Tech Roundup
Sept. 15, 2026
If you had just graduated high school, would you pay a 15% fee to connect with post-secondary funding? Zach Prusko would. That's why the 28-year-old started hi finance. "During my undergrad, there was a lot of money I qualified for that I never received," he told Taproot. "I found out, after graduating, that I had actually missed $15,000 in grant funding." It was not for naught, however. Building on what he learned while working at banks and pursuing B.Com and MBA degrees at the University of Alberta, Prusko found a way to turn his losses into other students' gains.
Today, hi finance counts 3,000 clients, with $4 million in student funding distributed through its app last year alone. These results led the company to the finals of Startup TNT's spring investment summit, at which it secured a side deal in a pitch competition won by T.rex AI. Prusko's young team has attracted about $650,000 in investment and "six figures" worth of non-dilutive funding in its three-ish years of operation, Prusko said.
The hi finance crew — who share a love of Phoebe Bridgers's music in a group chat dubbed "hi fi" — are furthering their reach in this back-to-school season. The company announced its expansion to Ontario this month, and it is evidently off to a good start: "We had 744 people sign up yesterday," Prusko said on Sept. 10. And his ambition going forward is, well, ambitious. "We're expanding to 21 more campuses this year," Prusko said. "The next year, we'll be at 50, so we'll be all across Canada."
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AI development
- Artificial Agency has found a client for its behaviour engine in Owlchemy Labs, a Google-owned studio based in Austin, TX. The Edmonton-based AI company's technology will make it possible for a single human player to collaborate with several "human-like AI agents" when playing Dimensional Double Shift, a game that is expected to ship in the first half of 2027. "By closing the reality gap between what the agent believes and what is actually happening, we can train very small, game-specific models that deliver responsive, adaptive gameplay beyond what scripting can achieve, at a cost developers can ship," Artificial Agency co-founder and CEO Brian Tanner said in a release. Artificial Agency was founded in 2024 by Tanner, Alex Kearney, Michael Johanson, and Andrew Butcher; the latter two later departed for the University of Alberta and Google DeepMind, respectively.
- The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute is partnering with the federal government to deliver the National AI Literacy Initiative, a new program to provide free instruction "designed to help Canadians build the skills they need to use AI safely, effectively, and confidently in their daily lives." Ottawa has committed $13 million for free AI courses for K-12 educators, post-secondary students, and the public, with the first two to launch on Sept. 21 and the third to follow later this year. The initiative is meant to give Canadians a sense of agency, Amii CEO Cam Linke told BetaKit, whether they're bringing AI into classrooms or navigating it in their personal and professional lives. "What we've tried to do from the start is meet people where they're at and leverage what they need to be successful in their area," he said.
- Amber Simpson, a fellow at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, is among seven University of Alberta researchers to be named to the Royal Society of Canada. Her work focuses on using AI to interpret medical imaging, particularly in cancer treatment.
- Meta's $13-billion data centre in Sturgeon County will continue to have a positive economic impact after construction, the tech company's Matt Sexton told a session at the Sept. 10 conference put on by Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association. In addition to 3,000 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs, there will be ongoing maintenance that "keeps these projects moving as economic catalysts," he said, noting the tax revenues to be paid to the county and the additional investments in infrastructure that Meta has promised.
- The Narwhal obtained a leaked cabinet briefing indicating interest in creating a Crown corporation to ensure Alberta has the natural gas infrastructure needed to support more data centres. The cabinet briefing, prepared by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, says TC Energy's plans for the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. pipeline are "misaligned with the Government of Alberta's projected demand for natural gas in the province," though TC Energy responded on Sept. 14 that it is prepared to keep investing and "expand the system to meet the scale of opportunity in front of Alberta and Canada." In a roundup of Canadian provinces' approaches to AI, BetaKit called Alberta "arguably Canada's most AI-forward jurisdiction," with dozens of projects under development.
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Headlines
- Lockheed Martin Canada is investing $11.7 million in Avalon Holographics. The maker of holographic display technology is headquartered in St. John's, but its research, development, and fabrication lab is in Edmonton. The investment, tied to Lockheed Martin's obligations under Canada's Industrial and Technological Benefits policy, is expected to support high-skilled jobs in both St. John's and Edmonton.
