Defence Security and Resilience Bank

Kevin Reed, co-founder and chief operating officer of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, speaks to Sueling Ching, president and CEO of the Ottawa Board of Trade, at the Ottawa Economic Outlook event on Jan. 21, 2026. Photo by Mark Holleron.

Defence execs tout Ottawa as the place to be as city pursues bid for DSRB headquarters

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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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