those words many years ago, Calgary’s Helcim is taking baby steps toward that goal today with the release of a product that its founder says envisions a future for the payments industry based on open…
In 2015, Uber was not yet synonymous with food delivery. Back then, it was a company known for helping move people, not food. Toronto was one of the first cities where that would change. On its path to becoming the world’s most used food delivery platform, Uber Eats has moved through distinct phases defined by…
It doesn’t take a lot of study and analysis to recognize that you can get a lot more done in a day using a smartphone and a laptop than a fax machine and an abacus, or a pencil and legal a pad. But the benefits of these leaps in personal productivity have not been matched…
After seven years bootstrapping a telemedicine platform that has helped tens of thousands of Canadians manage their hormone health, Science&Humans has turned to venture capital (VC) to accelerate its growth as interest in its services has heated up. “When we started, this was not a category.” Aftab Pashaw, Science&Humans The Toronto-based healthtech company announced today…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM They may look like shriveled chickpeas and carry a name that sounds like a novelty snack, but tiger nuts are quietly becoming a go-to superfood for health-conscious eaters. While they’ve long been a dietary staple in parts of Africa and Spain, the rest of the world is only now…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The UK is moving to outlaw AI-powered “nudification” apps in a sweeping effort to tackle a new wave of online abuse, particularly targeted at women and girls. Announced just before the end of 2025, the upcoming legislation will make it a criminal offense to create or distribute apps that…
Portage is expanding its investment strategy with an agreement to oversee the FinTech assets of American venture capital (VC) firm Point72 Ventures. That deal, which Portage said closed today, grants the FinTech-focused Toronto firm oversight of a portfolio of mature, later-stage FinTech companies. It marks Portage’s first formal foray into secondary investments. Paul Desmarais III…
For the second consecutive year, Canada has nine cleantech companies on the 2026 Global Cleantech 100 list. But while the number of Canadian companies on the list held steady, there has been some turnover. An important theme in the 2026 report is the cleantech industry’s focus on the critical mineral supply chain. The Global Cleantech…
Toronto-based AI scaleup Cohere is going underwater… on purpose. The large language model (LLM) developer has struck a partnership with German submarine maker ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) to explore integrating its technology into the Canadian Patrol Submarine Program (CPSP), a federal effort to procure 12 new submarines. Submarines are “the ultimate high-stakes workplace.” Dave Ferris,…