- Tenir is launching its first product on Sept. 16, offering a free 30-day pilot for 10 restaurants. Relay is operations software meant to help restaurants replace paper checklists, group chats, and verbal training with a digital system. Founder and CEO Harrison Mantla recently pitched the app to Hanjan.
- Taxformify, one of Edmonton Unlimited's 10 companies to watch during Edmonton Startup Week, was prompted by its founders' observations that accountant friends were struggling with the same problems every year. "They looked like they had five tool problems," Rashad Bayram told fintech.ca. "They had one workflow problem wearing five disguises."
- Materials startup Zylotex has signed an agreement making InnoTech Alberta its official pilot facility in Edmonton. Co-founders Lelia Lawson and Wade Chute plan pilot-scale processing and fibre development work in the coming months.
- Lithium-extraction company CANDLE Lithium posted that it is raising capital to build a permanent commercial demonstration plant. "This is the facility that takes the technology from field-validated to commercially demonstrated at the scale partners and investors can evaluate directly," the company said. "It is the final step between where Candle is now and full commercial deployment across its partners network."
- Stephanie McCabe, president of Knower Tech, was named to WXN's Top 100 list. She left her role as deputy city manager for Edmonton to build the company, which gives independent ad agencies technology tools to compete with larger rivals.
- KTV Working Drone has launched in Edmonton, using drones to clean windows and facades such as the difficult-to-reach panes on the outside of the Art Gallery of Alberta
- Edmonton Unlimited has secured a three-year sponsorship from MNP for its pitch stage. The partnership reflects the firm's long-standing support for entrepreneurs, said MNP's Dustin Sundby, while Edmonton Unlimited CEO Tom Viinikka noted the importance of giving entrepreneurs a chance to tell their stories, as the organization has done with every event it has hosted this year.
- Startup TNT has extended applications for its fall 2026 Edmonton investment summit until Sept. 21. The summit connects early-stage companies in Edmonton and northern Alberta with angel investors through a structured, team-based due diligence process. The pitch night is set for Oct. 1, with the summit finale on Nov. 12.
- Product innovation studio BITO Lab held its soft launch on Sept. 1, running a workshop on problem framing for founders and community members. Founder Saida Barre said BITO Lab teaches human-centred design methods — including customer feedback, usability testing, and MVP development — to help solve urgent community problems, with support from the Edmonton Regional Innovation Network's Janice Baskin and Sheila Moore.
- Alberta Innovates has streamlined the intake process for its innovation programs covering energy, aerospace, defence, advanced materials and manufacturing, agriculture, and environmental technologies. The new Strategic Industries Technology and Knowledge Development Grant Process gives applicants one portal to apply through, regardless of discipline.
- Six University of Alberta students starting this fall have won the Schulich Leader Scholarship, worth up to $120,000 for high-achieving STEM students. The recipients' projects include Chloe Ge's research into AI applications for drug design, Siddhi Singh's cybersecurity writing and STEM mentorship work, Henock Seife's nanosatellite research, Joshua Kirsch's AI-powered tree-mapping platform, Kalyx Perea's video game development, and Kristy Murangwa's aerospace engineering ambitions.
- NAIT has broken ground on the Advanced Skills Centre planned for 2030, a facility described as the polytechnic's largest project to expand trades and technology training capacity. The 625,000-square-foot facility will consolidate 29 programs in areas including construction, transportation, manufacturing, and energy.
- Innovation strategist and speaker Shawn Kanungo appeared on the Executive Wins podcast to discuss how to boldly learn from failure.
Happenings
Here are some events coming up soon:
- Sept. 15-17: Carbon Capture Canada at Edmonton Convention Centre
- Sept. 16: Tech Wednesdays starting at 5:30pm at The Pint Public House
- Sept. 17: Writing a Business Plan in the Age of AI starting at 12pm online
- Sept. 17: Fundraising, Culture, Persistence: What Keeps Founders Going starting at 4:30pm at Fu's Repair Shop
- Sept. 19: DevCon: Beyond the Classroom starting at 8:30am at Edmonton Unlimited
- Sept. 21-25: Life Sciences Week
And here are more to keep in mind:
- Sept. 29: Facts, lies and ChatGPT: Keeping media literate in the age of slop at St. Albert Public Library (Downtown)
- Oct. 5: From Idea to Impact at Grand Villa Casino
- Oct. 5-9: Edmonton Startup Week at Edmonton Unlimited
Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.
This roundup was sponsored by Edmonton Unlimited.
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