Christian Cotichini

Light AI (ALGO:CBOE) has begun trading, presenting a promising future as it positions itself as a leader in AI-based healthcare technology. $30M CAD invested since 2016, the company’s proprietary algorithm boasts 97% accuracy in diagnosing viral or bacterial throat infections, addressing a global healthcare challenge: antibiotic resistance. The leadership team includes AI veteran CEO Peter Whitehead and prominent advisors like the former CIO of Johnson & Johnson, Tom Scarnecchia, and Emmanuel Blin, a healthcare distribution innovator in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). Light AI's disruptive technology aims to modernize diagnostics in LMICs, reducing the misuse of antibiotics. With a total of $26.5M CAD raised in private and RTO rounds and a marketing budget of over $3.5M, the company is poised to capitalize on the booming AI sector, which has seen peers like Healwell and Verses achieve significant valuation growth. Light AI's innovative approach and strategic capital deployment position it for strong market traction in the coming months. I am a shareholder.

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Spent a wonderful week in Canada with family! Now back to business.. Here's your weekly AI update: 🔙 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 Week 51 | August 5 - August 11 The OpenAI Brain Drain Industry: 🚨OpenAI co-founder John Schulman leaves for Anthropic; President Greg Brockman is taking extended leave through the end of year. What's interesting is that three of their most technical co-founders (Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy) have all left the company now. This then begs the question - is this a result of natural silicon-valley attrition, or is there something deeper going on here? And moreover, how will this impact the technical moat that OpenAI has built over the years? (https://lnkd.in/gztRKhwV) 🚨Google announced that new Gemini AI-powered features will be incorporated in a variety of home devices, such as Google Home and Nest (https://lnkd.in/gV2QacAQ?). It also announced a significant reduction in token cost of Gemini 1.5 Flash (https://lnkd.in/gbNe6yNU?) 🚨Figure releases Figure 02, it's newest humanoid robot. Figure has been actively testing robots with BMW at a manufacturing plant. Figure last raised $675M Series B in February 2024, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. (https://lnkd.in/gZnPSke4) 🚨Mark Zuckerberg said on Meta's Q2 earning call that to train Llama 4, the company will need 10x more compute than what was needed to train Llama 3. (https://lnkd.in/g5pEPrTw?) 🚨Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, renewing claims that the company is betraying its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. (https://lnkd.in/gAk5grU6) Financing and M&A: 🚨Groq raises $640m in Series D at a $2.8B valuation. The round was led by Blackrock Private Equity Partners with participation from other investors such as Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, Cisco, KDDI, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. (https://lnkd.in/gRtKQKvW?) 🚨Hugging Face acquires Seattle data storage startup Xethub. The HF team plans to integrate Xethub's backend storage technology, enabling developers to host more large models and datasets than currently possible. CEO Clem Delangue 🤗 confirmed this was the largest acquisition the company has made thus far. (https://lnkd.in/g8fJ-BjT) 🚨OpenAI is leading a $60m Series B funding round for Opal Camera, a maker of professional-grade webcams(https://lnkd.in/gMT9dkTG) 🚨ProRata.ai a company that has invented an attribution technology to properly compensate content owners, has raised a $25m Series A, led by Prime Movers Lab, Mayfield Fund and Revolution Ventures. (https://lnkd.in/gumjbWmj) R&D: 🚨Alibaba Group releases Qwen2-math, a SOTA model for math-specific tasks. (https://lnkd.in/g8Jh3M7T?) Other Interesting Resources: 🚨 Between May and August, more Humane AI Pins were returned than purchased (https://lnkd.in/gy56qpKm?). 😯

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Cool read about portco Vivid Machines using AI to help farmers maximize yield, reduce costs, lower emissions, and make data-driven decisions that weren’t possible a generation ago!! 🍎 🍇 🍐 🥝 From real-time tracking of tree health to optimizing harvest timing, Vivid turns farming into a precise science – helping farmers make informed decisions that improve profitability and boost efficiency. It’s awesome to see Canadian agtech driving such significant economic impact. Proud to support Jenny Lemieux and Jonathan Binas in shaping a more productive and sustainable future for farming! 🌱🚀 https://lnkd.in/e4i2NgMW #AI #agriculture #startups #venturecapital

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Are you a B2B software startup founder at the very start? Then you have to meet this early-stage investor! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Dominic Lau from Ripple Ventures. He: 🇨🇦 Is Vancouver and Toronto based 🎣 Loves to fish 🎶 Founded the RippleX Fellowship - a platform to help underrepresented founders access mentorship, intros, and the tools to get from idea to revenue to funding Amongst founders, Dominic and his team at Ripple Ventures, including Matt Cohen, are known for being hands-on partners who open valuable networks, navigate challenges together, and assist in closing crucial revenue and funding deals. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at dom@rippleventures.com 👀 Look into the RippleX Fellowship - they take 10 companies 2x a year through the Founder Fellowship program and also back companies through the Fellow Fund For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Ripple Ventures' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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"Entrepreneurship is painful and sometimes rewarding." This quote naturally came out during a check-in call with my good friend and fellow entrepreneur, Gilad, who is building a great product at Sequence (I just wish they were available in Canada) 😢 As soon as I said it, both Gilad and I reflected on how true that statement is in describing the journey of building something. Shoutout to all the business owners and entrepreneurs out there taking the pain with a pinch of reward. #startupjourney #pain #entrepreneurship #grit

