Lightspeed Commerce said its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results were driven by a shift toward larger, more established customers. It tightened deal terms and cut discounting to favour profitability over location volume. North American retail and European hospitality now make up 77% of revenue, growing 17% year-over-year. Software revenue growth in those core markets accelerated to 14%, and new locations joined with 27% more software revenue than a year ago. The company cut about 250 roles after quarter end. AI now resolves 80% of support tickets. Lightspeed said its fiscal 2028 free cash flow target of $95 million remains on track. It expects hardware margins to improve significantly in the second half of the fiscal year.

Lightspeed meets revenue expectations, but stock drops on Q2 earnings. Montréal retail tech company's shares are down nearly 15 percent YTD. Montréal retail technology firm Lightspeed Commerce met its earnings outlook for fiscal Q2, but investors were still unimpressed. The news: The point-of-sale and commerce tech company published its second-quarter financial results this morning, which showed that the company generated nearly $324 million USD ($454 CAD) in revenue. It posted a net loss of $4.2 million USD ($0.03 per share) in Q2 - a far cry from the $32.7 million USD ($0.24 per share) it lost during the same period last year - while recording adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $22.7 million USD during the three-month period ending Sept. 30. While Lightspeed's Q2 sales represent year-over-year growth of just two percent, this figure and other comparisons to the same period last year were impacted by its April 2026 divestiture of Upserve's US hospitality line to Skyview Equity for up to $81 million USD (a steep discount compared to the price it paid to purchase it back in 2020). Lightspeed's stock ($LSPD) dropped nearly 15 percent on the day on the Toronto Stock Exchange. From the source: Given that Upserve exit, Lightspeed pointed to the 15 percent year-over-year organic revenue growth it posted in fiscal Q2 as a more representative measure of the company's health. Meanwhile, sales in Lightspeed's two priority markets, retail in North America and hospitality in Europe, were up 17 percent. Lightspeed CFO Asha Bakshani said the firm remains focused on scaling in both and "translating that growth into sustained profitability and cash generation." The context: Lightspeed's stock price soared in 2021 during the early days of the pandemic, plummeted following a short-seller report, and has since struggled to regain its previous heights. Its transformation plan has the company refocusing on particular regions and verticals, divesting from non-core areas (it remains open to more such deals), and shedding staff. Last month, Lightspeed laid off employees and closed vacant positions, impacting 250 total roles; this restructuring followed other cuts earlier this year. Final thought: Investors have not reacted favourably to the company's latest earnings: as of publication time, Lightspeed's stock had dropped to $13.77 CAD per share on the Toronto Stock Exchange, erasing all of its gains so far this year. That performance may be in part due to the broader rout in tech stocks; the Nasdaq is down more than 11 percent so far this month. Feature image courtesy Lightspeed Commerce.

Solink's $100M bet: AI vision intelligence. Solink sees AI Vision Intelligence as a potential trillion-dollar software category as it expands beyond security into operational performance, revenue growth and customer experience. November 3, 2026 Solink was founded on a relatively straightforward premise: Business owners shouldn't have to be physically present to understand what's happening in their locations. To make that happen, the Ottawa-based technology company has raised more than $100 million in new funding to accelerate the development of its AI Vision Intelligence platform, which turns existing security cameras into real-time sources of operational intelligence for restaurants, retailers and other physical businesses. The investment was led by Vertu Capital, with material participation from existing investor Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives and participation from new investors Golub Growth and Comcast Ventures. For Solink Co-Founder and CEO Mike Matta, the funding represents an opportunity to expand what he believes could become a trillion-dollar software category: bringing the intelligence and analytical capabilities of AI into the physical world. "We're entering a watershed moment for how physical businesses operate," Matta said in the company's funding announcement. "AI Vision Intelligence brings the richness and immediacy of digital data into the physical world." The company is already seeing significant growth. Solink has nearly increased revenue 10 times since 2020, doubled its customer locations since 2023 and is tracking toward $100 million in annual recurring revenue this fiscal year. Today, its platform serves more than 35,000 customer locations across 65 countries, with 500,000 cameras under management. It ingests more than 750 million hours of video monthly and delivers more than 10 million AI spot checks each month. But the company's evolution is about more than monitoring what's happening inside a restaurant. From security to business intelligence. Matta, who previously worked for a large telecommunications company, saw an opportunity to help businesses understand what was happening inside their stores without requiring someone to constantly visit and observe them. That concept remains central to Solink's approach. The company wants to give operators the same operational awareness they would have if they were standing inside their restaurants: Were shelves stocked? Were customers greeted? Where were the bottlenecks? Was the back of house operating as it should? And extend that visibility across multiple locations and throughout the day. "Almost all good managers know it when they see it. They have a sixth sense," Matta said during a Zoom interview with QSRWeb. " That same sixth sense is what we can now apply in technology." Initially, the platform focused largely on video security. Now, advances in AI are allowing Solink to interpret what cameras capture and translate that information into actionable business intelligence. The technology works with existing cameras, supported by a hardware component installed at the location and software integrations that connect video with other business systems. The platform also incorporates information from point-of-sale systems, inventory, labor and other operational tools. At present, Solink offers more than 375 integrations with business technology providers, including Toast, Square, Clover, Oracle and Lightspeed. That combination creates a more complete picture of restaurant performance. For example, a restaurant's point-of-sale system can tell an operator how many transactions occurred during lunch. Video intelligence can provide additional context, including how many people entered the restaurant, how customers moved through the space and whether people walked in without making a purchase. Matta believes that distinction is important. "What happens if someone walks into your store and walks out? We believe that should be well understood," he said. Understanding those interactions can help operators identify opportunities to improve service, staffing, merchandising and the overall customer experience. Turning observations into action. For restaurant operators, the value of AI Vision Intelligence increasingly comes down to what they can do with the information and Matta said two factors have an outsized influence on a restaurant's performance: its location and the people running it. General managers and their teams make hundreds of small decisions every day. They determine how to respond to traffic patterns, where to deploy employees, how to manage a rush and what needs attention to keep service moving. Solink wants to give those managers more information to make those decisions in real time. "When you put data in owners' hands, there's an obsession with how to drive the business forward," Matta said. He emphasized that the platform is not designed to monitor individual employees through biometrics or facial recognition. Instead, the focus is on understanding business activity and helping teams make better operational decisions. Those decisions might involve adjusting hours of operation, improving staffing levels, addressing service bottlenecks or identifying opportunities to capture additional sales. The goal is to move beyond simply identifying problems and provide the context needed to address them, he said. AI moves into the physical world. Moving forward, Solink's focus is shifting beyond bringing more data into the platform. The next phase is strengthening the intelligence layer that makes that information useful. Solink uses leading available AI models and adapts them to the terminology and objectives of individual businesses. For example, the system needs to understand the difference between a cashier and a guest, as well as the specific operational language a customer uses. The goal is to make the technology relevant to each business rather than deliver a one-size-fits-all AI experience. And whether operators use AI-driven insights to address employee retention, understand customer behavior, improve in-store and off-premises performance, or optimize back-of-house and front-of-house operations, the technology can be tailored to their individual objectives. That level of customization requires a closer relationship with customers, with Solink increasingly looking to develop solutions alongside the operators using its platform, as it also reflects on how it can take a more consultative approach with its restaurant partners. "We see this as an opportunity for us to innovate alongside our customers," he said.