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Government of Canada investing in innovation ecosystems and AI to strengthen Saskatchewan’s tech sector

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PrairiesCan investments will support tech incubator Co.Labs and five AI businesses in Saskatchewan

SASKATOON, SK, April 30, 2026 /CNW/ – Over the past year, Canadian businesses have navigated a rapidly changing, and increasingly fragmented world.

In response, Canada’s new government is focused on what we can control–building a stronger, more independent, more resilient economy. We are moving with speed and ambition to diversify our trade partners abroad and build our strength at home while delivering responsible fiscal management. Saskatchewan’s growing innovation ecosystem and artificial intelligence sector have the potential to drive productivity, unlock new markets, and create jobs. Harnessing this potential is essential to building a more resilient, competitive economy for the province and the country.

Today, Taleeb Noormohamed, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, on behalf of Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), announced over $3.7 million in funding to support Co.Labs as they grow Saskatchewan’s technology and agtech scale-up ecosystems, and over $4.1 million in funding to support organizations developing and using artificial intelligence (AI) in the province. This represents a combined federal investment of over $7.9 million.

Co.Labs will strengthen collaboration with ecosystem partners, expand its Expert and X-in-Residence programs, enhance agtech programming, and deliver three Uniting the Prairies (UP) conferences, starting this week in Saskatoon. Through new and expanded partnerships – including with Regina-based Cultivator – these initiatives will connect startups to venture capital and angel investors, accelerate commercialization, attract private capital, and create more pathways for Saskatchewan founders to grow and scale their businesses.

The Government of Canada also announced its support for five other businesses and organizations working to develop and use AI to help transform Saskatchewan’s tech ecosystem, including Coconut Software Corporation, Vendasta Technologies Inc., HomeTeam Live Technologies Inc., the University of Regina and Artificial Intelligence Saskatchewan Corp. (AiSK). Details are available in the Backgrounder.

Quotes

“At a time of global uncertainty, it is more important than ever to support homegrown innovations that create good jobs and strengthen Canada’s position as an innovation powerhouse. Our new government is investing in Saskatchewan’s dynamic tech sector to drive growth, attract investments and build Canada strong.”

–The Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience and Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada

“Businesses and innovators are the backbone of our economy, and many are looking to use artificial intelligence to unlock productivity. The Government of Canada is committed to scaling up our country’s AI industry, driving AI adoption and building a sovereign digital infrastructure. Harnessing AI while increasing trust in its responsible development and deployment will promote growth and shared prosperity in Saskatchewan and across the country.”

–The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario

“Canada is committed to advancing innovation ecosystems that help us respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing global economy and stay competitive in the development and adoption of artificial intelligence. The investments announced today highlight the shared goals of our government and the tech sector to support local businesses, scale innovation, and build long-term economic resilience.”

–Taleeb Noormohamed, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation

“We are living in a time of global change and mounting competition, but Saskatchewan has what it takes to lead, build, and innovate with the best in the fields of tech and AI. By supporting organizations like Co.Labs and local AI leaders, our government is responsibly helping to create good local jobs, attract investment to our province, and ensure Saskatchewan continues to be a driver of Canada’s tech sector, now and into the future.”

–The Honourable Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development

“PrairiesCan’s support allows us to go further in the work that matters most: helping Saskatchewan founders access the expertise, networks, and opportunities they need to scale tech startups fast. It also strengthens the Uniting the Prairies conference as a platform to bring investors, partners, and high-growth startups together — raising the profile of this region and accelerating what’s possible for Prairie tech.”

–Jonathan Lipoth, Executive Director, Co.Labs

Quick facts

Co.Labs is an independent non-profit incubator, funded primarily by the federal and provincial governments through PrairiesCan and Innovation Saskatchewan.Uniting the Prairies, a conference organized by Co.Labs, is the largest annual tech event in Saskatchewan, bringing together over 75 investors, over 150 startups, and up to 400 community members.Projects with Co.Labs and AiSK are supported under Regional Innovation Ecosystems (RIE), which helps build, grow, and nurture inclusive regional innovation ecosystems. Through targeted investments in not-for-profit organizations, the program supports businesses in priority sectors to innovate, grow, and compete globally.Projects with Coconut Software Corporation, Vendasta Technologies Inc., HomeTeam Live Technologies Inc. and the University of Regina are supported under the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) which helps bring new AI technologies to market and speed-up AI adoption in critical sectors such as agriculture, clean technology, healthcare and manufacturing.

