Category: Industry Insights

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The Next Layer of the Data Stack: Coordinating Data State

The Entire Data Stack Is Becoming More Modular. Now Someone Has to Coordinate It. Modern data infrastructure has largely solved execution. Storage is standardizing around open table formats, and query engines are increasingly modular and interchangeable. As a result, the hardest problems are shifting away from running workloads and toward coordinating evolving data state across…

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From Foundations to Autonomous Operations: The AI-Powered Finance Automation Playbook

The same question, from every CFO: “We know we need AI in finance… but where do we actually start?” Over the past 18 months, we’ve heard this from nearly every finance leader. The question is universal, but the answer requires context. While sales, software development, and other business functions raced ahead with AI adoption, finance…

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What’s Next in Travel Tech: Four Trends Shaping the Future of the Industry

In October, at TechTO Montreal, we unpacked four trends shaping how technology is redefining the travel and hospitality sector, from AI-driven personalization to vertical consolidation and the reinvention of business travel. As the industry rebounds and transforms, a new generation of travel-tech companies is emerging to capture value across every stage of the traveler journey,…

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Cybersecurity and Agentic AI – A Race to Contain this Emerging Exposure

From AI to Agentic Security The adoption of new technologies and platform shifts has always introduced new vulnerabilities and attack vectors for malicious actors to exploit; this has been a consistent pattern throughout the history of modern enterprise technology. In the late 1980s and 1990s, network and server security became the frontline, with firewalls and…

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Gen AI in Travel & Hospitality: Early Wins, Structural Tensions, and the Road Ahead

For all the hype around generative AI, adoption in travel & hospitality remains incremental and often painfully patchy. You may have seen the recent MIT study, which reports that 95% of generative AI pilots show no measurable ROI. McKinsey research indicates that while 78% of companies use Gen AI, more than 80% have seen no…

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Decoding Agentic Systems and Tooling: What MCP Enables (and Doesn’t)

In the last 12 to 18 months, interest in agentic workflows has surged. What began as chat interactions has grown into systems that navigate software, integrate actions, query data, and write code. The promise lies in agents that can interpret goals and context well enough to automate reasoning across tasks ranging from simple, repetitive work…

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Unlock Your Growth Potential: Strategic Positioning for B2B SaaS

Ever wonder how top B2B SaaS companies carve out their niche and achieve remarkable growth in a crowded market? It’s not just about a great product; it’s about mastering data-driven strategic positioning.  Inovia recently hosted a workshop on Strategic Positioning for Growth with Ellie Victor and Nick Copping, Co-CEOs of ZOOM Marketing, Silicon Valley’s first…

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40,000 and Growing: Why Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Are Critical for Modern Business Security

MSPs have long been the IT backbone for businesses, but they’re rapidly becoming essential players in cybersecurity as well. With cyber threats escalating and compliance tightening, security isn’t just a feature anymore – it’s a must-have. Why this matters: As MSPs double down on security, a massive opportunity is emerging for cybersecurity startups to tap…

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State of SaaS in Canada: Trends, Challenges, and Growth

2024 has been a pivotal year for Canadian tech. While challenges remain, the opportunities are even more significant, making this the perfect time to build world-class companies in our own backyard. As we prepare to release our State of Canadian Software Report in early 2025, here’s a preview of the key trends shaping our ecosystem,…

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Putting Patients at the Center: Parallels between Customer Experience Solutions and Digital Health platforms

As an investor at Inovia, I work with a team that has over 15 years of experience partnering with exceptional healthcare companies like AlayaCare, BenchSci, Vital, Signal1 and Forward. While I’ve spent the last three years meeting with many healthcare startups, I have a deeper expertise in Customer Experience solutions. My prior life was spent…

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