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If you're a Canadian entrepreneur, investor, or founder then this past week has made it painfully clear that when it comes to innovation and economic recovery the calvary won't be coming and is in fact running in the opposite direction. The federal government and associated regional innovation support agencies (ie Invest Ottawa) are failing to look at solutions aimed at effectively addressing an overall decrease in entrepreneurship and economic activity across the nation and it is now on us, as resilient Canadian entrepreneurs, to empower those who can bring the most value to the table if we are to strive for the quickest path forward towards economic recovery and helping the average Canadian family better their quality of life. I am proud to announce that RHA Ventures Inc. has answered that call 👏 In the face of rising costs for domestic businesses in Canada and competition from abroad, RHA Ventures, an Ontario-based venture capital firm specializing in cutting-edge technologies, announced today its investment in Real Life Robotics, a Waterloo-based company designing real robots for real businesses. This investment marks a significant milestone in the development of Real Life Robotics and underscores RHA Ventures' commitment to supporting true, tried, and tested founders and Ontario’s growing startup ecosystem despite an overall decrease in entrepreneurship across the rest of Canada. “Real robots, real people, and real-world challenges are what differentiate RLR as a technology company. We could not be more thrilled to have RHA Ventures, a group of experienced founders and problem solvers, on board as strategic advisors and investors as we help elevate Ontario globally as a home for first-in-class robotics and automation technology - empowering businesses with transformative robotics solutions that unlock new levels of efficiency, reliability, and scalability,” - Cameron Waite, CEO of Real Life Robotics. The numbers clearly show that the cost of getting involved in a business or launching a new product is too high for the average inexperienced Canadian and our economy has slowed in growth accordingly. On a macro level, we are placing too high an importance on new founders in a down market when we should be rewarding and doubling down on our true, tried and tested investors, founders and legacy businesses who have shown they are willing to take the risk. Thank you, Brian Foster and the rest of the team at RHA Ventures Inc. for taking this first step of the journey with us 🙏 https://lnkd.in/gSr5TP48

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As a founder, have you ever been curious about this whole angel investing thing? This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on an investor who's an expert in it you simply have to know: Matt Wilson, MBA from Allied Venture Partners. He: 🇨🇦 Is Calgary based 😇 Manages one of Canada's largest angle investor syndicates (now at 1,800+ members!) 🏒 Worked as a professional ice hockey referee, which he says shares remarkable similarities with investing Amongst founders, Matt Wilson, is known for bringing empathy and perspective as a former founder himself. Aside from financial support, his goal is to be the 'right' investor - one that aligns with a founder's vision, shares his network, and provides strategic insights when asked. ✉️ Make sure to pitch him, invest, scout, advise and more at https://linktr.ee/alliedvc For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Allied Venture Partners' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

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💡 When should you pivot—and when should you quit? In today’s episode of Collisions YYC, Jade Alberts and Sepehr Shoarinejad share their unfiltered stories of entrepreneurship. Both founders reveal how to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life, from managing the highs of landing a client to surviving the lows of missing payroll. They offer actionable advice on how to avoid the most common mistakes founders make, and how to stay grounded when things get tough. 🎧 Tune in now to hear these raw, real, and invaluable insights from Team Awesome: https://lnkd.in/e6CKrASG #TeamAwesome #KeepBeingAwesome #Koridor #Entrepreneurship #SerialEntrepreneurs #YYCFounders

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Check out this epic interview.

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The size of Canada combined with the geographic distribution of health conditions make the country ideal for multi-channel healthcare (e.g., Telehealth). Despite the significant demand for healthcare broadly, those business models haven't been able to achieve exponential growth or ideal unit economics just yet -- they've certainly grown and many are profitable, but millions of Canadians still lack primary care. It's a problem that's on the cusp of being solved (e.g., AI, integrated care) and could unlock significantly more access to care for Canadians. 

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Another great #investcanada2024 conference last week. Congrats Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) again and fantastic collaboration with Réseau Capital for curating + delivering such an important ecosystem event that brings together the who’s who in Canadian investing. It’s an interesting macro environment for both founders and emerging VC funds in 2024. The bar for fundraising is higher and the process is more difficult, but it’s an amazing time to build and fund startups. Over the years I’ve been asked what’s made me a successful investor given the number of exits & investor returns delivered. Beyond it being a full-time obsession for decades, one needs to constantly find ways to evolve to founder needs and deliver differentiated value. Earning the right to back and support the best founders is what delivers outsized investor returns. This is easy to say for many investors, but often many fall flat on the everyday execution for different controllable reasons. Reputations are built & lost fast in a more challenging market. Highline Beta's pre-seed VC & venture studio model continues to not only innovate, but also win predominantly because our core investment value is to always “earn the right on the cap table” with the founders that we support. It’s a complete team effort and after 8 years of building out Highline Beta’s foundation let’s us now grow via new vertical venture studios + funds. 🚀