Backgrounder

The projects announced today help build Saskatchewan’s tech ecosystem and implement AI through investments in six organizations. Investments will help strengthen and diversify the economy, drive productivity, unlock new markets, and create jobs.

The supported projects announced today are funded under two programs:

Regional Innovation Ecosystems (RIE) program – $3,766,000

The RIE program helps create, grow, and nurture inclusive regional ecosystems. Through RIE, targeted investments in not-for-profit organizations assist businesses in priority sectors to innovate, grow, and compete globally.

PrairiesCan announced investments for two non-repayable projects under the RIE:

Co.Labs is strengthening collaboration with ecosystem partners, expanding its Expert and X-in-Residence programs, enhancing agtech programming, and delivering three Uniting the Prairies (UP) conferences from 2026 to 2028, with a federal investment of $3,756,000.Artificial Intelligence Saskatchewan Corp. (AiSK) hosted the Sask AI Expo on April 27, 2026, with a federal investment of $10,000.

Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) – $4,172,561

The RAII provides $200 million to help businesses bring new AI technologies to market and speed up adoption in critical sectors such as agriculture, clean technology, healthcare, and manufacturing. This repayable and non-repayable interest-free funding is part of the government’s 2024 budget commitment to ensure Canada is a world leader in AI.

PrairiesCan announced investments for three repayable projects under the RAII:

Coconut Software Corporation is commercializing a proprietary cloud-based AI augmented workforce management platform for the financial sector, with a federal investment of $1,522,564.Vendasta Technologies Inc. is commercializing AI-augmented workflows to support small and medium sized businesses, with a federal investment of $1,416,100.HomeTeam Live Technologies Inc. is using proprietary technology to improve sport streaming, with a federal investment of $976,730.

PrairiesCan announced an investment for one non-repayable project under the RAII:

The University of Regina is developing an AI platform using tree ring data to predict climate change and soil moisture, with a federal investment of $257,167.

Associated links

Prairies Economic Development CanadaRegional Innovation Ecosystems (RIE) in the Prairie provinces – Canada.caRegional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) in the Prairie Provinces – Canada.caCo.Labs – Saskatchewan’s Tech IncubatorCoconut Software CorporationVendasta Technologies Inc.HomeTeam Live Technologies Inc.University of ReginaArtificial Intelligence Saskatchewan – AiSK

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Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-9378
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SOURCE Prairies Economic Development Canada

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Mercuryo Recognised with Great Place to Work® Certification, Highlighting Strength of Its Remote-First Fintech Culture

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Certification reflects overwhelmingly positive employee feedback and a consistently high-trust culture across Mercuryo’s international team 

LONDON, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global payments infrastructure platform Mercuryo has been certified as a Great Place to Work across five key European markets. The recognition is based entirely on confidential employee feedback gathered through an independent survey administered by Great Place to Work, the global authority on workplace culture.

Employees across all five certified country locations rated Mercuryo above the global Great Place to Work benchmark, with country-level scores of Spain (92%), Croatia (91%), Serbia (89%), the United Kingdom (88%), and Cyprus (86%), reflecting consistently positive employee experiences across the organisation.

The achievement is particularly significant given Mercuryo’s remote-first operating model. With employees based across more than 30 countries, the company has focused on building a connected, high-trust culture that enables teams to collaborate effectively across borders, time zones and disciplines while maintaining the flexibility and autonomy that define the modern workplace.

Yulia Bogomolova, Chief Human Resource Officer at Mercuryo, said, “Building a strong culture is an ongoing commitment. We work hard to ensure every employee feels empowered, supported, and connected to our mission, regardless of location. These results demonstrate the strength of that commitment and the exceptional people who make Mercuryo what it is.”

Ashna Vaghela, Chief Customer Officer at Mercuryo, said, “There is a strong culture of ownership and trust at Mercuryo. People are encouraged to contribute ideas, take initiative, and help shape the future of the company.” Another added: “Despite working across different countries and time zones, there is a genuine sense of teamwork and transparency that makes Mercuryo a rewarding place to work.”

