Tech Roundup
Feb. 24, 2026
We notice Edmonton's city administration is working on identifying a viable pathway for the next phase of the Edmonton Edge Fund. In a memo to councillors sent in mid-December but made public recently, administration said it is exploring how to fund future phases, ideally with reduced dependence on the city's budget.
In Phase 1, "local innovators demonstrated a high demand for the program, and valuable learnings were gained on the local innovation ecosystem and funding landscape," the memo says. Administration is researching opportunities and gaps in Edmonton's innovation ecosystem, as well as exploring co-funding partnerships with other innovation organizations or external investment opportunities to amplify the program's reach. The 17 companies that shared $4.7 million in the fund's first phase have gone on to grow their revenue by $7.3 million, the memo says.
Council discussed the Edge Fund and other economic development initiatives at a meeting on Feb. 17 as councillors debated granting $75,000 to construction innovation company Northmark Materials (formerly known as Backroads Reclamation) if the company located its new facility in Edmonton. Coun. Anne Stevenson, who introduced the motion, said it was a worthy investment because the city would earn it back through property taxes within a year. But some councillors, including Coun. Keren Tang, said they would prefer to fund businesses through a dedicated program instead of one-off investments. "There is a hunger and desire from entrepreneurs for the city to provide this support, and quite frankly, from this side of the table, there's a hunger and desire for us to support them and to go faster," Tang said, noting the dozens of companies that applied for Edge Fund grants but received nothing. The motion to grant the money to Northmark passed 7-6.
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Headlines
- Virtual reality company vrCAVE is ramping up to launch Heroes Together VR, the company's first direct-to-consumer virtual reality game. "The technology has changed; it's vastly simplified," Ryan Bromsgrove, vrCAVE's head of growth and marketing, told Taproot. "We decided that the market had changed enough and enough people were now into VR at home that this is something that we could do." Guests will be able to play the game at an event on Feb. 25.
- Zero Point Cryogenics will receive $5 million, and Logican Technologies will receive $1.5 million through Prairies Economic Development Canada's Regional Defence Investment Initiative. Jason Pincock of Logican Technologies, Nathan Mison of Diplomat Consulting, and engineering professor Ian Smith joined Real Talk to discuss how Alberta will benefit from the funding.
- The University of Alberta, NAIT, Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association, Edmonton Global, and the Edmonton International Airport have launched the Edmonton Region Defence Alliance. "ERDA leverages the Edmonton region's strategic location, industrial readiness, resources, talent and the grit it is known for to protect Canadian sovereignty," the consortium said in an announcement. Defence and dual-use technologies will be the topic of interest at the next MIT REAP Town Hall on March 3 at Edmonton Unlimited.
- Prairies Economic Development Canada will deliver $3 million in funding through the Black Entrepreneurship Program to support Black-led businesses across Alberta, with the African Canadian Civic Engagement Council receiving $1.5 million to expand its ANZA Entrepreneurship Ecosystem program and the Black Business Ventures Association receiving $1.5 million to strengthen support for Black entrepreneurs advancing innovative technologies.
- AltaML co-founder Cory Janssen defined agentic AI as collaborative systems that turn goals into results by reasoning through work, deploying tools, navigating obstacles, and looping humans in where needed.
- Blair Attard-Frost, a fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and a political scientist at the University of Alberta, criticized Canada's engagement on AI as exclusionary and unclear, arguing that low public trust isn't being helped by the federal government's approach. "Between the flawed consultation format and the opaque LLM daisychain used to generate a report on the consultation, Canada's new AI strategy is off to a bad start," Attard-Frost wrote in an op-ed.
- Sam Jenkins of Punchcard Systems reiterated his call for Alberta to leverage the opportunity presented by tech giants' development of data centres to ensure the local tech sector benefits. "The key is execution that makes local capability non-negotiable: building a talent development pipeline, pathways for local suppliers to participate, and the conditions for Alberta businesses to adopt AI and build products that can scale beyond the province," he told BetaKit.
- Tier3 IT Solutions president Jesse Hill shared lessons from successfully navigating a cyberattack on the Executive Wins podcast, crediting simulation exercises conducted months before the actual incident for his company's preparedness.
- Game Con Canada has announced the North American Game Industry Summit, a B2B-focused event taking place in Edmonton from June 18 to 19. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, will deliver a keynote. The summit will be followed by Game Con Canada's annual conference.
- PCL is using artificial intelligence to standardize complex industrial construction data, developing machine learning tools that translate thousands of technical component descriptions and reduce time-consuming manual work, Digital Journal reported after attending a construction-focused event at Edmonton Unlimited hosted by Built World Tech lead Zack Storms.
- Edmonton Unlimited is hosting a meet-and-greet with Mayor Andrew Knack and members of city council on March 11.
Jobs and opportunities
- Promise Robotics is hiring a software development manager.
- Jobber is hiring a product manager in customer success engineering.
- samdesk is hiring an intermediate backend feature developer.
- hi finance is hiring a founding engineer.
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Happenings
Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:
- Feb. 24: Lean Derisking: Taking Your Proof of Concept to the Clinic starting at 10am online
- Feb. 24: Founders' Footnotes: An Edmonton Unlimited Bookclub starting at 5pm at Edmonton Unlimited
- Feb. 25: AI Tinkerers Edmonton Meetup starting at 5:30pm at Edmonton Unlimited
- Feb. 25: Screams & Shenanigans: Celebrating 10 Years of Social VR starting at 6pm at Edmonton Unlimited
- Feb. 26: UofA Entrepreneurial Law Clinic Pop-Up: Free Student Legal Support starting at 12pm at Edmonton Research Park
And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:
- March 5: Intentional Discussions with Entrepreneurs from across Alberta Series online
- March 12: ERIN x Technology Alberta - Pi(e) Day Meet-Up at Edmonton Research Park
- March 16: New Member Monday online
Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.
Beyond Edmonton
- Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish told a Calgary audience of plans to keep tech companies anchored in Alberta through a provincial co-investment framework and AI tools to streamline government procurement for local startups.
- A developer proposed building a $10-billion AI data centre in Olds that would consume as much power as Edmonton, prompting residents to voice concerns about the project's impact on the town of 10,000 people.
- Federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon is on a trip to Germany, Saudi Arabia, and India, seeking new AI investments and working to broaden Canada's trade alliances and technology partnerships.
This roundup was sponsored by Edmonton Unlimited.
Now is the time for us, Edmonton's innovators, and our city. Headquartered in Alberta's capital city, Edmonton Unlimited harnesses the power of possibility and brings the very best of Edmonton to the world.