GDPR: Main Things To Know

GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation has been with us since 2018 and it is a set of rules and regulations that should protect the online use of all users much better. It applies to all European businesses or better said it covers and protects all people living on this continent. In general, it affects all businesses that will hold any form of data of EU residents. 

One example of this rule is that you cannot just tick a box and agree with all the requirements that the business requests from you. You will have to read the specific files and you will have to know more before giving your approval. 

General Data Protection Regulation is there for your safety and it should help how the businesses manage your data and prevent any misuse of the data. It doesn’t have any negative sides and there are no issues you have to worry about. 

GDPR and Online Gambling

General Data Protection Regulation has a huge role in online gambling. There are a few things you should know here. For instance, online casinos will have to offer clear forms of all kinds so you can get as much information as needed in less time. Online casinos will also have to use plain language and all the main aspects have to share all the requirements they need.

Users also have the ability to request all of their personal data from an online casino at any given moment. The online casino must provide them free of charge and at any given moment. A user also has the ability to request details about when and why the data is used. Last but not least a user has the ability to request from the casino to remove the user data. It can be done at any moment and the casino must do it without any fees or anything similar. It’s worth noting that even on betting sites not on GamStop, a UK self-exclusion program, GDPR compliance is crucial.

The goal here is simple. Users have more control over their data used online and they can control it right now. A while back they didn’t have this option and they had to accept all the rules and requirements online casinos and other businesses requested. This was an issue for some users and it is still considered a big issue.

How does GDPR Affect You?

In the lack of a better word, GDPR will not affect you, a gambler in many ways. First of all, for you, it is still the same. You will have to create an account, provide the same details and you will have to fund your account. Then you can gamble and win. In reality, this set of rules makes things a bit easier. Now you don’t have to share your data if you don’t want it and you can ask the casino to remove it when needed. Casinos on the web will also make the process easier and more appealing so you can complete it in less time and understand it better. 

As you already know in the United Kingdom KYC is still needed and can be considered mandatory at most online casinos. Know Your Customer is responsible for sharing a lot of data between the users and online casinos. You can see that a person will have to share his name, email address, house number, date of birth, postcode, and other details. KYC does require a lot of data to share and it has a huge impact. Keep in mind that the KYC is there for your safety. It is used to prevent cybercrime or fraud and to help you get the safety online you deserve. It is also something that has been more and more common and must be done before you start the withdrawal process. Some casinos will require from you as soon as you complete the registration while others before you withdraw your funds for the first time. 

The Final Word 

General Data Protection Regulation is a nice addition that is there for your safety. It doesn’t have any negative sides and it is a small addition to all of us with a huge effect. You get more freedom with your data and you get more perks. On the other hand, you have the same capabilities and you have to do the same things. It is a worthy and appealing addiction that is more than just effective and moist users agree with the claim. 

The post Relation Between GDPR and iGaming Business appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Eigen innovations: Driving efficiency

Scott Everett became interested in cars as a boy working on the family farm. His parents sold the farm, but his love of cars eventually led him to mechanical engineering and now to work in the automotive industry.

His Fredericton-based company, Eigen Innovations, uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to help automotive parts manufacturers be more efficient. “We want to accelerate the number of parts produced per hour,” says Everett. To do this, Eigen is analyzing data that many factories already collect, in addition to data from its own sensors, such as video images, to help increase production.

No matter how efficient production becomes, things like introducing a new material can be expensive. Everett’s technician assesses the impact – “It can automatically detect when something changes,” he says – and tells plant personnel “how to run their machines better.”

Hopper: Pay less, travel more

When is the right time to book? Airline and accommodation prices fluctuate, and early adopters don’t always get the best deal, so “buying tickets and hotel rooms is a huge thrill,” says Frederic Lalonde, founder and CEO of Hopper, a solution provider.

