Real estate software company VTS bought Toronto-based Lane for US-$200 million.

What’s Lane?  Founded in 2014, Lane makes an all-in-one app for office workers. The app lets employees enter office buildings and spaces without a key fob, access office amenities, and find restaurants or shops near their office.  

What happened: VTS, which operates a similar platform of its own, bought Lane to capitalize on the return to offices. Most importantly, VTS and Lane will help companies keep track of how many employees are using their office spaces to adhere to public health restrictions. 

Why it matters: The deal, which creates the world’s biggest app for workers, is a big deal in Canada’s tech scene. 

Toronto-based toy company Spin Master started a $100 million venture fund.

What’s Spin Master? You probably haven’t heard of the company, but you may be familiar with their toys.

What happened: Spin Master wants to use the $100 million to invest in entertainment and toy companies. Their first investment through the fund was Hoot Reading, a Winnipeg-based online tutoring service for kids.

Big picture: Corporate venture capital, where companies launch their own venture capital arms, is popular in the U.S. Corporate venture funds drove around 28% of American VC deals in 2018 compared to just 14% in Canada, but that could be changing with companies like Spin Master and Shopify adopting the model. 

We can all agree that our brain is pretty important. But most of us don’t really know that much about how it actually works. And when it comes to achieving our goals and making healthy choices, that can sometimes be a problem.

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The investment firm behind the world's biggest bitcoin fund wants to convert it into an exchange traded fund (ETF).

Back up: The U.S.’ first bitcoin futures ETF began trading yesterday, encouraging other cryptocurrency firms to draw up plans for their own ETFs.

But Grayscale’s ETF may come with additional hurdles. ProShares' ETF is futures-based meaning that traders aren't directly investing in the cryptocurrency. The futures market is also federally regulated in the U.S., which made the SEC more comfortable with the product. 

Bottom line: While bitcoin ETFs are around in Canada, American regulators have been resisting them for years over concerns about the cryptocurrency market’s volatility. Upcoming bitcoin ETF launches will test just how much regulators are willing to tolerate.

Investment firms KKR and Dundee Partners bought the rights to 62,000+ music recordings from Kobalt Capital.

What happened: Kobalt Capital owns the publishing rights to some 62,000 songs by artists like the Weeknd, Ariana Grande, and Travis Scott. KKR and Dundee partners bought the catalogue for US-$1.1 billion.

Why it matters: Streaming now makes up 62% of music sales. The growth of streaming services has made music catalogues, which can be licensed and monetized, all the more valuable to investors. 

Zoom out: Sensing their long term value, investors have raised US-$2.2 billion to purchase music catalogues in just the first half of 2021.

Facebook launched its much-awaited digital wallet yesterday.

Catch up: In 2019, Facebook announced Libra would launch digital versions of some countries’s currencies. But following intense pushback from regulators, Facebook rebranded Libra to Diem, and scaled back its cryptocurrency ambitions to focus on a digital wallet instead. 

What happened: Facebook launched its digital wallet, Novi, as part of a pilot test in the U.S. and Guatemala. For now, users can use the wallet to trade the Paxos Dollar, a stablecoin that’s pegged to the US dollar.

Why it matters: Regulators aren’t the huge fans of Big Tech or cryptocurrency, so you can probably guess why Facebook has had a tough time getting its cryptocurrency ambitions off the ground. 

This almost one-acre estate located in the Southlands neighbourhood of Vancouver is perfect for the equestrians and country-lovers among us. Not only does it have a five-stall stable and paddocks, it also features:

Find out what the price tag is on this understated country farmhouse.

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