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Canadian Tech in 100 Words

Canadian Payments Reach $12.9 Trillion

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Canadian retail payments totalled $12.9 trillion across 26.7 billion transactions in 2025, according to Payments Canada. Payment value rose 5.7% from 2024, while 52% of Canadians expressed interest in real-time payments. The findings arrive ahead of the planned fourth-quarter 2026 launch of Canada’s Real-Time Rail, supporting instant, data-rich domestic transfers around the clock.

Payment delays remain a significant challenge for 37% of small and medium-sized businesses. Credit and debit cards accounted for 68% of transaction volume, while electronic funds transfers represented 63% of value. Interest in AI-driven shopping was lower, with only 24% finding agentic commerce appealing, the research found.

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Tydra Turns Food Waste Into Biomaterials

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Vancouver’s Tydra Labs is advancing plant-based chitin biomaterials toward pilot manufacturing with $600,000 from NorthX. Its flagship ingredient, TYDRA ONE, is cultivated from food streams and retains a hydrated, fibrous structure that can support thickening, emulsification and other functions. Cosmetics is the startup’s first target market, with potential applications in agriculture, packaging and biomedical products.

Co-founder Jaiya Varshney says commercialization also requires a deliberate intellectual property strategy. Working with Oyen Wiggs, Tydra is balancing patents, trade secrets and brand protection around its core platform. The company previously raised $1.2 million and is building manufacturing capabilities and customer relationships for expansion.

Want to know more? Check out the source code on Techcouver.com.

Spare Takes AI Beyond Transit Operations

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Vancouver’s Spare has launched an expanded AI platform connecting operational data, financial systems, policies, contracts and institutional knowledge across transit agencies. Employees can ask questions in natural language and receive source-backed answers, while agents can analyze information and complete tasks across connected systems. Agencies retain controls over access, automation and human approvals.

The expansion extends Spare’s reach into planning, finance and administration, following deployments involving TransLink and BC Transit. A Founding Agency Program will provide selected participants with early access, implementation support and subsidized AI credits. Vancouver-based Spare previously raised $42 million in Series B financing led by Inovia Capital.

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Canada Rocket Company Builds Launch Capability

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Canada Rocket Company is investing $30 million to build Canada’s first large-scale rocket engine test facility in London, Ontario. Named for astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the 50-acre site at London International Airport will include a 12,000-square-foot office and fabrication building plus up to three vertical and horizontal test stands capable of testing engines above one meganewton of thrust.

CRC expects roughly 40 skilled jobs within 18 months, while its broader reusable medium-lift rocket program could create 1,000 jobs and attract more than $1 billion in investment over a decade. The facility, backed by federal defence funding, is expected online in 2028.

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Grindr Buys Calgary’s PurposeMed for $250M

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Calgary-based PurposeMed, the company behind HIV-prevention platform Freddie, is being acquired by Grindr for US$250 million. The deal includes US$190 million in cash and US$60 million in stock, with up to US$70 million more tied to 2027 performance targets. Founded in 2019, PurposeMed combines virtual consultations, clinical care, and pharmacy services for underserved communities.

Grindr plans to expand Freddie’s U.S. business and combine it with its Woodwork telehealth offering under Grindr Health. The transaction would give PurposeMed access to Grindr’s roughly 15 million monthly active users, significantly expanding the potential audience for its healthcare services across North America and beyond.

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Bell and Cisco Build Sovereign AI

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Bell Canada and Cisco have signed an agreement to explore sovereign AI infrastructure for Canadian organizations, combining Bell’s domestic data centres and networks with Cisco’s computing, security, and infrastructure management technology. The partnership targets government, regulated industries, and other customers seeking greater control over sensitive AI workloads, supporting both training and inference.

The companies will assess Cisco AI PODs, modular architectures, and commercial models tied to reserved or consumed capacity. The agreement expands Bell’s AI Fabric ecosystem, which already includes partnerships with Cohere, Hypertec, and BUZZ HPC. Deployment locations, capacity commitments, pricing, and launch timing have not yet been announced.

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Biossil Becomes Canada’s Newest Unicorn

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Toronto-based Biossil has raised US$153 million in an all-equity financing led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, valuing the biotech at US$1 billion and giving Canada another unicorn. Biossil acquires or licenses drug candidates that previously failed to reach market, then uses AI to identify which molecules may deserve a second chance in clinical development.

The round also included Founders Fund, Quiet Capital, Modern Capital, Golden Ventures, Panache Ventures, Duke University’s endowment, and Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Biossil says the new capital will expand clinical development capacity and help it acquire additional drug candidates for its growing pipeline globally over time.

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Elevate Rebrands as Nrth

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Elevate has rebranded as Nrth, expanding beyond its annual Toronto festival into a year-round platform for Canadian founders and business leaders. CEO Lisa Zarzeczny unveiled the new name during opening night of the 2026 festival, which immediately became Nrth Festival. Since launching in 2017, the organization has welcomed more than 89,000 attendees.

Beginning in 2027, Nrth plans more frequent events, programs connecting startups with customers and investors, technology-adoption initiatives, and research on Canada’s innovation economy. The nonprofit says the shift reflects a new challenge: helping Canadian companies turn innovation into stronger businesses, productivity, competitiveness, and economic growth at greater scale.

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Shopify Brings Shop Pay to Meta’s Muse

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Shopify is partnering with Meta to bring Shop Pay checkout to Muse, Meta’s new personal AI agent. The integration will let Muse users browse products from Shopify merchants and complete purchases using Shop Pay, extending Shopify’s commerce infrastructure into agent-driven shopping.

CEO Tobias Lütke described the partnership as an easier way to shop and check out through AI, while Meta says the deal expands the range of products available inside Muse. The move strengthens Shopify’s position as infrastructure for AI commerce, as assistants increasingly move beyond recommendations toward completing purchases directly on behalf of consumers across digital storefronts worldwide.

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TD Deepens Cohere AI Partnership

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TD Bank Group is committing up to $25 million over three years to expand AI development and adoption through a collaboration between Cohere and its Layer 6 research team. Cohere specialists will work alongside Layer 6 at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District, combining enterprise AI models with TD’s applied research capabilities.

Initial work will focus on knowledge management, productivity, decision-making, and client experiences, with an emphasis on security and responsible adoption. The partnership builds on TD’s 2018 acquisition of Layer 6 and recent deployment of agentic AI for mortgage underwriting, as Canadian banks increasingly integrate external AI partners into everyday operations.

Want to know more? Check out the source code on Fintech.ca.