Venture capital and private equity that sprung from California Bay Area in 1960's has been a global phenomenon. A Canadian reseach institute publish a report about venture capital investment in tech startups around the world.
Canada
BDC Capital rolls out C$150-mln IT Venture Fund II
BDC Capital, a subsidiary of Business Development Bank of Canada, has launched IT Venture Fund II with corpus of C$150 million. With an objective of bridging gap in the mid-stage funding, the new fund will support new generation of IT entrepreneurs in Canada.
Meta AR Showed As a Serious Rival to HoloLens and Amazed Audience in TED 2016
On Wednesday, Meta demonstrated its new augmented reality headset at TED conference in Vancouver, Canada. The new Meta 2 headset mesmerized the audience and showed to be rival for Microsoft Holo Lens.
Canada quietly parts ways with its gold; sells more than half of the reserves
Over the recent weeks, Canada has been seen quietly disposing of its gold reserves, so much that the reserves now stand at 0.62 tons. The decision to sell the yellow metal is said to be issued straight from the Finance Minister, Bill Morneau's office.
Slack Messaging Has Advantages Over Facebook, Said CEO Stewart Butterfield
Slack Technologies co-founder Stewart Butterfield is confident that the company's technology has advantages over other messengers. It is because Slack provides a team communication app to improve teamwork.
Latest News
WHO on Thursday has warned for probable spread of Zika virus across the North and Central American countries. Ahead of rising concerns for Zika spreading, drug makers and scientists have commented that manufacturing of an appropriate vaccine may even require a decade. These warnings has opened a huge business potential for Oxitec, an Intrexon subsidiary. Oxitec’s gene modified mosquitoes are capable of ensuring security against Zika for large populations.
The Queen's University Capital Club focuses on fueling the Canadian students entrepreneurial ecosystem. This year, they determined to foster more student startups with this competition where selected applicants can meet venture capitalists and accelerators that could help them develop their startups. All Canadian students are welcome to apply via the club's website.
FiveStars, one of the most popular business startups, has raised $50 million funding from Series C round to expand its business across the US. With its innovative customer management tools, every customer is being identified with a number. So all the customers are new here and receive VIP treatment during every visit. Despite charging with a quite higher monthly fee in a competitive market, its clients feel like getting more than they spend.
The falling oil price below $30 per barrel is impacting Canadian economy, which mostly depends upon commodities. Along with oil price, Canadian currency Loonie too declined against the US dollar. The weaker Loonie has eroded the purchasing power of Canada and is making imports costlier. Canada imports vegetables from the US. The surging US dollar made vegetables prices expensive by three folds for Canadian consumers.
Amazon, among retailers, has started offering full refunds for hoverboards in US and Canada ahead of growing concerns for reported fire incidences. CPSC is investigating two wheeler balance boards manufactured by 13 companies. Earlier, the retailing giant has offered refund for the UK customers. Intriguingly, hover boards of different manufacturers are still being sold amidst offering refunds.
Lower oil price, sluggish global financial markets and weaker Loonie are impacting Canadian economy and forcing central bank to lower interest rate to zero level. Canada may move to negative interest rate in the near future, forecasts Barclays Plc. Bank of Canada is forecast to cut key interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.25 percent this week.
The Bank of Canada is expected to cut interest rates on Wednesday and not many are favoring the move. Many are worried that the rate cut will damage the already weakened Canadian dollar, among other worries.
Canadian stocks market dropped as continuing plunge of oil price brings down the energy companies stocks. Meanwhile, two Calgary-based oil companies are merged under Suncor Energy Inc.
Canadian Finance Minister has clearly stated that he strongly supports the central bank's recommendation of featuring Canada's iconic woman or women on paper currency. The petition for recognition of women, led by by hhistorian Merna Foster since 2013, seems to be slowly moving towards a positive decision.
