Also: Panache closes $100 million in second round of funding to double down on seed-stage startups.
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The main news of the week
The inability of the open banking working group to solve critical management, standards issues
Fintech community working group participants and people familiar with the talks expressed concern that delaying administrative decisions could bog down the system, leaving Canadians with no recourse if their data or accounts are breached.
Panache closes $100 million in second round of funding as company doubles down on seed-stage startup
First in the year Panache, launched in 2018 by a group of 500 startups from Canada, aimed at the time to be “the most active and best-performing fund of its kind in the country.”
Shopify CFO, COO swaps amid financial downturn
Amy Shapero, the company’s CFO of five years, will step down on Oct. 27 following Shopify’s third quarter 2022 earnings announcement. Jeff Hoffmeister will take over as CFO.
Adam Nanji leaves Microsoft for startups to lead venture capital for Amazon Web Services in Canada
According to Nanji’s LinkedIn page, as Canada’s head of venture capital, he’s responsible for building partnerships between venture firms and AWS “to help scale-up startups leverage AWS.”
Five months later, the details of Canada’s new innovation and investment agency remain scant.
From budget announcements, the federal government doesn’t say much about what the agency will look like, its role, how it will operate, and most importantly, whether it will operate at all.
Only one individual appears to have the power to decide the agency’s future, and that’s a government outsider with a contract with the federal government: Dan Breznitz.
Recent funding, acquisitions and layoffs
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CAL – Gets Header HIS (read more)
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VAN – Cuatio integrated with RxMx (read more)
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TOR – HyperComply – $6.4M (read more)
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MTL – Panache Ventures Closes $100M in Fund II (read more)
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MTL – Kaloom – $27.4M (read more)
Canadian tech is (still!) hiring
I’m only concerned about getting tech talent.
Nora Jenkins Townson (Bright + Early) and Meagan Simpson (BetaKit) join to explain why more than 350 companies are still looking to hire Canadian tech talent in the midst of recession.
Learning from Traction’s embedded fintech leaders
“Shopify Pay still uses Stripe and they have some crazy scale.”
Imad Akhund (CEO, Mercury) and John Fry (CEO, Lendflow) join BetaKit to discuss how startups can embed fintech into their products, grow revenue and eliminate hidden bottlenecks.
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