Having already founded an online hotel booking company (sold to Expedia in 2002), Lalonde realized that budget-conscious travelers would appreciate knowing when to pull the trigger. It took six years and $12 million, but since 2014, Hopper has been using artificial intelligence to analyze online price data and predict the best time to book.

Lalonde admits that his business model is different: “We only make money when people buy from us, but three-quarters of our resources are dedicated to telling people not to book.” Despite this, he says, more than 100 million trips have been organized through Montreal-based Hopper, making it the most used travel app in North America.

FI.SPAN: the best business banking

Lisa Shields launched FI.SPAN in Vancouver with one goal in mind: “We don’t want business banking to be bad,” she says. That can be a daunting task, but she’s making progress.

Shields, a longtime fintech entrepreneur, founded the company in 2016 to address the many frustrations small business owners have with vendor-related transactions. Typically, when a company needs to pay a supplier, it sends a file with payment instructions to its bank. The bank has to act on those instructions, report whether the money was successfully transferred, and then someone has to enter the information into the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. “It’s really old school,” says Shields.

To make life easier for both the bank and the business, she creates application program interfaces (APIs) that allow financial institutions to connect directly to a company’s ERP system, quickly sending and receiving the data they need to complete transactions. Businesses know almost instantly if a payment has been processed.

The post Innovative Canadian companies creating global impact appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Toronto, the second largest tech cluster in North America, has become a prime location for business expansion. Here are 7 reasons why company registration in Canada is recommended for successful business founders.

1. International connections
   A company domicile in Toronto places your business in the heart of North America’s economic and financial centers, in close proximity to New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Working in Toronto gives you the ability to communicate and travel to many major cities and regions quickly and easily.

Not only is Toronto physically close to major cities, but international trade agreements (ex: North American Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union) open doors to over a billion consumers in North America, South America and the European Union.

Toronto and Canada are globally recognized destinations for business people.

2. technological innovation
   Canada has a long history of technological innovation. The MaRS Discovery District was recently named the world’s leading gas pedal and has provided skills training and a network of 1’000 high-growth potential startups that collectively generated over $1.3 billion in revenue between 2008 and 2015. It is one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs and home to entrepreneurs creating the next generation of growing Canadian companies.

Toronto is also home to one of the leading technology industries on the continent with a thriving startup community and over 14’000 established businesses, including tech giants such as Microsoft, IBM Cisco, Google and Facebook.

3. Ease of doing business in Canada
The World Bank Group ranks Canada as the second best country in the G20 for starting a business and sixth best in the world. Canada also ranks high on ease of getting credit and protecting the rights of minority investors. KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives report indicates that Canada has the second highest cost of doing business among the countries studied, behind only Mexico. The cost of starting a business is reported to be 75% of the cost to do so in the United States.

4. State support for entrepreneurship
   Tax incentives. Foreigners who set up a company in Canada are still eligible to apply for tax credits that can be spent on employees engaged in R&D, material purchases and contract overhead. Specific examples include the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit program and a separate industrial tax credit program.

Government subsidies: The Canadian government is working hard to create and support successful startups. Forbes reported that the Canadian government provides a return of up to 65% of companies’ investments in the innovation sector, giving it a distinct advantage over other regions.

5. Abundance of talent
   Canadian education is free and well-funded by the government. Canada consistently ranks as a leader in a wide range of education-related indicators, including:

• the percentage of the labor force with a post-secondary education,
• skills recognized by the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Index,
• the educational attainment of Canadian schoolchildren.

Toronto is a favorite place for talent immigration from around the world, making it the best city to do business. Every year, thousands of talented people from around the world choose this city as their new home. Toronto’s deep, diverse and globally connected talent pool of skilled and highly educated individuals is the driving force behind its economic prosperity and constant drive for innovation.

