This article is part of a series presented in partnership with BC Tech, profiling the finalists for the 2026 Technology Impact Awards‘ Company of the Year – Startup category. Word games have become a dependable daily habit for millions of players, but Simply Sweet Games CEO Tina Merry believes too much of the category’s recent […]
BC Tech Finalist OverSushi Is Rethinking Salesforce Consulting for the AI Era
This article is part of a series presented in partnership with BC Tech, profiling the finalists for the 2026 Technology Impact Awards‘ Company of the Year – Startup category. For decades, technology consulting has operated according to a familiar formula: larger projects require more consultants, more time and more money. OverSushi CEO Dan Carabias believes […]
Vayu by Prana Labs Wants Smartwatches to Do More Than Measure Stress
Wearable devices have become good at telling people when they are stressed. Vancouver’s Prana Labs wants them to help people do something about it. The startup is behind Vayu, a wearable-first breathwork platform that combines biometric monitoring, artificial intelligence, and haptic feedback to deliver personalized breathing exercises through Apple Watch and Wear OS devices. Instead […]
Dennis Pilarinos Has Been Quietly Building Vancouver Tech for Two Decades
For someone who has played an outsized role in Vancouver’s tech sector, Dennis Pilarinos has spent much of his career avoiding the spotlight. His résumé stretches from Microsoft and Amazon to Buddybuild, Apple, and now Unblocked. Along the way, he helped establish Amazon Web Services’ presence in Vancouver, built and sold a developer tools company, […]
BC Tech Finalist hyperlocal Is Building the Missing Layer for Real-Life Connection
This article is part of a series presented in partnership with BC Tech, profiling the finalists for the 2026 Technology Impact Awards‘ Company of the Year – Startup category. Cities do not lack activities or people looking for connection. What they lack, according to hyperlocal CEO Hadi Ekaputra, is the infrastructure to reliably bring the […]
How GroundedAI Is Bringing AI Below the Surface
Canada is preparing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on transit, energy, mining, and other major infrastructure projects. But some of the biggest threats to delivering that work on time and on budget lie beneath the surface. Unlike above-ground construction, where drones and satellite imagery have made detailed data easier to collect, tunnelling projects […]
Peter Evans on Xtract One’s PNE Deployment and the Future of AI-Powered Physical Security
As Vancouver continues to build its reputation as a host city for major international events, the technology protecting attendees is becoming just as important as the events themselves. Toronto-based Xtract One Technologies recently announced that its AI-powered SmartGateway screening system was selected to help secure the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), enabling attendees to move through […]
GroundedAI Raises $2 Million to Modernize Underground Construction
Vancouver-based GroundedAI has raised $2 million to accelerate the expansion of its underground intelligence platform into the tunnelling sector. The financing round was led by Stand Up Ventures, with participation from SOSV, Accelia, BoxOne, The51, LOI VC, and other investors. GroundedAI is developing technology designed to help construction teams understand changing subsurface conditions before they […]
Victoria Founder Builds Hobby Card Index for Booming Trading Card Market
A Victoria founder is taking on the sports and trading card market with a data platform built for collectors, dealers, and sellers. Sean Charman, founder of Hobby Card Index, has built an independent trading card platform that tracks real sold-price data across more than seven million cards, giving users tools to scan cards, monitor values, […]
Startup Zamala Uses AI to Bring Cultural Context to Event Planning
When Juliana Morais and Raphael Andrade helped friends plan celebrations in Vancouver, they kept running into the same problem: finding the right local people for the right kind of event was harder than it should be. A wedding, birthday, quinceañera, tea ceremony, sangeet, or sofreh aghd may all fall under the broad category of “event […]