There’s a saying that gets memed a lot. It starts with “inside of you there are two wolves” and often comes with a punchline superimposed on photorealistic wolf illustrations reminiscent of gas station t-shirts.
The saying actually goes that inside each of us are two wolves doing battle; the one you feed wins. The proverb about inner conflict aptly describes the dichotomies on display at this year’s Web Summit Vancouver.
Founder Paddy Cosgrave kicked off the summit with opening remarks that framed the battle between open- and closed-source AI as a fight for the future.
“We meet at a critical moment in the history of technology,” Cosgrave told the audience.
If opening night was about who owns the future, then the rest of Web Summit was a fight about what that future should look like.
Renowned Vancouver physician and author, Gabor Maté, spoke about the loneliness of living in tech hegemony; a day earlier, Quinn Favret, co-founder of AI research lab Tavus, spoke on how AI can be built to produce human connection; Curtis Yarvin, the tech blogger-turned-philosopher of right-wing US politics, argued in favour of a return to monarchy in a debate with UCLA professor Ramesh Srinivasan.
Even at the margins, polarity was visible, including political sparring over the data centres announced on the summit’s first day. The prime minister’s post about the data centre news (more below) ignited discourse over who will benefit, how it’ll impact land and local communities, and whether a giant telco—rather than startups—is the best target for sovereign support.
Attendees at Web Summit didn’t solve the equation of whether AI upheaval will lead to a renaissance or regression. But what was clear to those in attendance was the coming inflection point—it will require everyone to carefully choose which wolf they feed.
Jesse Cole
Reporter, Prairies
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Canadian VC sees lowest quarterly deal count in nearly a decade
Could a lack of growth deals push Canadian companies back to the public markets?
Venture capital continued to concentrate on fewer players in Q1, with early-stage companies benefiting the most and growth-stage companies seeing next to nothing, according to the Canadian Venture Capital Association’s (CVCA) quarterly report. This “hasn’t really happened before,” according to CVCA’s director of data and product, David Kornacki.
Kornacki speculates that private companies may soon start looking to other funding sources, like international capital or the public markets, to fuel their next stages of growth.
Canadian companies have generally opted to stay private since 2021, but this year saw Xanadu hit the stock market while General Fusion and Juno Industries prepare to do the same. Richmond, BC-based last-mile delivery company UniUni also got on board this week, reportedly gearing up for a $1-billion USD SPAC deal.
Inside the Calgary medtech company born from one man’s determination to treat his own son
Brad Sorenson was working on a treatment for an aggressive form of brain cancer when his 13-year-old son, Adam, was diagnosed with the same illness.
After treatments put Adam into remission, Brad continued work at his own startup, Calgary-based Providence Therapeutics, in case his son’s cancer came back. That treatment would be put to good use.
The Quantum Moment
From private funding rounds to the public markets, interest in Canada’s quantum companies continued to pick up this week.
- Vancouver-based Photonic completed the final close of its $200-million USD funding round, securing a $2-billion USD valuation. Co-founder Stephanie Simmons said the round gives Photonic runway to remain a private company, at least for now.
- Sherbrooke, Qué.-based Nord Quantique continued the trend, achieving a $1.4-billion USD valuation. The company also appointed a new CFO with IPO experience.
On the public markets, Toronto’s Xanadu reported a larger net loss than expected, but still quadrupled revenue, in its first-ever earnings report. In an interview with BetaKit on Friday, CEO Christian Weedbrook said the company is prioritizing technical milestones and partnerships rather than chasing short-term cash.
What happened at Web Summit Vancouver
Despite the long-running joke that nuclear fusion is always just out of reach, General Fusion CEO Greg Twinney said he believes there could be a power plant running on the elusive technology by 2035.
Q&A: Vass Bednar on why Canada is at risk of remaining a digital 51st state
Amid recent talk about digital sovereignty, BetaKit sat down with Canadian Shield Institute leader Vass Bednar to unpack what the consequences might look like if Canada does not take the right steps to own its digital economy.
FinTech futures
Rave takes fight with Apple over App Store removal to Canada’s Competition Tribunal
Hamilton, Ont.-based social streaming app Rave says its app was removed from the App Store in 2025 and blocked on Apple operating systems. The company says this, as well as its decision to tag Rave as malware on iOS operating systems, constitutes anticompetitive behaviour.
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
How Alberta solved its nurse licence bottleneck with homegrown tech
Alberta successfully addressed nursing license delays by partnering with Edmonton-based Punchcard Systems to replace a paper-heavy, manual process with a custom digital platform called College Connect. This homegrown technology has streamlined operations so effectively that application approval times have dropped from over 100 days to less than an hour, helping more nurses enter the workforce faster.
Inside ventureLAB’s bid to bring AI to Ontario’s critical industries
VentureLAB’s Critical Industrial Technologies (CIT) initiative helps Ontario small-to-medium enterprises in sectors like agri-food and manufacturing transition AI projects from pilot stages to full-scale commercial operations. The program provides companies with essential resources, including expert technical mentorship, specialized GPU compute power, and strategic guidance to overcome the high costs and technical hurdles of AI adoption.
🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars & More
CAN – Feds dispense $66M to 44 SMBs via Compute Access Fund
CAN – FABrIC awards $10.7M for edge computing challenge
VAN – Top Down Ventures closes $28M USD for debut fund
ON – Province invests $5M into life sciences and healthtech startups
GUE – Opennote acquired by San Francisco-based Reducto
MTL – DevCap closes $5M to invest in early-stage AI startups
MTL – MDA Space aims to up satellite output with facility expansion
QC – Goldman Sachs to acquire data centre platform QScale
QCY – Telecom software startup Gaiia secures $40M USD Series B
The BetaKit Podcast — Harjit Sajjan reports for duty
“I know people with amazing ideas, but they don’t have the right investment to take their idea to the prototype stage. At the prototype stage, they don’t have the ability to take it to the manufacturing stage. So guess what happens? Another company from outside the country comes and snatches ‘em up.”
After decades in public service roles, former Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan is reporting for duty once again as a defence-tech entrepreneur with Vancouver-based Juno Industries. Sajjan joins this week to offer a SITREP for Canada, including his thoughts on the Defence Industrial Strategy and Juno’s plans to become an innovation hub for defence in Canada.
Join us for Co-Founder Connect at Toronto Tech Week, an evening designed to help founders, operators, and builders find the right partners to form or strengthen their startup teams.
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Feature image courtesy Web Summit via Flickr.
