Cohere continued to grow through acquisition, completing its second transaction in the last two months, leading the way to build a domestic AI capability that competes globally. AI researchers received $24M through CIFAR's AI Chairs Program, with calls for the program to be expanded and extended beyond 2027.

In the world of quantum, Nord Quantique became Canada's fourth quantum unicorn, raising $30M at a $1.4B valuation. To protect our encrypted data when Q-Day happens, U of T spinout Quantum Bridge raised an $US8M Series A.

The re-awakened defence industry is seeing the re-awakening of the Marconi name through ex-National Bank CEO Louis Vachon's creation of Marconi Technologies, a new dual-use communications technology company.

The Hill Times argues the Defence Investment Agency must serve startups from the beginning if Canada is to envision a thriving defence innovation ecosystem. Source Canada agrees.

Highlighted Deals

  • Cohere acquires Montreal and Berlin biopharma AI startup Reliant AI (Cohere via BusinessWire, May 19). Reliant was founded June 2023 by ex-Google DeepMind researchers Karl Moritz Hermann and Marc Bellemare. Its technology will integrate into a pharma-specific version of Cohere's North agentic platform, following prior verticals in financial services and telecom. Read
  • Nord Quantique reaches US$1.4B valuation in Fidelity-led US$30M round (The Quantum Insider, May 15). Sherbrooke spinout becomes Canada's fourth quantum unicorn alongside D-Wave, Xanadu, and Photonic. Canadian backers include Real Ventures, Panache Ventures, BDC, ACET Capital, and Sherbrooke-based Quantacet. Read
  • Marconi Technologies launches as Canadian-majority Montreal defence prime (Newswire, May 19). A Canadian investor group led by former National Bank CEO Louis Vachon bought the Tactical Communications division of Ultra I&C from UK-listed Cobham Ultra and rebuilt it as a standalone Canadian-majority dual-use communications company. CEO Alain Cohen told La Presse he targets a billion-dollar company in three to five years. Read
  • Alberta commits $10M over three years to Amii Health Innovation Lab (BetaKit, May 20). Alberta Minister Nate Glubish and Amii CEO Cam Linke announced the partnership at the Upper Bound conference. The Lab will run 10 to 12 AI pilots per year on patient outcomes, wait-time reduction, diagnostics, and AHS operations. Glubish was explicit on infrastructure: the Lab will use sovereign systems so data never enters US infrastructure or foreign-controlled cloud, with anonymization protocols layered on top. Read
  • Government of Canada and CIFAR commit $24M to AI Chairs Program (CIFAR, May 21). Minister Evan Solomon announced 20 new and 22 renewed Canada CIFAR AI Chairs across Amii, Mila, and Vector, including reinforcement-learning pioneer Richard Sutton. The renewed cohort brings the program to 143 participants. Read

Capital stack

  • Quantum Bridge raises US$8M Series A to scale Q-Day-ready DSKE encryption (BetaKit, May 21). Toronto-based U of T spinout closed a round led by Italian asset manager Primo Capital with participation from Telefónica's Wayra, Hewlett Packard, Cadenza VC, and Bacchus Venture Capital. Total raised to date is US$16M. Proceeds fund a Rome office for sovereign-tech expansion into Europe (backed by the Canadian Embassy and commercial partners including Italtel), plus expanded R&D and enterprise sales in Canada. Read
  • Federal government AI procurement disclosed at $831M over three years (National Observer, May 14). An order paper question returned in early May reveals federal AI contracts and licensing spend of about CAD $831M between January 1, 2023 and March 9, 2026. Largest single line items: Dayforce ($350M, replacing Phoenix) and Cohere ($240M). Top spending departments are Public Services and Procurement Canada and Innovation Canada, with National Defence at $83.7M and CRA at $29.9M. Read

Defence

  • Reaction Dynamics and Hanwha Ocean sign MOU on Canadian launch capability (Newswire, May 21). Longueuil's Reaction Dynamics (CEO Bachar Elzein, hybrid-rocket and orbital launch developer) and Hanwha Ocean (Geoje, South Korea, 31,000+ employees, 1,400+ vessels delivered since 1973) signed an MOU exploring strategic investment via a planned Hanwha Ocean Canadian VC fund tied to its Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP) bid. Hanwha Defence Canada CEO Glenn Copeland framed the deal as Hanwha's first move into Canadian space-launch backing. Read
  • “Democratizing defence procurement is worth imagining” (Hill Times op-ed, May 21). As the new Defence Investment Agency stands up, David Pierce argues the agency must be built to serve Canadian SMBs from the start, not after the fact. Central ask: lower the historical $100M minimum-contract handling threshold so Canadian small and medium suppliers can access DIA contracting capacity directly, in line with the Defence Industrial Strategy's “Canadian suppliers first” promise. Read

Counter Signal

  • Canadian angel investing falls to a five-year low at $113.79M in 2025 (NACO Canada, May 21). NACO's annual report shows $113.79M deployed across 490 investments in 2025, a 22.1% drop in capital and a 20.1% drop in deal count year-over-year. The decline, combined with CVCA's recent reporting of a growth-stage slowdown, indicates the Canadian capital base is thinning at the exact time domestic innovation is expected to grow. Read