6. Toronto-Waterloo Corridor
   The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is the equivalent of Silicon Valley, with approximately 15’000 companies and 200’000 employees. It is among the top 20 technology clusters in the world and is the second largest in North America. This is primarily because it connects Canada’s largest city, Toronto, to its leading center of innovation and research, Waterloo.
7. Canada’s growing startup ecosystem
   Canada’s tech ecosystem continues to grow and shows no signs of stopping despite COVID-19.

Ontario’s three leading innovation centers are working together to drive a new wave in Canada’s tech ecosystem, with the goal of bringing to the surface a new generation of companies with over $100 million in capital each.

The post 7 reasons in favor of registering a company in Canada appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Whether you’re looking for funding or expert advice, Innovation Canada offers programs and services to help your business innovate, create jobs and grow the economy.

• The Business Benefits Finder is a tool you can use to get a customized list of everything the government can do for your business.
• Innovation consultants provide free one-on-one assistance to help you choose the most appropriate innovation programs and services. If you are registered and creating a new innovative product, process or service, an advisor can help you find funding, expertise, equipment and global opportunities.
• The Strategic Innovation Fund invests in innovative businesses, helping you to expand, research, develop and commercialize cutting-edge ideas and collaborate in new ways.
• Innovative Solutions Canada allows the Government of Canada to partner with eligible small businesses and innovators to help with the early development, testing and validation of prototypes that solve problems.
• The Clean Growth Hub provides companies pursuing clean tech projects with a personalized guide to answer questions, discuss options, or introduce themselves.
• The Accelerated Growth Service provides high-growth companies with a single point of contact for all government programs and services.

The post Innovations of Canada appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Shopify brand history

Shopify was founded in 2006 in Ottawa by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinland and Scott Lake, who wanted to sell snowboarding equipment online but couldn’t find a suitable off-the-shelf solution. Lutke then personally developed an online store on the Ruby on Rails framework’s Liquid optensource template and launched it under the name Shopify in June 2006.

In June 2009, the company launched its own Shopify App Store, and allowed the platform to integrate with external resources via APIs. In April 2010, it released a mobile app for the Apple App Store, allowing merchants to manage their stores through iOS devices. That same year, the Ottawa Business Journal recognized it as Ottawa’s fastest growing company. Shopify received $7 million in venture capital investment in December 2010 and another $15 million in October 2011.

In 2014, the platform had nearly 100,000 registered sellers and revenue reached $105 million – double the year before. In February of that year, it introduced Shopify Plus, a platform for large businesses with additional features and expanded support. In April 2015, the company held an IPO, and its shares appeared on the New York (SHOP) and and Toronto (SH) stock exchanges’ listings. This procedure increased its value by $131 million.

In September 2015, Amazon shut down its Amazon Webstore service and recommended Shopify as a recommended alternative, amid which the Shopify brand’s share price rose 20%. Then it also allowed users to sell products through social media, opening a Facebook store integrated with the platform. In April 2016, the company announced Shopify Capital, a service that provides sellers in the US with a line of credit of up to $2 million.

In January 2017, Shopify announced an upcoming integration with Amazon that gave its users access to sell items on Amazon through their online stores on Shopify. In October 2018, the company opened its first customer location in Los Angeles, and in January 2019, it launched Shopify Studios, its own TV and movie studio. In March of that year, Shopify completed an integration with email marketing service MailChimp, and in April it announced an integration with Snapchat that allowed merchants to manage ads on that service directly through the Shopify platform.

In June 2019, the company launched its own shipping division, and in August it introduced Shopify Chat, a built-in online chat service for stores on the platform. In March 2020, Shopify announced a full business shift to remote working – due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 5,000 of its employees went “remote”. In November 2020, the platform began partnering with Chinese payment system Alipay, allowing it to increase the number of international purchases and transactions.

The post Shopify – what is it? appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

History

Clearpath Robotics was founded in 2009 due to the growing demand for environmental monitoring equipment and robotic research equipment. Unlike other robotics startups, they raised only a small amount of angel investment at inception and sought to achieve profitability before raising more.

