June 26, 2023: News and events to kick-off Collision week

The tech ecosystem is thriving, more updates on some of the past week's stories, more on collision week events and how to be part of the fun

Author

Alex at TechTO
June 26, 2023

Quick Takes: A few interesting pieces of news for your week

Here are a few things on our minds from the past few weeks…

What is news? 

According to the Globe & Mail, D-Wave Quantum Inc. is losing its outside accounting firm after PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Why is this interesting for our community?

This is the latest setback for D-Wave an early Quantum pioneer that went public via SPAC. We have previously discussed its financial position several times. It is never a great sign when your accounts decide they don't want you as a client.

What is the news? 

According to Betakit, Automotive Software maker Leddartech secured a SPAC deal to go public on the NASDAQ.

So…why is this interesting? 

This is more surprising than anything else I read in the past two weeks.

The SPAC market is supposed to be dead and the autonomous vehicle trend was supposed to be dead. But we are starting to see autonomous vehicles deployed on the roads and the valuation of this SPAC is not crazy (implied valuation is $348m USD) so it appears there is enough appetite to do this deal. Is this a sign that the IPO window is opening again?

What is the news?

OneVest raises $17m from OMERS Ventures and participation from current investors.

Why is this interesting?

OneVest provides the infrastructure for wealth as a service. They are selling to other fintech and financial institutions that need to make a buy or build decision to enter the market. My guess is they have seen rapid adoption due to these players looking for ways to increase customer revenues and wanting to minimize investments. They are in the right place at the right time.

Listen to the full story on our recent episode of Quick Takes

The Founders Journey: Erin Bury CEO and Co-Founder of Willful

TechTO's Founders Journey Series gives you unparalleled access to some of today's top Founders and Leaders from across the Canadian Tech Ecosystem. We chat with our guests about their journeys to building their current business and the lessons they learned along the way.

Our most recent episode of The Founders Journey features Erin Bury, Co-Founder and CEO of Willful.

Erin is the co-founder and CEO at Willful. She spends most of her time educating Canadians about estate planning, and her mission is to encourage people to plan for the unexpected.

Willful is currently providing more than 150,000 legal documents to help Canadians plan for the unexpected and ensure their families and loved ones are taken care of in the most vulnerable times of their lives.

In today's podcast, we discuss:

  • Erin’s early start in the tech industry

  • Years spent working at BetaKit

  • The inspiration behind Willful

  • The mission to educate Canadians on the most important document of their lives

  • Simplifying the estate planning process

  • Growing to 150,000

  • The most important lessons learned

  • Being both a mother and an entrepreneur

  • The Future of Willful and Helping Canadians to stop procrastinating

Listen now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts

Where can you connect with Erin?

Find Erin on LinkedIn here

Partner Content: Praecipio

Enterprise Service Management: A Core Pillar of Business Transformation

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Explore this whitepaper filled with actionable insights and quantifiable data on Jira Service Management's ROI.iscover:

  • How to provide enhanced visibility and connectivity between teams.

  • Why ESM is one of the most effective frameworks for facilitating collaboration and improving efficiency across IT and non-IT workflows.

  • How leading organizations successfully practice ESM with the Atlassian platform

*this is sponsored content

Suggested Media

Here’s just how much value Collision brings to Toronto

Want to ensure you’re on the list for the biggest party of the summer? We’ve got you covered - THERE’S STILL TIME!

Massive growth, getting customer loyalty, working with your family and more hot topics for founders. Our Founders Journey Series shares the interesting stories behind some of today’s most well-known startups

How this former consultant grew this health tech startup into one of the largest in the industry (you’ve probably heard of it)

TechTO Talent

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*Reply to this email and let us know the jobs you'd like to see

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