Canadian startup news of the week (8/21/22)

Welcome to BetaKit’s startup stories of the week! Here, you will find the week’s most important news, features, and editorials published on BetaKit. If you prefer this update hit your inbox every week, make sure to subscribe to the BetaKit Newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page.

Top Stories of the Week

Venture investment returning to pre-pandemic levels, shows Q2 2022 CVCA report

The economic downturn is leading to investment themes that bear resemblance to early 2020, when investors were cautiously deploying capital and concentrating on their existing portfolio companies.

Bank of Canada’s Ron Morrow: FinTechs “need to be ready” for upcoming retail payments regulations

“It’s not very often the Bank of Canada gets a new mandate, and it’s not very often you get a blank sheet of paper to work from,” said Ron Morrow, executive director of retail payments supervision at the Bank of Canada.

AlayaCare lays off 14 percent of employees, slows M&A plans

The Montréal-based healthtech startup has also scaled back its near-term merger and acquisition (M&A) plans and let two of its office leases expire in Victoria, British Columbia, and Queens, New York, as part of a broader push to become more cash-efficient.

Amid recent wave of Canadian tech layoffs, Communitech brings The Help List back

The Help List was first created as a grassroots response to COVID-19 pandemic tech layoffs in early 2020 by a group that included former Prospect founder and CEO Marianne Bulger.

Shopify launches ‘Collabs’ to directly connect creators with merchants

Shopify claims that the creator economy can present a new sales channel for its merchants to reach new consumers and tap into the $104.2 billion market that continues to steadily increase.

Former BDC investors Meryeme Lahmami, Siddartha Krishnan join Pender Ventures, Blue Vision

Lahmami is a former associate at BDC’s Women in Technology (WIT) Venture Fund team, while Krishnan comes from BDC Capital’s Industrial, Clean and Energy (ICE) Technology Venture Fund where he served as partner.

How startups can survive a market downturn

Katy Yam, partner at Real Ventures and GM of Founder Fuel, Peter Fishman, co-founder and CEO of Mozart Data, and Ethan Ruby, partner of analytics at Craft Ventures all spoke about how the right data can help startup leaders make survival decisions in a downturn.

Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs

• VAN – Brüush Oral Care closes Nasdaq IPO, raising $15.5M (read more)

• EDM – Direct-C – $3.9M (read more)

• THO – WellnessLiving – $66M (read more)

• TOR – MolecuLight secures funding from BDC Capital, iGan (read more)

• TOR – NotaryPro – $646K (read more)

• TOR – Metafold 3D – $500K (read more)

• OTT – Government of Canada invests collective $11.2M into 29 TV, publishing, gaming firms (read more)

• MTL – Connect&Go closes Series A with $6.2M top up (read more)

• MTL – Moozoom – $5M (read more)

THE GLOBAL TALENT STREAM NEEDS STREAMLINING

“It’s not as broken as other things.”

VanHack CEO Ilya Brotzky joins to explain what’s causing the 4-6 month waiting period for Canadian tech companies using the Global Talent Stream, and shares a new petition to get the government to make necessary changes.

CAN FINTECH HELP CANADIAN MUSLIMS WITH FINANCIAL ACCESS?

“I represent a different community that has different needs.”

Manzil CEO Mohamad Sawwaf explains the cultural, regulatory, and compliance roadblocks that are slowing him from financially serving more than a million Muslims across Canada.

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