We hope you had a productive Q1.
On our end, we kicked off the year on a solid note, creating momentum for the months ahead. Our team remained focused on driving the portfolio’s velocity, closing exciting new deals, building meaningful partnerships and sharing insights across the ecosystem.
Here are a few highlights of this past quarter:
- Portfolio company Momentum was acquired by Salesforce.
- We welcomed Modem, the first AI-native product teammate built to help developers ship faster, to our venture portfolio.
- We partnered with Mila to launch the Venture Scientist Fund, a US$100M vehicle dedicated to transforming Canada’s world-class AI research into global tech champions.
- We published the third edition of our State of Canadian Software Report as well as the latest edition of our HR & Talent Benchmarking Survey, in partnership with Golden Ventures.
- We relaunched the Inovia YouTube channel with our AI Lightning Rounds, a new recurring series unpacking the latest developments shaping the AI ecosystem.
- We actively engaged with operators and investors across the globe, participating in key events such as the Saudi-Canada Business and Investment Seminar in Riyadh, TransPacific Entrepreneurial Conference in Hong Kong, VCAA Conference in Lake Louise, AI TechTalks in Toronto and Waterloo, Transform in Las Vegas, and RSAC in San Francisco.
Read on for more highlights.
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio News
Fundraising – Portfolio Companies
- Modem Closes $4.4-Million USD Pre-Seed Round to Help Developers Ship Faster I BetaKit
- Neo Financial Raises $68.5 Million at a Higher Valuation Than 2024 Round I The Logic
- Royal Bank, Telus Back $130-Million Financing by Quantum Developer Photonic I The Globe and Mail
Fundraising – Discovery Portfolio
- Novaworks Comes Out of Stealth to Make AI-Native Total Workforce Management a Reality I LinkedIn
- xMemory Comes Out of Stealth and Raises a US$4M Pre-Seed Round I LinkedIn
- Toyo AI Raises $4.3M Seed Round to Build ‘OpenClaw for Founders’ I Silicon Republic
- Mozart AI Raises an Oversubscribed $6M Seed Round to Make Music Creation Easy I LinkedIn
- TakeTwo, an AI-Native Film Studio, Has Secured Pre-Seed Funding at ₹100 Cr Valuation I LinkedIn
- SOLVE Chemistry Announces £4M Seed Round I LinkedIn
- Belgian Cybersecurity Startup Aikido Hits Unicorn Status with New Funding Round I Reuters
- Sentra Raises a $5M Seed Round to Unlock Organizational Memory I LinkedIn
- Needle Challenges Legacy ATS and Builds a Self-Driving Hiring Platform Designed for Founders I LinkedIn
Emerging Managers
- GTMfund Has Rewritten the Distribution Playbook for the AI Era I TechCrunch
Deals, M&A, and Partnerships
- Novisto Acquires Minimum to Build the Ultimate ESG & Carbon Platform I Press Release
- Aritzia’s Legal Team Will Use Spellbook to Support Contract Review and Negotiation Across the Company’s Operations I LinkedIn
- Super.com Becomes Official Savings Partner of NASCAR I Press Release
- Hopper to Run Avion Travel Rewards Program for RBC I The Globe and Mail
- Spare Partners with CitéMobil to Modernize Paratransit Operations in Western Île-de-France I Press Release
- Cohere Advances Sovereign AI Capabilities with NVIDIA I Press Release
- Poolside Partners with Atos to Bring Sovereign AI Solutions to Enterprises Across Europe and Beyond I Press Release
- BenchSci Decodes Disease Biology with Neo4j to Accelerate Drug Discovery I Neo4j
- Spellbook Secures $40-Million in Debt Financing from RBC to Snap Up Smaller Legal AI Startups I The Globe and Mail
- Aston Martin Welcomes Cohere to the Team as Official Generative AI Partner I LinkedIn
- Spellbook Is the Exclusive AI Legal Drafting and Review Partner of the Canadian Bar Association I LinkedIn
- Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Momentum I Press Release
- German Submarine Maker Partners with AI Firm Cohere in Bid to Build Next Canadian Fleet I The Globe and Mail
- Top Hat and Wiley Partner to Enhance Student Engagement in Psychology and Anatomy & Physiology I Press Release
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- Eva Thouvenot Joins Botpress as VP Growth Marketing I LinkedIn
