Good morning,
This week we're sharing something a little different. Dr. Simon Haworth, CEO of drug discovery company Intellomx, recently spent an afternoon walking through Vancouver's Downtown Eastside with a group of AI and life sciences colleagues. What started as a fact-finding visit turned into something more — a frank account of what it feels like to walk those streets, and three concrete ideas for where AI and biotech could actually make a difference.
One last note: We're looking for a photographer for Vancouver Tech Days Vol. 2 on October 19-20. If you shoot events and want to be in the room with some of Vancouver's top founders and executives, we'd love to hear from you. In return, you'll get a shoutout, photo credit, and access to the networking portions of the event. Reach out to [email protected] if you’re interested.
—Emily
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From The Journal
Funding, Deals, and More
Wellstar, Well Health's clinical software spin-out, has begun trading on the TSXV under the symbol $WSTR, completing a transition that has been in the works since 2024 and raising $148 million CAD for its treasury along the way. Read more →
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From Gibsons to Lund, fall quietly steals the show. Harvests become happy hours, nature becomes your binge-watch, and art fills every corner of the Coast. With fewer crowds and more room to roam, the Sunshine Coast unfolds on your time…and no one else’s.
In Other News
Vancouver's Spare has launched Spare AI, an agency-wide platform that connects transit agencies' operational data, institutional knowledge and workflows so employees can find information and act on it in natural language. Read more →
Vancouver's Juno Industries has unveiled GUARDIAN SYSTEM, a GPS-independent edge sensor mesh for situational awareness, and LOGAN PLATFORM, a software system that fuses multi-domain data into a single operating picture, alongside acceptance into the federal Defence Drone Initiative. Read more →
Moment Energy co-founder Gurmesh Sidhu made the case at a Calgary energy conference that retired EV batteries — representing roughly 17 times global demand for grid-scale storage in 2025 — should be repurposed as domestic energy infrastructure before being recycled. Read more →
Vancouver-based TryCanadian has launched a permanent collection of 98 Indigenous-owned businesses across Canada, released ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Read more →
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