Today, Mercuryo’s team of more than 300 professionals supports a network of over 200+ B2B partnerships and serves more than seven million users worldwide. The company leverages a range of modern tools and technologies across operations, analytics, marketing, and product development to help teams work more efficiently, accelerate innovation, and focus on high-impact initiatives, while maintaining strong human oversight and accountability throughout.

The certification marks an important milestone for Mercuryo as it continues to expand its global team and strengthen its position as a leading provider of payments infrastructure connecting traditional and digital finance. As Mercuryo continues its global expansion, the company is actively recruiting talent across a range of positions including: product, engineering, compliance, marketing, and business development functions.

About Mercuryo 

Mercuryo is a leading payment infrastructure platform in the digital token space. Standing out in the decentralized ecosystem by enhancing payment use case growth and on-chain integration, Mercuryo’s intuitive and robust solutions are powering the next generation of Web3 payment services. Mercuryo’s innovative payment products such as Spend bridge the gap between TradFi, Web2 and Web3. Mercuryo is the proud partner of leading pillars in the digital token economy such as Trust Wallet, Ledger and MetaMask, along with Revolut, Mastercard and Visa. Driven by an evolving product suite, Mercuryo is expanding further and continuing to innovate with a diversified stack of payment services. 

Learn more at: https://mercuryo.io/ 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mercuryo-recognised-with-great-place-to-work-certification-highlighting-strength-of-its-remote-first-fintech-culture-302804528.html

SOURCE Mercuryo

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Trupeer AI Appoints Former UiPath APAC President & CEO Raghu Subramanian to Accelerate UK Enterprise Growth

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LONDON, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trupeer AI, the workflow knowledge layer for teams and AI agents, today announced the appointment of Raghu Subramanian as President and Chief Business Officer as the company accelerates its expansion in the United Kingdom, one of Europe’s most knowledge-intensive enterprise markets. Backed by RTP Global, Salesforce Ventures and trusted by more than 50,000 teams in over 100 countries, Trupeer is strengthening its leadership team to scale adoption across enterprises, financial and professional services firms, and technology-enabled business services companies.

The United Kingdom represents a strategic priority for Trupeer. London’s financial services and professional services sectors rank among the most compliance-documented, knowledge-intensive industries anywhere in the world, where process knowledge is a regulatory artifact, not a nice-to-have. UK enterprises are also among Europe’s largest buyers of global business services, operating capability centres across multiple countries, placing them squarely on the demand side of the cross-border knowledge distribution challenge Trupeer is built to solve. For organisations managing teams and processes across geographies, the ability to capture knowledge once and deploy it in 120+ languages is operational infrastructure, not a feature. The depth of this opportunity is already visible in Trupeer’s deployments: a FTSE 100 company used the platform to train thousands of employees across a multi-country IT transformation, saving over 9,000 hours in the process.

Raghu joins from a distinguished career at the forefront of enterprise automation. As a founding member of the management team at UiPath, he was part of the core executive team that helped build the company into a $35+ billion NYSE-listed enterprise. He established UiPath’s India operations in 2016 and later served as President & CEO for India and APAC. Bringing over 25 years of enterprise technology leadership, Raghu has built and scaled enterprise businesses across global markets, with deep expertise in automation, business process management, and enterprise AI adoption. Prior to joining UiPath, he served as CTO of EXL Service.

At Trupeer, he will lead the company’s next phase of commercial expansion, with a sharp focus on UK-headquartered enterprises and the demand side of European global capability centre networks. Trupeer’s platform transforms unstructured, multimodal workflows into SOPs, guides, training assets, studio-quality videos, and continuously updated, AI-ready context for employees and intelligent agents, delivering knowledge transfer in 120+ languages.

Shivali Goyal, CEO and Co-Founder, Trupeer AI, said, “Raghu has spent decades helping organisations adopt and scale transformative technologies and brings deep experience in building enterprises globally. Having seen first-hand the challenges enterprises face in organisational knowledge and agentic AI enablement, Raghu immediately resonated with our vision and the momentum Trupeer has built globally. His expertise will help us strengthen our commercial capabilities, deepen partnerships, and unlock the next phase of growth at Trupeer.”

Raghu Subramanian, President and Chief Business Officer, Trupeer AI, said, “Enterprises have long struggled to get real value from AI, and the reason is fragmented context. The knowledge that makes AI useful sits trapped in people’s heads and scattered across tools. In the agentic AI era, where agents are only as good as the context they run on, that gap becomes the difference between AI that works and doesn’t. This is the gap Trupeer was built to close. I look forward to partnering with enterprises and organisations across the globe to build the context layer that makes enterprise knowledge structured, accessible, and actionable, and AI genuinely useful.”

