Tech Roundup
June 16, 2026
Assets such as the University of Alberta and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute have helped Edmonton compete on the deep-tech stage, but unique supports are required to commercialize the breakthrough research emerging from such institutions, Sangeet Brar said after Edmonton Unlimited hosted its first Deep Tech Showcase on June 9. "If Edmonton wants to build a real advantage, we must understand those distinctions and connect founders to the right expertise, partners, and patient capital for the type of company they're actually building," posted Brar, who is the COO of Edmonton's innovation agency.
Deep tech startups operate in areas such as AI, health, energy, space, advanced manufacturing, and quantum computing. The showcase brought investors, founders, researchers, and ecosystem leaders together for a morning focused on what it takes to commercialize and scale science- and engineering-based ventures in Edmonton. "Unlike many software startups that can move quickly from idea to market, deep tech ventures often face longer development timelines, complex technical challenges, and significant capital requirements," said an Edmonton Unlimited piece based on a fireside chat with Wyvern co-founders Christopher Robson and Callie Lissinna, moderated by Arden Tse of Yaletown Partners. It's a challenge to stay focused when progress advances over years rather than months, the founders said.
For Edmonton Unlimited, the showcase was a signal indicating how local support may need to evolve. Brar told BetaKit that deep-tech founders are essential to the city but have not always had the right programs or expert support around them. The organization plans to use what it learned from the event to shape future programming, including a deeper focus during Edmonton Startup Week in October. Meanwhile, the showcase generated one-on-one meetings between 20 deep-tech companies and investors, several of which have reportedly led to follow-up conversations.
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Headlines
- CANDLE Lithium is taking its direct lithium extraction technology global after completing a successful pilot with a natural gas producer through Edmonton Unlimited's Venture Pilots: Built World Tech program. The company's process pulls lithium from oil and gas brines without evaporation, returns water to the energy company, and can begin extracting within 30 minutes. Founder and CEO Salman Safari said pilots with major oil and gas companies in Canada and abroad are approaching commercial demonstration scale.
- Aqua-Cell Energy, InstallPROOF, Ultracoustics Technologies, and Zylotex have been selected for Venture Pilots: Build World Tech projects by Edmonton Unlimited. Zylotex, which has made strides towards commercializing hemp fibre, is partnered with Austrian fibre innovator Lenzing.
- Cipher AI, jointly based out of Edmonton and Regina, is using AI to track and categorize foreign disinformation amplifying Alberta's separatist movement. The startup, co-founded by Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute fellow Matthew Taylor, said it has found that a majority of Alberta-related disinformation is coming out of the United States.
- Artificial Agency, which develops generative behaviour engines for gaming, named gaming industry veteran Greg Canessa as its chief operating officer, bringing more than 25 years of experience from Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Xbox, and Google. Canessa will focus on scaling commercial adoption of the behaviour engine with studios of all sizes after the technology was previously available only to select partners. CEO Brian Tanner said the hire marks the start of the company's next chapter, moving beyond the pilot phase.
- Edmonton Regional Innovation Network manager Janice Baskin highlighted four Edmonton startups seeking early users and pilot participants: EFN Pro, which manages proposals, contracts, and projects; Aerglo, a developer platform fully hosted in Canada; Oops Social, a dating app; and Kinetic Data Minds, a digital safety platform for construction companies.
- Sam Jenkins, CEO of Punchcard Systems, received the Impact Award from JA Northern Alberta at the 2026 Business Hall of Fame gala. "Most of you don't know who I am yet, but I think that's exactly why I'm standing here tonight," Jenkins said in his acceptance speech. "Because this award isn't about what has been built — it's about what's being built. And I can speak to that in a way that even these remarkable inductees, with all their wisdom, genuinely can't."
- Zero Point Cryogenics CEO Christopher Cassin attended the Critical Minerals for Defence Conference, exploring how defence demand is creating new opportunities in the critical minerals sector and redefining Canada's role in allied defence supply chains.
- Antigoni Studios has announced Femtech Connect 2026, a national summit to be hosted on Sept. 21 as part of Life Sciences Week in Edmonton. The event aims to bring together founders, funders, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers from across Canada's women's health innovation ecosystem.
- Technology Alberta is inviting tech companies and innovation organizations to exhibit in the Innovation Zone at KDays from July 21 to 23. Applications close July 3.
- Speakers at Edmonton's Upper Bound conference drew on the energy sector's experience to argue that AI data centre developers are repeating the oilpatch's mistakes on community engagement and social licence, Digital Journal reported. The first oil boom "triggered an immediate gold rush, a flood of entrepreneurs, wildcats, and capital that just came rushing in to chase a stake in something where nobody fully understood the implications," said Marla Orenstein of Energy Futures Lab. "It generated extraordinary wealth, but concentrated it, at least initially, in the hands of a few early movers and infrastructure owners."
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Jobs and opportunities
- The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute is hiring machine learning residents to work with Altalis and with Zamplo.
- AltaML is hiring a DevOps engineer.
- Punchcard Systems is hiring a product manager.
- The Alberta government is hiring a service designer in the ministry of technology and innovation.
Happenings
Here are some events coming up over the next seven days:
- June 17: AI & Healthcare starting at 5pm at Irrational Brewing
- June 17-18: Fortinet Tech Session Roadshow at Cineplex Odeon Windermere and VIP Cinemas
- June 18: Percolating Perspectives with Dr. Murtaza Haider starting at 9:30am at University of Alberta (Peter Lougheed Hall)
- June 18: MNP Workshop Series: Fundamentals of Financial Position for Startup Founders starting at 12pm at Edmonton Unlimited
- June 18: Archimixer starting at 4pm at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park
- June 18: Beat Box to Beat Bots: Tech in Music starting at 4:30pm at Fu's Repair Shop
- June 18-19: North American Games Industry Summit at Edmonton EXPO Centre
- June 19-21: Game Con Canada at Edmonton EXPO Centre
And here are some upcoming events to keep in mind:
- June 24: Community Coffee at Edmonton Unlimited
- June 24: Tech For Good Alliance Working Group at Arcadia Brewing Co.
- June 26: BTF Summit 2.0: Leveraging AI to Accelerate Inclusive Innovation at Citadel Theatre
Visit the Taproot Edmonton Calendar for many more events in the Edmonton region.
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.