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Despite a growing and robust Canadian tech ecosystem, the country has minted fewer than 30 unicorns in the past decade compared to the US's 700. Should Canadian VCs look to invest internationally? If so, what's the optimal approach to accessing global opportunities, navigating financial and cultural differences, and providing meaningful value? Alternatively, should they focus on strengthening the Canadian tech ecosystem? Is the lack of unicorns primarily a cultural, structural, or financial issue, or a combination? Can VCs play a role in addressing these challenges? Happy to participate in the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) webinar with Mana Hosseini, JD/MBA and Kim Furlong addressing these topics. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Registration link in the comments #venturecapital #startups #investing #canada

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Freeline and Swan to Spur new AAV Development... I couldn't resist. Syncona announced they are combining Freeline and Swan Bio to create Spur Therapeutics to advance the most viable components of the latter two companies' pipelines. That pipeline will be headlined by Freeline's Gaucher program (on the cusp of starting Ph3), and Swan's candidate in adrenomyeloneuropathy. Syncona previously took Freeline private to create new optionality for the company. This was after AAV headwinds had battered the stock and other candidates reached approval first in their prior lead therapies (hemophilia). This shows there's still interest in AAV and its proven delivery capability to diverse tissues and cells. But there is continuing culling in the industry's pipeline. Want to take a look at that pipeline? or think about how it impacts your own prioritization? Reach out and we can discuss! #venturecapital #genetherapy #pharma https://lnkd.in/g8-ZKp4C

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Building a venture capital platform is more than just about money; it's about moving mountains. John Rikhtegar reveals the secrets to orchestrating successful fund-to-fund operations at RBCx. In today's episode of Swimming with Allocators, John shares invaluable advice for corporates venturing into fund-to-fund practices, emphasizing the critical need for alignment at the top. Tune in to learn how strategic alignment, unique value propositions, and deep integration can transform potential into success in the venture capital landscape. Learn from John Rikhtegar how to actively shape the innovation economy and lead transformative fund-to-fund practices that meet the future head-on.

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💡 Why Every New Founder Needs to Hear This: Real Talk About the Highs and Lows of Entrepreneurship I had an amazing time on the latest episode of Collisions YYC with Jade Alberts and Tyler Chisholm! There’s something truly special about having real conversations with these two—discussing both the highs and the lows of being an entrepreneur. 🎢 In this episode, we dive deep into what it really takes to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life—how to manage those big wins, like landing a new client, and how to push through the tough moments, like missing payroll. We shared some hard-earned lessons on avoiding the common mistakes founders make, staying grounded through the chaos, and most importantly, knowing when to keep going and when it’s time to pivot. 🌱 For all the new founders out there: This journey isn’t easy, but it’s totally worth it. Prepare yourself for the challenges, and keep in mind that the highs and lows are all part of the adventure. 🚀 🎧 Tune in to hear these raw, real, and invaluable insights from Team Awesome: https://lnkd.in/e6CKrASG 💬 I’d love to hear your thoughts—what challenges have you faced as a founder? And how did you know when it was time to pivot or keep pushing through? #TeamAwesome #KeepBeingAwesome #Koridor #Entrepreneurship #FoundersJourney #CollisionsYYC #StartupLife #YYCFounders

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✨ Breaking: Pender Ventures' Technology Inflection Fund II LP Announces New Fund.- Pender Ventures' Technology Inflection Fund II LP Pender Ventures focuses on Canadian B2B and health tech startups poised for scale-up, with over $100 million in available funds. https://lnkd.in/eJSYQQ4d Please share to let other #Founders know For the ❤️ of Startups #Fusion42 #Startups#Venturecapital

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Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

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Dilution is not neutral and shouldn't be viewed as such. It's either positive or negative, good or bad. In the world of VC-backed companies, dilution is such a normalized part of the journey that it is often passively accepted. This often leads to the negative form of dilution such as capital raised for: → inefficient sales and marketing spend → R&D supporting technology searching for a market → layers of unnecessary organizational overhead → supporting broken business models → vanity valuations → etc... However, dilution has a positive and accretive expression as well such as capital raised for: → scaling efficient go-to-market efforts → product and channel expansion with clear ROI → deleveraging and strengthening the balance sheet → accelerating market share gains for a sound business model → transformative investments (e.g. M&A, R&D, capex) → etc... Therefore, dilution should neither be passively accepted nor should it be categorically prohibited. It shouldn't be viewed as always positive or always negative because it can be either. The purpose and quality of the use of capital is what ultimately defines the merit of any dilution. For this reason, capital allocation is one of the most essential responsibilities and capabilities of a CEO. Effective capital allocation leads to dilution being positive. Ineffective capital allocation leads to dilution being negative. It's usually that linear.

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Abundance AND impact? Yes, please! 🌳 Merging historical IRRs of 35% with social impact investing, our search fund is a creative, emergent and exciting way to shape the future of Canadian small business. The New York Times did a great piece on traditional search funds and the opportunities in this space. #regenerativeleadership #canadiansearch #canadiansmb #eta #impactinvesting

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