When Canada’s long-delayed AI strategy is released next week, it will help the government make different choices around procurement, support, and providing capital to build up the industry, the federal AI minister’s parliamentary secretary told attendees at a Toronto AI conference on Thursday. The news: On Monday, at Betakit’s Most Ambitious: Town Hall, AI minister…
Purpose Investments founder and CEO Som Seif says the financial services industry is dominated by incumbents who don’t like change, and they use the regulated nature of the industry against potential challengers. The news: Seif made the remarks in a keynote address kicking off the 2026 Canadian Finance Summit on Thursday morning during Toronto Tech…
Wealthsimple users will soon be able to purchase certain US and Canadian IPOs at the initial offering price, a form of trading that is usually only available to high-net-worth investors. The news: Toronto FinTech company Wealthsimple opened access to IPO offerings on its website on Thursday. Retail investors can now request shares of select companies…
Quantum chemistry has been touted as having the potential to revolutionize drug discovery. But Mark Fingerhuth, the co-founder and chief research and development officer of Toronto biotech startup ProteinQure, says we’re not quite there yet. The news: Fingerhuth’s comments were made at Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)’s Super Session on Wednesday morning during Toronto Tech Week….
The Canadians that founded edtech startup Oohlala Mobile (now Ready Education) have a new startup they say will automate grunt work at banks and credit unions. “Our vision is a future where humans and AI work side by side in financial services.” Danial Jameel, Saris AI Montréal and San Francisco-based Saris AI announced Thursday a $28.8-million…
Raquel Urtasun believes the time is now for Canada to go “all in” on physical AI, and that doing so could make the country a global player in the coming decades. Speaking with University of Toronto president Melanie Woodin at BetaKit’s Most Ambitious: Town Hall, the Waabi founder and CEO told audiences that the world…
This Q&A appears in the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of the Canadian tech innovators strengthening our autonomy, security, and prosperity here. Erin O’Toole has dedicated most of his adult life to public service. The former leader of the Conservative Party and former minister of veterans affairs, he also served for more…
This article appears in the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of the Canadian tech innovators strengthening our autonomy, security, and prosperity here. In 1983, Gilles Brassard’s studies in quantum information yielded an important discovery, almost two decades before the first quantum computer was ever built. He and his colleague Charles H. Bennett…
There’s a short list of animals who, when placed in front of a mirror, eventually figure out they’re looking at themselves. Chimpanzees. Bottlenose dolphins. Asian elephants. A magpie or two. A small reef fish called the cleaner wrasse, which upended some assumptions about brain size when it passed the test in 2023. And now, belugas….
If Serena Williams FaceTimes you to learn about your business, you’d better answer. That’s what Emly Hosie did. The CEO of Toronto-based re-commerce startup Rebel recounted how the tennis superstar wanted to invest in her Series A round in a panel discussion at Toronto Tech Week’s Homecoming event on Wednesday. “Serena Facetimed me, and I…