In 2012, a company was formed to ensure the continuity of work done with ROS, Clearpath CTO Ryan Gariepy joined the founding board. Shortly thereafter, the original creator of ROS, Willow Garage, announced a reduction in official support. Due to concerns raised by the academic community about the future of robotics research, Clearpath issued a statement confirming that it would continue to do all it could to support ROS.

Following the complete closure of Willow Garage in early 2014 , Clearpath took over full maintenance and support of the PR2 robot until at least 2016.

In August 2014, Clearpath became the first robotics company in the world to commit to not producing “killer robots” (Lethal Autonomous Weapons ), and continues to support initiatives to ensure ethical development of AI and autonomous systems.

By March 2015, Clearpath announced a $14 million Series A investment led by RRE Ventures to fund the development of products capable of automating hazardous work in industrial and manufacturing facilities. Shortly thereafter, they announced the first of their line of OTTO vehicles with General Electric as their first customer and strategic investor, and announced that Tesla, Inc. co-founder Mark Tarpenning had joined their advisory board. At the same time, he continued to develop and sell systems designed to fulfill his original mandate of helping researchers work more efficiently.

In October 2016, a Series B funding round was announced, led by, which also added Caterpillar Inc. as another strategic investor.

The post Clearpath Robotics appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Thermostats are controlled via an integrated touch screen, web portal or app available for iOS , Android and Apple Watch. Other devices are controlled exclusively via the app or web portal.

The thermostat or camera acts as a hub for your other devices. Light switches do not require a thermostat or camera, but do not provide hub functionality.

In addition, ecobee provides a suite of subscription services to complement its product line.

Ecobee was founded in 2007 It has been recognized with a number of awards, including the Deloitte Technology Green 15 award for Canadian cleantech companies and the 2011 AHR Expo Innovation Award in the category . building automation .

In March 2018, ecobee raised a CAD 80 million Series C financing.

Products

Smart thermostats
ecobee created the world’s first smart thermostat, the ecobee Smart, in 2008. Since then, they have gradually updated their thermostat line over the years, until the latest release of the flagship ecobee Smart thermostat in June 2019. They also continue to sell the ecobee3 lite as a less electronic Expensive smart thermostat without Alexa support that doesn’t come with any remote sensors, but still includes support for them.

The thermostats includes a touchscreen and works with 32 remote temperature/presence sensors that can adjust the temperature based on where you are. The ecobee4 and ecobee smart thermostat also includes support for Amazon Alexa .

Room Sensors
All ecobee thermostats since ecobee3 (except ecobee3 lite) have included one temperature/room sensor in the box.

Sensors can connect to the ecobee thermostat to provide temperature and occupancy information, or to an ecobee camera to provide occupancy information to a home monitoring service.

eco +
ecobee began rolling out eco + in 2019 to personalize individual thermostats in the home.

This includes the ability to connect your utility company to your thermostat. Using this information, it can heat/cool the home based on current and upcoming usage rate changes or allow the home to participate in demand response events.

Smart Light Switch
Ecobee Switch + is a smart light switch announced in May 2017 and released on March 26, 2018.Switch + features a microphone with Amazon Alexa built-in, as well as presence and daylight sensors.

SmartCamera
Ecobee SmartCamera is a smart camera released on April 15, 2020. It provides 1080p video, 180-degree field of view, auto pan and tilt, Amazon Alexa support, two-way communication, and night vision.

The post Canadian startup Ecobee appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

AI can do a lot of interesting things, but the problem often arises in their practical application. It’s great that an algorithm can unmistakably identify a deer in a photo, but how do you make money from that? Businesses have quite a few case studies, but they all have a number of peculiarities that make theoretical solutions applied in practice not look so great anymore.

Element AI is in the business of packaging all current machine learning advances into products that businesses can use. And it’s already working in a number of areas.

