#1. Tenstorrent raised $693-million USD last week from big-name investors including Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions and Samsung. In what city was Tenstorrent founded?
Tenstorrent was founded in Toronto, but its Series D round came shortly after the company quietly moved its headquarters to Santa Clara, California.
Tenstorrent’s Bob Grim told BetaKit the move stateside was driven by a major investor’s ownership cap for non-US companies and a potential IPO on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange, though he said, “Canada is at the heart of everything we do.”
#2. SRTX, which raised $35 million this week, has developed rip-resistant pantyhose with a material that is 10 times stronger than what?
Founded by Katherine Homuth, SRTX makes its Sheertex pantyhose out of a uniquely durable polymer, which has been called a ballistic-grade “super material” 10 times stronger than steel wire. The startup is using its new financing to scale its wholesale manufacturing operations in Québec.
#3. Two British Columbia organizations invested a combined $9.2 million in climatetech, food sciences, and life sciences companies and projects this week. Which of the following projects did NOT receive funding?
Innovate BC did not recently fund a peanut oil-powered energy generator, but it did invest in chia-based fat substitutes to reduce calories in foods, a cosmic-ray muon tomography technology to improve safety and efficiency in mineral mining, and a lightning suppression technology that can prevent wildfires.
#4. “Cold storage” became a hot topic for one British Columbia-based company this week. What does the term refer to?
Cold storage is a method of storing cryptocurrencies offline to protect them from hackers. Nanaimo-based crypto platform ezBtc claimed to use cold storage to protect its customers’ assets, but the BC Securities Commission found the firm diverted $13 million in customer funds for gambling and personal use.
This week, the commission imposed a fine of $18.4 million as well as a lifetime ban from capital markets on ezBtc and its owner, David Smillie.
#5. Which market did Questrade quietly exit recently that competitor Wealthsimple moved into earlier this year?
Digital mortgages have been on Wealthsimple’s radar for years, and the company entered the digital mortgage space this spring through a partnership with Pine.
Questrade managed to beat Wealthsimple to the digital mortgage space with the official launch of QuestMortgage in March 2022. However, it appears the offering was short-lived, as QuestMortgage is no longer accepting new applications, according to its website. The revelation came about two months before Questrade laid off an undisclosed number of employees.
#6. Which tech company claimed to have a record-breaking Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend?
All three e-commerce companies claimed they broke records during the year’s busiest shopping weekend. Shopify merchants reached a record $11.5 billion USD in sales, while Canadian companies using Square and Afterpay facilitated an all-time high of 5.9 million transactions.
#7. Eva Lau said most people assumed Wattpad would be acquired by a traditional publisher. Naver, its parent company today, was an early pioneer in what?
Naver was an early pioneer in user-generated content, and through the acquisition, Wattpad became a vital part of Naver’s digital storytelling ecosystem, anchored by subsidiary Webtoon. Lau recently shared more insights on crafting a successful M&A strategy, drawing lessons from the exits of companies like Wattpad and SkipTheDishes.
#8. What’s unique about the AI-powered song generator that Canada’s Musical AI plans to launch with Beatoven.ai next year?
Musical AI teamed up with India’s Beatoven.ai to develop what they call a “completely legal and licensed” AI song generator. The AI model, which the companies plan to launch in the second half of 2025, will be trained on over three million songs, loops, samples, and sounds—all with permission from and compensation for rights holders.
#9. Which former NBA star launched a $100-million USD sport technology venture fund this week?
Metta World Peace, former NBA star and champion, partnered with Stephen Stokols, ex-CEO of Boost Mobile, to launch Tru Skye Ventures, a venture fund aiming to raise $100 million by the end of the first quarter next year. Tru Skye will focus on consumer-driven investments in sports tech, digital media platforms, and health and wellness innovation.
#10. Spotify chose to do something new with its ‘Wrapped’ campaign that left many users feeling underwhelmed. What was it?
Spotify Wrapped introduced a new AI podcast feature, where robotic voices recap users’ listening highlights in a conversational style. Users on X have complained that the prioritization of the AI podcast over Wrapped’s usual creative features left them disappointed.
This year’s Spotify Wrapped did drop some exciting stats for The BetaKit Podcast: we streamed in 44 countries (Canada was our top country—no shock there); listener growth hit a spicy 69 percent; and our podcast followers climbed by 38 percent. If you haven’t yet, why not check it out?
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Feature image courtesy Jim Keller via LinkedIn.