Agtech-turned-crypto company Avax One signalled another change in direction on Monday after announcing plans to develop a data centre just outside of Calgary. The Vancouver-based, publicly-traded Avalanche treasury company said it has signed a letter of intent with Alberta-based energy infrastructure company BlueFlare Energy Solutions to develop a 10-megawatt, modular, artificial intelligence high-performance compute (AI…
After five years backing early-stage technology entrepreneurs and connecting them to investors across Western Canada with Startup TNT, Jesse Wiebe left earlier this month to tackle similar challenges on a national scale. Wiebe said the CSCA “will act as a connective tissue to allow the fragmented early-stage investment landscape to work more collaboratively together.” Now,…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Decades after the conflicts that planted them, landmines remain one of the most persistent threats to civilian life in parts of Southeast Asia. In Cambodia alone, more than one million people continue to live and work on land contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations….
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In the face of climate change, many people question the importance of individual actions in ensuring a sustainable future. While institutional change is necessary, environmentalist and author Heather White emphasizes the importance of individual choices. White states that “Individual action drives culture change, and without culture change, global policies…
Canada’s AI Minister, Evan Solomon, says that the country’s forthcoming AI regulation will be “airtight” when it comes to bias, racism, and hate. “If AI is built around narrow teams and narrow use cases, [by] people with narrow experiences, they will give narrow results.” AI Minister Evan Solomon Solomon made the remarks at a breakfast…
Fatima Zaidi is the founder and CEO at Quill Inc., an award-winning production agency specializing in corporate audio, and CoHost, a podcast growth and analytics tool. We thought we’d found our next hire. After two months and seven interviews, our team at CoHost had narrowed our search down to one candidate. He was sharp, personable,…
Vancouver-based Carbonyx has a simple pitch: it will take junk from mining, construction, or manufacturing companies and sell the usable materials it extracts. But that’s just the cover story. “We’re basically a carbon removal company disguised as a materials company.” Doug Pimlott, Carbonyx Carbonyx co-founder and CEO Doug Pimlott’s true mission is to make carbon…
Vancouver-based A&K Robotics, which builds self-driving “mobility pods” for airports, has secured $8 million CAD in Series A financing. Navigating airports can be a tough and stressful experience, especially for travellers with mobility limitations. While airports already provide assistive services like carts driven by employees, A&K co-founder and CEO Matthew Anderson told BetaKit over email…
Lucas McCarthy respects the hustle it took to turn Live Nation and Ticketmaster into globally dominant, household names. Still, the Showpass CEO can’t help but crack a smile at the outcome of the live entertainment behemoth’s antitrust suit earlier this month. On April 15, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) delivered a landmark verdict in…
Toronto-based FinTech firm Float Financial wants to save bookkeepers more time with an agentic AI offering for corporate credit cards that it’s releasing inside of its new product suite. As of Tuesday morning, Float customers on certain service tiers can now access Float Intelligence. The AI automation layer bundles Float’s existing automation tools with a…
