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Air France planes at Charles de Gaulle Airport

‘Success begets success’: Airport CEO hopes new Paris route leads to more transatlantic flights

Insider Only Ottawa, Tourism

Air France plane

Ooh la la: Paris-YOW flights put Ottawa back on map for European travellers, investors

Insider Only Ottawa, Tourism

Alok Ahuja and Ben Mulroney

Star power: Ex-CTV host Ben Mulroney joins delivery platform Trexity’s advisory board

Insider Only Techopia

Area X.O Lexus NATO

Area X.O AV test track revs up robotics R&D with help from $5.4M in federal funding

Insider Only Techopia

CAPREIT apartment sale

CAPREIT sells stake in three Ottawa rental towers for $136M

Insider Only Real Estate, Residential

Clash of management styles could be to blame for Shopify CTO’s departure, tech analyst says

Insider Only Techopia

Apartment for rent sign

Ottawa’s rental housing vacancy rate drops in 2022 despite surge in construction: CMHC

Insider Only Real Estate, Residential

Long-term closure of Wellington Street ‘not viable,’ tourism officials argue

Insider Only Ottawa, Tourism

Rideau Canal in winter

Hotel business heating up despite dicey winter weather so far in 2023, local industry says

Insider Only Ottawa, Tourism

Slayte exterior InterRent

Developers urge City to cut red tape, clear path to more office-to-residential conversions

Insider Only Real Estate, Residential

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Feds’ workplace culture could take hit if office space woes aren’t fixed soon, HR experts say

Inside a data centre: How PureColo is using an old IBM building to serve the needs of the future

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Calian, ADGA Group band together to create new training tools for Canadian Army

Video

Ottawa’s AI scene is evolving. Early momentum was created by companies such as Solink, founded by Mike Matta, which applied computer vision to retail analytics, and Ranovus, led by Hany Mussad, which develops the optical hardware necessary for high-capacity AI data centres. Subsequent growth was driven by firms such as MindBridge, co-founded by Solon Angel and Eli Fathi, and BluWave-ai, led by Devashish Paul, which targeted specific industrial applications in financial auditing and energy grid management.

A new AI player is garnering international attention. Backboard.io is developing a memory-native API designed to manage long-term context in large language models. In January 2026, the company closed a pre-seed funding round led by Mistral Venture Partners, with participation from N49P, Garage Capital, and Developer Capital.

In this episode of Techopia Live, OBJ publisher Michael Curran speaks to Rob Imbeault, the founder and CEO of Backboard.io. Having already co-founded tech unicorn Assent, Imbeault is now in the CEO seat and predicting big things to come.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:56 Introducing Rob Imbeault
14:00 Sponsor Segment
22:27 Building a Better Working World
24:03 Techopia Sponsors
24:43 Closing and What’s Ahead at OBJ

For more on Ottawa’s tech and innovation scene, visit https://obj.ca/techopia.

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Techopia Live: Imbeault is back with Backboard.io | Episode 295

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OCOBIA eyes Ottawa BIA expansion as it gears up for election year

How shared goals at Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend strengthen workplace culture

Uniting for heart health: A community movement reignites this February

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