The September chill in the air heralds the change of seasons. With this comes radical changes in Canadian technology leadership.
This week's headliner is undoubtedly Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian. leaves Canada's largest technology company become CEO of Opendoor in San Francisco. The proptech firm is in the midst of a meme campaign (partially filled Canadian hedge fund chief Eric Jackson), and retail investors now expect Nejatyan to embrace Opendoor to the moon.
Elsewhere in the public markets by Sue Ozdemir resigned as CEO on Calgary electric vehicle developer Exro Technologies, which is struggling after layoffs, life-cycle financing and threats of a class action. Meanwhile, Q4 Inc. added a new chief financial officer, chief marketing officer and chief revenue officer after leaving the public markets last year. The company completed its transition to the private sector this week. replacement of the founding CEO Darrell Heaps with former SolarWinds CFO Lewis Black.
Other notable leadership changes this week: Oren Gelman was named CEO of Toronto-based health technology company Arthrolense, former Benevity CEO Kelly Schmitt joined mental health platform Headversity, and AbCellera named Dr. Sarah Nunberg as its first chief medical officer. InBC has also appointed Thomas Park as chief investment officer following the recent departure of CEO Jill Earthey.
The scale and consistency of leadership turnover in Canada was one of BetaKit's major challenges. the biggest stories of 2024during which we only covered about 50 CEO changes. Industry experts we spoke with at the time pointed to a challenging macroeconomic environment that created stringent management expectations.
In public statements about his new role, Nejatyan made one clear expectation from Opendoor.
“The only thing that should matter is creating what people want,” he wrote on X.
Alex Riehl
Staff Writer
Ottawa
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Carney says new major projects office will help build 'Canadian sovereign cloud'
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced this week that developing a “Canadian sovereign cloud” will be a priority for the newly created Major Projects Authority.
“This [project] will build the computing capacity and data centers we need to support Canada's competitiveness, protect our security and strengthen our independence and sovereignty,” Carney said.
Parent company Tetra Trust enlists the help of banks and FinTechs to launch a Canadian stablecoin
Tetra Trust has formed a new parent company called Tetra Digital Group, which has closed C$10 million in funding to launch a Canadian dollar stablecoin and expand its recently launched software business Tetra Unity.
“I think everyone is very interested in the issue of stablecoins and Canadian stablecoins,” Tetra Digital Group CEO Didier Lavallee told BetaKit.
OpenAI pushes Canadian publishers' copyright lawsuit to be heard in US
OpenAI argues that the lawsuit brought by Canadian news publishers should be heard in the United States.
The lawsuit alleges that the AI giant violated Canadian copyright law in training ChatGPT, but OpenAI argued in a court document that all of its business activities, including training AI models, took place outside of Ontario and should not be subject to the Canadian Copyright Act.
Shopify and VitalHub return to the TSX top 30, while Propel Holdings and MDA Space debut
Canadian technology companies were a driving force on the Toronto Stock Exchange's 2025 TSX30 list. Despite its relatively limited presence, the technology sector posted the strongest average share price growth, up 620 percent over three years, according to TSX data.
Space technology company MDA Space made its first appearance on the list, sending its share price up 340 percent. However, those gains took a major hit this week after Elon Musk's SpaceX swooped in to abandon the company's C$1.8 billion contract with US telecommunications company EchoStar.
Christopher Skeete leaves Quebec's innovation portfolio amid cabinet reshuffle
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has reformed his cabinet by removing Minister Christopher Skeete from the province's innovation portfolio. As a result of this process, Minister Christine Frechette will lead the innovation process along with two junior ministers.
Student-led Tri-Cities tech takeover continues as part of Waterloo Tech Week
Creating new opportunities for communication was the goal of the inaugural Waterloo Tech Week, which was organized by the same student team that organized the Hack the North hackathon.
“We always felt limited that Hack the North is only one weekend for the 1,000 students we can accommodate,” said organizer Jasmine Jiang. “There is so much going on in Waterloo all the time, especially around the tech community, and we felt people needed to experience it all.”
NordSpace has provided a new launch window for Canada's first commercial rocket launch
Aerospace startup NordSpace has a new window to attempt Canada's first commercial rocket launch after a failed attempt in late August. The new window will open on September 20 and will run until September 27, NordSpace CEO Rahul Goel told BetaKit.
2Keys security breach allows access to email and phone numbers stored by government agencies
A regular software update for multi-factor authentication (MFA) provider 2Keys created a vulnerability that allowed an attacker to steal phone numbers and email addresses associated with government accounts. The breach affected users who used the MFA service to access their accounts between August 3 and August 15.
AI, Startups and Simu Liu: Elevate Festival Announces 2025 Schedule
The seventh annual Elevate festival is expected to draw 10,000 visitors from across the global tech community to downtown Toronto from October 7 to 9.
The event, which will take place at Meridian Hall and the St. Lawrence Arts Center, will feature more than 85 sessions. Visitors will be able to tour Spotify's artificial intelligence lab, learn what venture capitalists are looking for, and hear from Canadian actor Simu Liu. Liu will talk about his journey, targeted investing and the industries he believes are shaping the future.
BetaKit is the official media partner of Elevate Festival.
SELECTED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars and More
- British Columbia – Feds invest $5.8 million for three carbon management projects
- CGY – Ultimaria closes C$2.6 million to expedite regulatory approvals
- EDM – Amii receives $9 million to equip energy workers with artificial intelligence skills
- TOP – Evolo raises $4.1 million for AI video marketing platform
- TOP – Floating launches 'Hybrid' SME accounts will compete with big banks
- TOR – Whittington hires Forms Mars IAF leader Zeeshan Ali
- MTL – LocusX raises $3 million to debug video games with AI
- MTL – Bo acquired Quebec recycling cooperative Tricentris
- MTL – Know wins temporary protection in the fight against creditors
BetaKit Podcast – Amber Mac wants parents to know their kids are talking to artificial intelligence
“There's a very good chance that the young person's parents – or even their friends – don't even know that this person is building a relationship with these chatbots. And that's where the danger exists.”
Tech expert Amber Mac is on the advisory board of Rally, a new tech festival focused on teen digital health. She desperately wants parents to know the reasons why their children are talking to AI and the dangers of manipulative chatbots pretending to be their friends.
Take the BetaKit Quiz: MDA Space Loses EchoStar, Apple Trims the iPhone's Waistline, and Is There Life on Mars?
Think you're up to date on Canadian technology and innovation news? Time to prove it. Test your knowledge of Canadian tech news with the BetaKit quiz on September 12, 2025.
Join Canada's largest AI event on September 24-25 in Montreal.
ALL IN brings together the most dynamic AI ecosystem in the country – from forward-thinking AI companies to cutting-edge AI startups. With over 6,000 attendees, including over 200 world-class speakers and 100 of Canada's leading AI startups, it is a place to network, collaborate and advance ideas.
With 55% of participants being AI advocates and 45% being AI vendors, ALL IN is a great opportunity to build strong business relationships and find practical solutions to scale AI adoption.
Image by: Ramsey Cardy/Clash via Sportsfile. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.
