TOGETHER WITH
Welcome to this week’s Sunday Briefing. In this issue:
TEDxVictoria opens speaker applications
Local health tech startup raises funding
Chamber responds to provincial budget
Now on to today’s briefing.
-Emily, [email protected]
By the way, if you're not already subscribed, you can fix that here.
Originally published in the Vancouver Tech Journal
Toyo lands $4.3M to build secure, always-on AI agents
Toyo AI has raised a $4.3 million seed round to build what it calls an agent-native platform for business operations—one where AI agents execute real work rather than simply assist.
The round was led by Frontline Ventures, with participation from iNovia Capital, Tiny Supercomputer, and angels from Amazon, Microsoft, and Cloudflare.
Instead of adding another AI chatbot to a crowded SaaS stack, Toyo gives founders AI agents that operate inside a secure cloud environment. The agents can browse the web, connect to business tools, and carry out tasks such as researching prospects, drafting outreach, analyzing performance metrics, and proposing website updates.
Founders brief agents like team members, review outputs, and approve key actions. Agents send text messages when decisions are required, reducing dashboard fatigue and notification overload.
The company argues that while technical founders are already experimenting with custom agent workflows, those approaches require developer skills and expose sensitive data. Toyo aims to provide similar capabilities to non-technical operators running companies with fewer than 100 employees.
Security is central to the model. Built on Cloudflare infrastructure, each agent operates in an isolated environment. According to the company, data remains within the founder’s environment rather than being pooled centrally.
📰 More Victoria innovation news
🎤 Express yourself: TEDxVictoria opened speaker applications for its October 7, 2026 event at UVic's Farquhar Auditorium, inviting founders, researchers, artists, and community leaders to share bold ideas from Vancouver Island on a global platform, with submissions due March 15.
📍 Safe and sound: Victoria's MeepMeep raised pre-seed funding led by LOI Venture and UCeed to scale its healthcare safety tracking technology across Canada's long-term care sector, targeting approximately 800 private facilities with 64,000 residents.
💰 Money matters: The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce expressed concern about B.C.'s Budget 2026 and its record $13.3-billion deficit at a breakfast with Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, with CEO John Wilson citing new taxes on professional services during a time when businesses need support.
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🕴️ Tech jobs of the week
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Programmer at Terra Remote Sensing
Senior business systems analyst at BC Pension Corporation
AI technical product manager at BCI
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🗓️ Upcoming events
March 10-11 | Rising Economy Conference
At Rising Economy 2026, step into two days of bold thinking, sharp insights and possibility-focused conversations at a conference designed to move your organization — and our region — forward. Hear from compelling business thinkers and entrepreneurs, economic and trend experts, innovators and change-makers. Explore shifts that are redefining strategy, talent, technology, leadership and growth. Leave equipped with ideas you can act on Monday, not someday.
April 1 | VIATEC Awards
The VIATEC Awards bring the tech community together to connect, to celebrate, and to shine a spotlight on this year's most notable tech companies and individuals within Greater Victoria's $5.9 billion tech sector. This isn't your average award show – The VIATEC Awards are well known for its elaborate and fun production!.
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