Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!
Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.
Synctera expands to Canada
Synctera recently announced its expansion into Canada. The banking-as-a-service startup raised $15 million for the expansion with NAventures, the corporate venture arm of National Bank of Canada, who led the financing. It has built a platform designed to bring together fintech companies and sponsor banks.
According to Kris Hansen, co-founder and chief technology officer at Synctera, the move to Canada is coming at a great time.
“The Canadian financial services is very different than the U.S. And we’ve seen a lot of innovation in the U.S that we haven’t seen in Canada.”
Payment services like Venmo and CashApp, for example, are just some of the innovations in the U.S. that Hansen referred to. He added that some of these brands have tried to enter Canada and struggled.
“Canadian banking is a closed market. So the real rationale was, we think there’s a market here that’s interesting.”
Synctera’s platform allows organizations to build and launch compliant FinTech apps with embedded banking products like bank accounts, card programs, and lending, among others.
Synctera has only served clients in the U.S. until now. The startup said it expects to launch its first FinTech customers in Canada in the next couple of quarters and be fully operational by the end of the year.
RBCx launches mentor program for women in tech
RBCx, the tech banking and innovation arm of RBC, has launched its first Mentor Meetups program for women in tech.
Mentor Meetups is a virtual program that connects female leaders in RBCx with people across the tech industry who identify as women. The goal of the program is to provide women with more tangible advice for tackling barriers in order to grow their businesses.
Since its launch in April, the program has attracted over 140 participants and connected them with more than 40 leaders at RBCx. Program participants will be matched with a mentor for a one hour session.
The program will be offered throughout the month of May. Interested participants can sign up here.
Purolator launches 2023 True North Small Business Grant Contest
Purolator has announced the start of its 2023 True North Small Business Grant Contest.
The grant is designed to support the future growth of small businesses and help them expand across communities in Canada.
Four Canadian small businesses will have an opportunity to each receive C$25,000 in cash and C$500 in free Purolator shipping credits. This year, one of the four grants will be reserved for a Purolator customer.
To enter, community partners, or any Canadian resident of legal age of majority, can nominate a Canadian small business of their choice. Canadian small businesses can also nominate themselves.
The contest is open from April 26 to June 14, 2023 and sign ups can be done through this link.
Nominators must provide a description of the business, explain how relationships have helped this business succeed and describe why they believe the business deserves a grant.
Canada Post introduces carbon-neutral shipping
Canadians are now using carbon-neutral shipping when they send parcels through Canada Post’s ground services within Canada.
Canada Post is working towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Following this announcement, all Domestic Regular Parcel and Expedited Parcel ground shipments, as well as Canada Post’s flat rate boxes, are now shipped as carbon-neutral.
For every tonne of greenhouse gas emissions generated by these domestic ground delivery services, Canada Post removes one tonne from the atmosphere through the purchase of high-quality, accredited carbon offsets, the company wrote in its announcement.
Using Canada Post’s “Find a rate” tool, small businesses and consumers can also see the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their deliveries and choose shipping options that meet their needs and preferences.
There is no additional fee for carbon-neutral shipping.
Reddit celebrates two years in Canada
Reddit is marking the second anniversary of the opening of its Canadian office, based in Toronto.
Since its launch in this country, the team has grown 15 times bigger, and now comprises more than 90 local employees in sales and product and engineering teams.
Canada is home to Reddit’s third largest audience, following the U.S. and U.K.. There are over 1.7 million community members, with 42 per cent growth year-over-year in terms of screen views.
According to research from Talk Shoppe, in Canada Reddit is a popular way to learn more about brands and services, with over 50 per cent of Canadians saying they are more likely to make purchase decisions if recommended by others on Reddit.
More to explore
BlackBerry reviewing its product lines, may split off some businesses
Tired of seeing its stock slowly dropping over the past 12 months, and after reporting a loss for the last fiscal year, BlackBerry said Monday its board is reviewing the cybersecurity company’s portfolio of businesses.
Large Language Models – Who are the key players?
Large Language Models (LLMs) have been among the hottest topics in the past few months and will likely become one of the highlights of 2023. The fact that 77 per cent of businesses using Natural Language Processing (NLP) plan to increase their investment shows that LLMs are not just hype.
New report finds Canadian SMBs are open to new payment options
The 2023 Chase Payment Solutions State of Canadian Payments report reveals that merchants are open to adopting new payments options over the next year as payment innovations for consumers increase in Canada.
Kriti Sharma – Hashtag Trending Weekend Edition Interview
So when I came across the name of Kriti Sharma, I wanted to bring her on the show for two reasons. Her PR person pitched me on the idea of “AI and the Rise of Lawyer 2.0: How the Legal Profession Can Focus on Higher Value Work and Improve Access to Justice.”
The discussion was invigorating. For a rare moment, I felt more optimistic about our future.
Web3 tech cloud company announces availability of its cloud storage solution
Impossible Cloud has announced the general availability of its enterprise-grade, native cloud storage solution.
Bill C-11 prevails after Senate approval
Yesterday, Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, became law after the Senate gave the final approval, clearing nearly 3 years of regulatory hurdles and public contention.
Creating a cybersecurity culture: ‘Good intentions are not enough’
Infosec leaders hope to instill a culture of cybersecurity in their organizations. But an expert says action speaks louder than words.
RSA Conference 2023: How hackers can fool ChatGPT’s defences to create ransomware
Recent versions of ChatGPT are protected against requests to create malware. But, the RSA Conference 2023 was told Wednesday, a hacker can easily get around that with cleverly-worded requests to do much of the work of creating ransomware.
Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Ingram Micro’s Brandel: It’s critical that channel ‘digitally’ transform
There were many organizations recognized yesterday at the 2023 edition of CDN’s Channel Innovation Awards thanks to their ability to implement forward-thinking and creative strategies and services.
CIA 2023: Top Solution Providers
Yesterday, Channel Daily News celebrated the winners of the 2023 CDN Channel Innovation Awards (CIA) and unveiled the Top 100 Solution Providers of 2023 (based on their 2022 revenue). Here’s a look at this year’s Top Five Solution Providers.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Would ChatGPT be a good employer? A new take on the
“blinding” pace of technology. And what puts Wikipedia
and Pornhub on the same side of a fight with legislators?
Listen to the latest episode of Cybersecurity Today
This episode reports on increasingly good fake checkout pages being used on compromised e-commerce sites, malware hiding in supposedly free versions of utilities and games and more
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances
If you live in Québec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.