Plus: bank details are expected to be revealed in #Budget2025.
A few weeks ago, a bunch of gadget nerds walked into a Brooklyn café to launch a campaign to Bring back Blackberry.
The campaign is being led by nemesis and former tech blogger Kevin Michaluk along with Jeff Gadway, a friend and former colleague from Research In Motion (maker of the original BlackBerry smartphones). Both are co-founders of a company that makes keyboard accessories for smartphones. Click technology.
BBB has bold goals, including reaching a million petition signatures, adding Michaluk to BlackBerry's board of directors, and licensing the BlackBerry brand to a newly created “digital essential” phone. Both Gadway and Michaluk have a history of bringing communities together for a common cause (remember #TeamBlackBerry?), and this campaign is truly a top-notch marketing endeavor.
It can be more than marketing. Friend and former tech blogger Josh McConnell covered this eventnoting the collective hope for a return to intentional technology. “You could sense this shared belief: that technology could once again become human rather than conventional,” he wrote.
This belief resonated with Generation Z, who romanticizing the BlackBerry era on social media, even though he's not really old enough to remember it. This is not just accepted nostalgia; think of it as a generational immune response to a society built on habit-forming technologies. “I'm tired of having a slot machine that wastes my time and dopamine,” one petitioner wrote about his iPhone.
What is it all about the device that gave birth to the term CrackBerry ironic, but also appropriate. In the podcast about life and death of armored fighting vehiclesThe Verge's Nilay Patel correctly identified BlackBerry as a company built on overcoming limitations: slow networks, small batteries and tiny screens. When these restrictions disappeared, so did the company's success.
I don't think anyone wants Bring back Blackberry wants these restrictions to return. But I think they need better tools to help them navigate the world on a human scale.
Douglas Soltis
editor-in-chief
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Canadian FinTech leaders told to finally expect progress on open banking in fall budget
Many Canadian FinTech leaders BetaKit spoke to on condition of anonymity have been told by government officials and industry associations that lobby them that they expect the next round of open banking legislation in the Nov. 4 federal budget.
The sources also indicated that the upcoming budget will likely contain “formulas” around stablecoins, a digital asset that is typically pegged to a currency such as the US dollar.
BDC commits $100 million to boost rural entrepreneurship across Canada
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) will provide $100 million in business loans to half a million entrepreneurs living in rural and remote areas of Canada.
The development bank says the money will help generate up to $250 million in gross domestic product over five years and fulfill its mandate of serving people outside major cities.
Clio caps year of major acquisitions with new enterprise division
Burnaby, British Columbia-based legal technology company Clio has launched an enterprise division to support large law firms and corporate legal departments, a client base it has been targeting for some time.
The new package completes Clio's AI acquisitions efforts over the past year, bringing together Clio Operate, Clio Docket, Clio Library and Vincent by Clio offerings for enterprise customers.
SELECTED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
“This is war”: how Alexi hopes to dominate the legal artificial intelligence technology market
Alexi CEO Mark Doble says his legal technology company has seen a 3,000 percent increase in users over last year and now serves more than 600 mid-market corporate law firms as clients.
But Alexi's rapid growth comes amid a hyper-competitive legal tech landscape, where many law firms are rushing to adopt artificial intelligence tools. Doble says the competitive landscape in AI-powered legal tech is akin to “war.”
Lyft will hire hundreds more workers in Toronto amid plans to open a new technology center
Ride-hailing platform Lyft says it will open a new technology center in downtown Toronto next year as it plans to bring hundreds more employees to the city.
The company plans to expand its Toronto workforce to “several hundred” employees with the new center, a BetaKit spokesperson said. Toronto will become Lyft's second-largest technology hub in North America, following Lyft's headquarters in San Francisco.
Danielle Smith expands ministerial team by leading $100 billion Alberta artificial intelligence data center project
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has tapped Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf to work with Innovation Minister Nate Glubisch and Finance Minister Nate Horner on a strategy to attract artificial intelligence data centers to the province.
Neudorf joins the list as proposals for data center projects using artificial intelligence are already outpacing electricity availability.
Kaz Nezhatyan brings his former “deputy” at Shopify to Opendoor
Kaz Nejatian has named Shopify VP of Operations Jang LeGris as head of operations at San Francisco-based real estate technology company Opendoor.
Shopify's former chief operating officer called LeGris his “second-in-command” at Shopify and a “world-class leader.” LeGrice is the second former Shopify colleague Nejatian has brought to Opendoor since he took over.
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🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars and More
- VAN – Pawsible Ventures raises $10 million to support pet healthcare startups
- VAN – Capital of Spring Impact closes $14 million for impact-focused fund
- TK – Regulations raises $7 million for pre-construction AI pilots
- TOP – FreshBooks adds BNPL feature through Affirm partnership
- OTT – defense technology company Dominion Dynamics provides $4M
- HFX – ABK Biomedicine raises $35 million to commercialize liver cancer treatments
BetaKit Podcast – Why Canada Won't Buy Canadian Technology
“If you're a founder in Canada, the scenario is: try to get out of the country as quickly as possible. Try to sell outside the country.”
Raymond Luke believes a “cultural belief that we're not good enough” is creating a home-court disadvantage for Canadian tech companies. He's trying to get a start on solving our country's procurement problems with a new summit called Source Canada so buyers and sellers can speed up the date. Is a cultural kick in the ass enough to get Canada to buy Canadian technology? Let's dig in.
Take the BetaKit Test – This week: Evan Solomon heads to the Persian Gulf, Canadian Tire hits a speed bump and Canada's latest Nobel laureate
Think you're up to date on Canadian technology and innovation news? Time to prove it. Test your knowledge of Canadian technology news with the BetaKit quiz on October 17, 2025.
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Artistic image courtesy of Josh McConnell via Substack.
