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The Logic •

Exclusive: Wellness startup Othership raises $11.3M to fund U.S. expansion

Toronto-based wellness company Othership has raised $11.3 million as it rapidly expands its luxury immersive sauna and ice bath social experience in the United States. 

Othership raised the money through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE). Filings show 57 unique participants in Ontario, Quebec, the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands in the financing, which was distributed on May 31. U.S.-based investors accounted for...
The Logic •

The Interview: Microsoft President Brad Smith

Tucked behind Web Summit’s main stage at the Vancouver Convention Centre was a room lined with rows of sand-coloured interview pods resembling horse stalls. Inside one sat Microsoft president and vice-chair Brad Smith. In an interview with The Logic before his keynote, Smith offered a sleek vision of the future of AI that formed a stark contrast with the rustic backdrop.

Though Microsoft has walked away from some data centre leases globally, it’s conti...
The Logic •

U.S. investors’ dominance of Canadian tech doesn't matter, industry says

There hasn’t been this much energy in downtown Vancouver since the 2010 Olympics, says Jack Newton, chief executive of AI legal software company Clio. “It’s just buzzing,” he told The Logic.

At Web Summit’s inaugural Vancouver conference, artificial intelligence dominated panels, pitches and investor chatter. Nearly every company claimed an AI angle, and many credited their momentum to funding and expertise from Silicon Valley. Despite ongoing U.S.-Can...
The Logic •

The U.S. brain drain could be Canada’s gain

When Praveen Arichandran worked at Facebook in the San Francisco Bay Area, he noticed the tech giant’s top source of talent wasn’t Harvard, MIT, or even nearby Stanford. It was University of Waterloo, his own alma mater, thousands of kilometres away in Ontario. 

After stints at Facebook across continents and a role as Tesla’s director of growth, Arichandran left Canada to help build a “globally disruptive company,” and last year decided to bring his sk...
The Logic •

Investigation: The untold story of how Shopify killed DEI

It started when protestors marching against police brutality toppled a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in downtown Montreal. It was the fall of 2020 and Shopify employees were watching four of their colleagues debate the legacy of one of Canada’s most important and controversial political figures.
The virtual town hall had been called because Kaz Nejatian, a recently arrived, fast-rising executive, had publicly pledged to put up $50,000 to restore the...
The Logic •

University of Waterloo withholds prestigious coding competition results over suspected AI cheating

After returning to Canada after a few years in Colombia, Marulanda De Los Rios soon fell behind in ninth grade classes that required him to read and write in English. But math required no code-switching, and he excelled at it—so unlike his peers, he dove into the University of Waterloo’s Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) and other exams throughout high school just for the challenge. 

Students around the world enroll in the gruelling CCC to better their...
The Logic •

The OSC says looser regulations in the U.S. could lead to Canadian exodus

Speaking on stage at the Ontario Securities Commission’s annual symposium in Toronto on Thursday, CEO Grant Vingoe said Canadian capital markets risk facing a “hollowing out.” A looser and more favourable U.S. regulatory environment, including in sectors that the Trump administration has supported, like crypto, could entice Canadian companies to move there.

To combat this, the commission is focused on both short and long-term measures to reduce regulatory burdens. Last week the Canadian Securit...
The Logic •

Canadian business travel to the U.S. rebounds after February slump

After falling 10 per cent in February, travel bookings by Canadian businesses nearly recovered in March—down just 1 per cent from last year, according to data from Corporate Traveller, a subsidiary of major travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group. Corporate Traveller helps small and medium-sized companies book trips and serves clients including Bumble and Aston Martin.

The “substantial pullback” in travel in February occurred when “the rhetoric about tari...
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