Waterloo Tech Highlights for October 2025
Our goal is to provide you with a monthly primer on significant news events from private Waterloo-based technology companies in 5 minutes or less.
ProNavigator has agreed to be acquired by Guidewire. Terms were not disclosed.
Planitar, the maker of iGUIDE has sold a controlling interest to REA Group. Terms were not disclosed.
Intellijoint fulfilled their second order in India and signed an OEM deal to create a shoulder navigation product with a new strategic customer.
Smile is now a Shopify Plus partner.
Miovision was ranked 7th in the Deloitte Fast 50 in the Enterprise category. Auvik was ranked #11.
RideCo won a deal with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (Las Vegas) to run its 450 vehicle fleet of paratransit services
Chris’ Thoughts
As Summer Fades into Twilight
My best day this summer got spent with my 79-year-old dad. We have a family cottage with a good amount of property and trails that run throughout. It feels like every tree that falls in the forest lands on one of our trails, so it requires tree-clearing maintenance as well as re-routing through sections that become difficult to navigate on our ATVs. In addition, an ever-growing collection of discarded traffic signs spruces up our trail, adding unexpected surprises for visitors, so there’s always debates about where to place the newest signs for the most impact/humour.
On a hot August day, a couple hours of trail work turned into about eight. We ended up with enough firewood to heat a house for a couple years, better trails and some new funny signs along the way. I came back smelling like a perfect blend of sweat, wood chips and chainsaw exhaust. The amazing part was my 79-year-old dad never slowed down nor took a break and kept up with me the entire time. He’s not allowed to use the chainsaw anymore because of his age, although truthfully, I never felt safe with him using it when he was 40.
While the miracles we witness happen in a blink of an eye, some of them take a long time to play out. My dad was never an athlete but always active. He still works close to half time hours, keeping his mind sharp. Through persistence and discipline, he walks farther, bikes more and helps more people with his accounting skills than anybody else his age by a huge margin.
I have another friend Tom who’s the same age as my dad. I’ve spent a bunch of time over the last few years XC skiing with him. Tom has been a life-long gifted athlete, accustomed to performing at near-elite levels in many sports. Five years ago, I couldn’t keep up. Tom never did anything at less than full speed. But years of pushing the envelope with no weights, no walking and little base training, has had predictable results. Last year an innocent fall tore something in his ribs and now he’s basically doing nothing since he can’t ski or bike at the level of performance he’s accustomed. He feels useless and won’t go at half speed since he can’t go at full speed, effectively aging him by 15 years.
My favourite day of the summer was realizing the richness of the miracle of living well and taking consistent care of yourself and the joys that come from delayed gratification. In a world filled with fast fixes where Ozempic and 0DTE displaces Weight Watchers and Day Trading, I appreciate some tension that pulls me the other way by spending time with my thriving dad at an age that most struggle to walk or suffer cognitive decline. Of course there’s luck and genetics at play here as well. But just as Zone 2 training’s popularity refreshes training regimens for athletes’ endurance and longevity, making walking cool again, it shows that some of our elders had the right idea all along - slow and steady really does win the race.
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Chris Wormald @cwormald