The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that Ritual Technologies Inc. was once one of Canada's fastest-growing tech companies. The Globe's Sean Silcoff writes that in 2019, the food-takeout app's revenues topped $50-million (U.S.) and it was valued at more than $300-million (U.S.). Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and its core office-worker customers stayed home. Revenues collapsed. Now, five years after the global health crisis wrecked its business model, co-founders Ray Reddy and Larry Stinson are leaving to join a company that soared during the pandemic: Shopify. On Monday, Mr. Reddy posted on social media that the pair, along with several of Ritual's research and development group, are joining the Ottawa-based commerce software giant. Some Ritual investors described the move as an "acqui-hire" by Shopify, which typically means a company is purchased for its talent and the underlying business is closed down. Shopify is only picking up the co-founders and some of the engineers, and not the whole company. A separate process is under way to sell Ritual as a going concern. Shopify has brought on tech entrepreneurs in the past in several acqui-hire transactions, including the purchase of Helpful.com six years ago.