Author: Editor-in-Chief

Toronto-based proptech platform Keypr has partnered with Montréal-based Nesto to add mortgage services as another tool in its digital service for Ontario homebuyers. We’re tech and process people, so we’re automating [everything] other than getting into the house, negotiating, and closing.” John Asher, Keypr CEO Keypr is the consumer-facing online platform for Toronto-based realtor Konfidis, a joint venture between advisory firm FirePower Capital and Feld Ventures. Founder and CEO John Asher told BetaKit that the platform guides buyers through the purchase process, from booking a visit to closing the deal. “We’re tech and process people, so we’re automating [everything] other…

Canada trains some of the best AI researchers in the world. Shabnam Haghzare’s job is making sure they stay here. Growing up in Iran, her natural curiosity led her to study electrical engineering, even as people around her suggested that “engineering isn’t really a fit for girls.” She pursued it anyway. “The ingredients are there. It’s a matter of pulling it all together.” Shabnam Haghzare, Mitacs Today, as Senior Advisor and National AI Lead at Mitacs, Haghzare is helping create the pathways she once had to navigate herself. She leads efforts to connect Canada’s brightest AI researchers with the…

Roach Capital lead Fahd Ananta is the latest Shopify alumnus, albeit a distant one, to join San Francisco-based real estate tech firm Opendoor. “I hate to lose, so I’m going to give this every ounce of my energy and focus.” Ananta was a product manager at Shopify, but left the company in 2020. He now follows former Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian to Opendoor, after Nejatian was appointed CEO of the proptech company last week. Ananta announced the new job in a post on X, calling it “the biggest bet” of his life. “I hate to lose, so I’m going to…

Whether it’s to help plan their financial goals or help protect against identity theft or fraud, Patricia Curtis thought her clients should have an easier way to access their credit scores and reports. Curtis, a Personal Banking Associate at TD, proposed making credit scores available on the TD app, for free. Working with TransUnion, a consumer credit reporting agency, TD implemented Curtis’ idea. “Our colleagues are interacting with our clients on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute basis, and we need their insights.” Josh Death, TD Her idea gave over 500,000 clients a tool that can help them make more informed financial decisions.…

Amid an ongoing surge in defense tech investing, advanced manufacturing company Divergent Technologies raised $290 million to expand production of missile parts and other specialized components for the military. The round, which values the company at $2.3 billion, was first reported by Bloomberg. Divergent’s customers include major defense primes Lockheed Martin, RTX, and General Dynamics. The new capital, of which $40 million is debt, will help the company expand its manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles and to break ground on a new factory in Oklahoma next year. Divergent’s specialized 3D printers make up to 600 parts, and CEO and co-founder…

This is it — today is your last chance to host a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco. By tonight, applications close. No extensions. No late entries. Apply here. Disrupt Week, taking place October 25–31, is your chance to put your brand in front of 10,000+ founders and investors, plus the Bay Area tech ecosystem. To create the conversations that shape the conference. To stand out. We’ll handle the promotion. You own the event. All you need to do is submit your proposal now. Don’t miss this opportunity to shine the spotlight on your brand — apply…

At Meta Connect 2025, the company’s biggest event of the year, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled three new smart glasses: the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta, the Meta Ray-Ban Display and wristband controller, and the Oakley Meta Vanguard. Meta says it has sold 2 million of the first-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and earlier this year, Meta unveiled its latest AI-powered smart glasses with Oakley, which were designed for athletes. Silicon Valley is leaning heavily into AI wearables, and Meta seems to be one of the companies leading the charge. What happened at Meta Connect 2025 With Meta looking to regain its footing in…

British renewable energy provider Octopus Energy said this week that it’s spinning off Kraken, its tech platform for utilities, spurred in part by $500 million in committed annual revenue from other utilities and energy providers. An eventual Kraken IPO could be valued at $15 billion and could occur within a year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Kraken was actually the company’s initial product, per Octopus CEO Greg Jackson. “We created Octopus as the ‘demo client,’” he told the Journal earlier this year. That demo client has since grown to provide power to more than 7.7 million households in the…

President Donald Trump made countering immigration one of his flagship issues during last year’s presidential campaign, promising an unprecedented number of deportations. In his first eight months in office, that promise turned into around 350,000 deportations, a figure that includes deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE (around 200,000), Customs and Border Protection (more than 132,000), and almost 18,000 self-deportations, according to CNN. ICE has taken center stage in Trump’s mass deportation campaign, raiding homes, workplaces, and public parks in search of undocumented immigrants. To aid its efforts, ICE has at its disposal several technologies capable of identifying and…

At Meta Connect 2025 on Wednesday, the company unveiled its new Oakley Meta Vanguard smart glasses that are geared toward runners, cyclists, and other athletes. The glasses retail for $499 and are launching on October 21. Meta Connect is the social networking giant’s biggest conference of the year, where it unveils smart glasses and VR headsets. The glasses feature a large unified front lens, instead of having two cameras positioned at the top corners of the frames, which is in previous Meta smart glasses and the Oakley Meta HSTN model. The new glasses can capture video in up to 3K…