- Photonic Inc. Accelerates into Its Next Phase of Growth and Appoints New CEO I Press Release
- Flare Welcomes John Williamson as New Chief Revenue Officer I LinkedIn
- Photonic Inc. Appoints New Executive Chair and Four New Directors to Its Board of Directors I Press Release
Thought Leadership — ICYMI
- Inside Canada’s Fastest Growing AI Company – Spellbook, Scott Stevenson I The Peel with Turner Novak 🔉
- Is Cohere the Next AI Powerhouse? – First Time Founders with Ed Elson I The Prof G Pod 🔉
- Universal Navigation for Every Moving Robot I Tera AI
- Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era’s Encryption Challenge I RBC’s Disruptors Podcast with Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Founder and Chief Quantum Officer at Photonic 🔉
- Ahead of the Curve: Cutting Pre-Trial Bottlenecks with AI I Reuters Events, Pharma Insights Hub featuring Karl Moritz Hermann, CEO of Reliant AI
- GP-Led Continuation Vehicles: The Complete 2026 Guide for Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms I Vessel
- Skyfall AI Presents 3 Research Papers at Mila’s World Modeling Conference I LinkedIn
- Candice Faktor, Founder & Co-CEO of Disco: Scaling Wattpad from 4M to 90M Users & Building AI-Native Learning I Mantle Mondays 🔉
- The Future of AI in Hospitality Tech with Guesty Co-Founder, Amiad Soto I FlashpointSpeaks Podcast 🔉
Updates & Other Exciting News
- Built in Canada Awards: Wins for Spellbook, Pine, AlayaCare, and Garage Capital I LinkedIn
- Sarika Lamont and Vidyard Win the Transform 2026 Workplace AI Initiative Award I LinkedIn
- Cohere Launches an Open Source Voice Model Specifically for Transcription I TechCrunch
- Latent Labs Launches Latent-Y, the First Lab-Validated Agent for Drug Design I Latent Labs
- Cohere Is Named One of the Most Innovative Companies of 2026 I Fast Company
- Flare Has Been Named One of Canada’s Culture 100 Companies I LinkedIn
- Pine Reaches Over $2B in Home Loans Managed I LinkedIn
- Wealthsimple Named CIX Innovator of the Year I BetaKit
- UK Chipmaker Fractile Plans $136 Million Boost for AI Chip Production I Reuters
- Guesty Launches Copilot to Support Revenue and Performance Insights I Short Term Rentalz
- Introducing Model Vault: Your Private Platform for Secure and Scalable Model Inference I Cohere
- Botpress Opens a New Office in Dubai I LinkedIn
- Not Diamond Releases a New SOTA Prompt Optimization Algorithm with Significant Accuracy and Efficiency Gains I LinkedIn
- Introducing Compare to Market, One of the Biggest Features Launched in Spellbook I LinkedIn
- Flare Uncovers Phishing Campaigns Scamming Canadians with Fake Toll and Parking Violation Texts I BetaKit
Inovia Thoughts
Investment Blog
- Backing Modem – the First AI-Native Product Teammate I Taha Mubashir & Alexis Garneau
Insights
- AI Lightning Round #3 • Algorithms, Autonomy, and the New AI Stack I Noah Nagle & Steven Woods 🔉
- AI Lightning Round #2 • Conversation with Mo Cheppadura (ex-OpenAI) and Todd Underwood (ex-OpenAI, ex-Anthropic) I Steven Woods 🔉
- AI Lightning Round #1 • 2025 Recap & What We’re Watching in AI I Noah Nagle, Steven Woods, and Kory Jeffrey 🔉
- The Next Layer of the Data Stack: Coordinating Data State I Taha Mubashir & Ayush Malhotra
- State of Canadian Software: What 2025 signals for 2026 I Full Report
Inovia News
- Launching of the Venture Scientist Fund with Mila: Propelling Canada’s AI Research into Global Tech Champions I Inovia Blog
Our Team in the News
- How Montreal Quietly Became the World’s Second Most Important Travel Tech Hub I Skift
- We Read Every Submission from Canada’s AI Task Force: Here’s What They Said I BetaKit article featuring Patrick Pichette
- Building with AI Is Now the “Price of Admission” for Software Startups, Inovia Report Says I BetaKit
- New Data Shows How AI Is Eating Software Investment I The Logic
- 2026 Edition of The 50, the Annual Guide to Canada’s Venture Capital Ecosystem I CVCA
- Mila and Inovia Launch Venture Fund to Turn AI Research “Diamonds” into Startups I BetaKit
Other Industry Highlights
- Toronto Tech Week Signs New Two-Year Agreement with City of Toronto I BetaKit
- Canada’s AI Moment Is Now: Mila and Bain & Company Urge Canada to Turn Research Leadership into Companies Built at Home I Press Release