History

Element AI was founded in Jovtni 2016 by Jean-François Gagné and co-founders Yoshua Bengio , Yenne Martel, Nicolas Chapados, and Philippe Beaudoin together with Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer of Montreal-based venture capital fund Real Ventures. At the beginning of 2017, the company acquired the entire team of the machine learning database with open source code. It then secured 102 million US dollars from US investors in a Series A round led by San Francisco venture capital fund Data Collective and Microsoft Ventures.

In March 2018, the Canadian government granted a loan of up to 5 million Canadian dollars to Element AI to create 900 new jobs. Later, they held a conference about the impact of piecewise intelligence, at which Justin Trudeau and Munir Majubi convened a global group to study the impact of piecewise intelligence. In chestnut 2018, Element AI also partnered with Amnesty International and published a study that measured online harassment of women in politics and journalism on Twitter.

Element AI has partnered with GIC, Singapore University of Management, Port of Montreal, LG Electronics, among others. At the Port of Montreal, Element AI worked on calculating how long it takes for freight carriers to wait to drop off or pick up goods at the port.

Underwriting Partner’s first standalone product, software for the insurance workflow using piece intellect, was released in early 2019. In chestni 2019, they released Knowledge Scout, a platform for managing datasets in manufacturing companies.

On October 30, 2020, ServiceNow, a California-based IT services company, announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Element AI. The company ran out of money and options and was sold for 230 million US dollars, dismissing the majority of employees who had expired stock options.

The post Element AI: artificial intelligence for business appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

Despite being significantly smaller than the other cities on this list, Waterloo is considered one of the best startup ecosystems in the country. The city has the densest startup population outside of Silicon Valley and more than 1,000 startups with a population of 100,000. Waterloo’s talent pool is not to be scoffed at. According to independent estimates, there are about 280,000 college-educated tech professionals in the city, which is certainly worth noting, compared to the 380,000 residents of all of Silicon Valley.

Unlike larger cities, which often have a tougher business environment, Waterloo prides itself on being the optimal location for the growth and development of tech startups. While local projects tend to support each other independently, the government also continues to support startups in the area. The city’s Communitech Innovation Center was formed jointly by government, corporations and individual companies and offers startups significant financial and expert resources and assistance.

Edmonton

Last, but not least, is Edmonton, Canada. This is another great city that leads the country in a number of industries such as biotechnology, oil and gas, digital technology and mass communications.

Startup incubators like Startup Edmonton and TEC Edmonton help promote the city’s entrepreneurial community and create a culture of innovation that permeates everything here.

Like the other cities on this list, Edmonton also has a strong and intelligent talent pool thanks to a long list of strong schools.

While it may seem that a successful startup should only be launched in Silicon Valley or New York City with little effort. To an international entrepreneur, it is easy to realize that you don’t necessarily have to start your dream business in the US. Every startup and entrepreneur has different opportunities, needs and priorities. But, if you are looking for the best city for your startup, the above list is a great place to start that search.

Across Canada, there are many great services, non-profit organizations, startup incubators, startup events and resources to help new companies grow. New opportunities like revenue-based funding are becoming available all the time, making the country an even better place to do business.

The post Waterloo and Edmonton appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.

While Vancouver is undoubtedly a picturesque and livable city as it is located on the west coast with all the beauty of the Pacific Coast and surrounding mountains, there is also strong evidence that Vancouver is a great place to incorporate startups.

Although it is much smaller than Toronto, it also boasts a large number of talented and creative engineers, as well as the support of the Canadian government.

It is also interesting to note that since Vancouver is located on the west coast, it is in the same time zone as other major cities and venture ecosystems such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, and of course San Francisco. Vancouver’s geographic location makes it the best Canadian city to connect with other West Coast American tech centers.

Like Toronto, Vancouver too boasts several big startups that are part of the unicorn club. While Toronto claims two of these five companies, Vancouver claims the other three: Hootsuite, Slack and Avigilon.

The post Vancouver appeared first on Monton In-Novateed.