About Trupeer

Trupeer AI is the workflow knowledge layer for enterprises that enables teams and AI agents. The company helps organizations capture critical operational knowledge that is often trapped in the minds of subject matter experts and scattered across tools, transforming it into structured, accessible, and queryable knowledge. Its platform captures enterprise workflows and turns unstructured, multimodal input into SOPs, guides, studio-quality videos, training assets into 120+ languages and continuously updated, AI-ready context that intelligent agents can leverage, making institutional knowledge accessible, actionable, and queryable. Backed by RTP Global and Salesforce Ventures, Trupeer supports more than 50,000 teams in over 100 countries, including Fortune 100 enterprises, Global Capability Centers and technology-enabled business services companies.

Further details: https://www.trupeer.ai/

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/trupeer-ai-appoints-former-uipath-apac-president–ceo-raghu-subramanian-to-accelerate-uk-enterprise-growth-302804635.html

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Resilience Actions, a Re Sustainability Initiative, Launches ECOHUB.IN to Power India’s Climate and Circular Economy Innovation Ecosystem

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HYDERABAD, India, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Resilience Actions, the social and environmental impact initiative of Re (Re Sustainability), has launched ECOHUB.IN, a sustainability-focused incubator designed to support early-stage enterprises working in climate and clean-tech, pollution management, resource efficiency, circular economy, and sustainability innovation.

The initiative is aimed at startups that have moved beyond the ideation stage and are ready for commercial scale, with a working Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a committed team, and a clearly defined market opportunity.

As India advances towards a low-carbon and circular economy, the demand for innovative sustainability solutions continues to grow. However, many promising ventures face challenges in scaling due to limited access to mentorship, catalytic capital, industry partnerships, pilot opportunities, and business validation. ECOHUB.IN has been established to bridge these gaps and help transform high-potential sustainability ventures into scalable businesses capable of delivering measurable environmental and social impact.

Through the incubator, participating startups will gain access to mentorship, technical and business advisory support, investment-readiness assistance, pilot-to-commercial pathways, ecosystem partnerships, and opportunities for industry integration. A key differentiator of ECOHUB.IN is its connection to Re’s extensive operational ecosystem, enabling selected ventures to engage with domain experts, validate solutions in real-world environments, and explore pathways for commercial deployment and scale.

Commenting on the launch, Masood Mallick, Managing Director and Group CEO, Re (Re Sustainability), said:

“India’s sustainability transition will not be driven by infrastructure alone. It will be driven by innovation, entrepreneurship, and the ability to scale ideas that solve real environmental challenges. Through ECOHUB.IN, we are creating a platform that brings together innovators, startups, industry leaders, investors, academia, and policymakers to accelerate solutions that are commercially viable, environmentally responsible, and capable of delivering measurable impact.

India has no shortage of ideas. What is often missing is the ecosystem that helps transform those ideas into scalable enterprises. ECOHUB.IN is designed to bridge that gap by providing mentorship, industry access, business validation, and pathways to commercial adoption. By combining the strengths of innovation with the experience and operational ecosystem of Re Sustainability, we hope to enable the next generation of climate and circular economy entrepreneurs to build solutions that contribute meaningfully to India’s sustainability journey and create lasting value for society, industry, and the planet.”

Over time, ECOHUB.IN aims to strengthen India’s sustainability innovation ecosystem by supporting ventures that reduce pollution, improve resource efficiency, advance circularity, create green jobs, enable decarbonization, and contribute to a more resilient future.

Applications for the inaugural cohort will open shortly through ECOHUB.IN.

About Resilience Actions

Resilience Actions is the social and environmental impact initiative of Re Sustainability, focused on building resilient communities through sustainability, innovation, capacity building, and ecosystem partnerships.

Learn more: resilience.org.in | ecohub.in 

About Re Sustainability

Re Sustainability (Re), a KKR company, is one of Asia’s leading providers of integrated environmental and sustainability solutions, delivering waste management, circular economy, water, remediation, and sustainability infrastructure solutions across India and international markets.

Learn more: resustainability.com

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SOURCE Re Sustainability Limited

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