WALTHAM, Mass., Oct. 4, 2022 — Constant Contact, a digital marketing platform trusted by millions of small businesses and nonprofits, today announced that it has opened a new innovation lab at the Communitech Hub in the Waterloo Region of Ontario.…
News from across the Regional Innovation Centres
We have gathered news from all the regional innovation centres (RICs) in Ontario. Be sure to connect with your local RIC to be a part of your local ecosystem.
Life Sciences and Advanced Health
One of the biggest medical breakthroughs almost didn’t make it out of the lab
Researcher Katalin Karikó was instrumental in creating in the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. But for years, her work on mRNA technology was considered a dead end. Photo illustration by Kelvin Li When the first COVID vaccines appeared at the end of 2020,…
TORONTO, Sept. 28, 2022 /CNW/ - Global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group has announced a significant change in its executive leadership. Founder Joel McLean is passing the role of Chief Executive Officer to David Godfrey, who has…
Education Youth
Coding, 3D modelling and ‘big’ data: Hamilton kids get inspiration through new mentorship program
ORIGINAL ARTICLE, The Hamilton Spectator, Kate McCullough, September 15, 2022 Like many 12-year-olds, Jonathan Szarak likes to play video games. But he’s also spent the last two years teaching himself how to make them. The Grade 7 student uses Python,…
Innovation Factory will take a moment of silence, with other Canadians at 2:15 p.m. to recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation day. On this day, we honour and remember, those who were lost, survivors, and their families who…
Entrepreneur Stories Featured RIC News Women
Three winning businesses share $50,000 Lions Lair prize money
ORIGINAL ARTICLE, The Hamilton Spectator, Ritika Dubey, October 3, 2022 This year, startup businesses went big at the annual Lions Lair pitch competition. Three businesses — Boardball Inc., Llif Healthcare, and Chirp — shared nearly $50,000 in prize money during…
Companies Funded / Acquired Digital Media and ICT Entrepreneur Stories Fintech
Roundup for September 2022 – Communitech
Full on After a quiet summer, the tech community went full on in September with multiple million-dollar raises, two acquisitions and several impressive milestones. Where to begin? Let’s start with an anniversary. It’s been 25 years since a group of…
Companies currently hiring are working in financial technology, healthcare and the future of food. Aspire Food Group What it does: Aspire rears crickets in a high-tech facility and processes them into nutritional ingredients for people and their pets. The…
“No one wants to work.” There’s been an increase in think pieces with hand-wringing and pearl-clutching around this pronouncement over the last three years, but it’s not new. It’s only recently that I’ve heard local people say it. I’ve heard…
Photo illustration by Kelvin Li As we start to feel the effects of climate change, it’s clear we need to find ways to adapt our communities and lighten the impact on the planet. It can be tempting to just start…
Jackets and mitts aren’t the only clothing coming out of storage as the first signs of fall come to Kitchener. Across town, people are getting their lederhosen and dirndls out for the 2022 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. This year’s festival marks the…
A new group of entrepreneurs has joined the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator, and they’re changing everything from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. Animal-free milk, compostable menstrual products, faux leather made from mushroom roots and an…
$50,000 Awarded as 300 Members of the Innovation Community Celebrate HAMILTON, ON – September 29, 2022 – Boardball Inc. was named the grand prize winner yesterday at Innovation Factory’s LiONS LAIR Gala, claiming top prize of $25,000. Celebrating its twelfth…
Can AI make art? What’s hot in biomedical research? And does schnitzel fuel great business ideas? Find answers to all this and more at events happening in the coming month. Here are the tech events you need to know about…
RIC News
Info-Tech Research Group Announces Leadership Change, Names New CEO as IT Firm Marks 25 Years
Global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group has announced a significant change in its executive leadership. Founder Joel McLean is passing the role of Chief Executive Officer to David Godfrey, who has until recently served as the firm’s…
Funding News Life Sciences and Advanced Health Women
FACIT’S Prospects Fund fuels women’s health and brain cancer therapies for Ontario patients
ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE, FACIT, September 28, 2022 Seed-stage commercialization realizes value in the Province’s health research and intellectual property September 28, 2022 – FACIT congratulates Ontario-based start-ups Hyivy Health and HDAX Therapeutics as the latest recipients of capital through its…
Kitchener-based Avidbots, which makes commercial cleaning robots, has announced a Series C raise of US$70 million, bringing its total venture capital raised to date to US$107 million. The size of the round is all the more significant given the general…
Funding News Life Sciences and Advanced Health
VoxNeuro Announces Collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces and Launch of Clinical Study Measuring Impact of Training-Related Sub-Concussive Exposure
ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE, Business Wire, September 27, 2022 TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–VoxNeuro Inc. (“VoxNeuro” or the “Company”), a commercial stage Software-as-a-Medical-Device (SaMD) brain health company that analyzes brain biomarkers to assess cognitive function, has announced a new partnership with the Canadian Armed…
“We’re proud to kick off the AC:Studio program with these amazing companies. These 100 companies represent the talent, drive, and entrepreneurial spirit that our innovation ecosystem is known for. More importantly, they represent the diversity of technologies, innovations, and ideas…
RIC News Upcoming Events
Join us September 29th from 11:30am – 5pm for a tour of The Landing co-working a…
Original Article on Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre The Landing - Open House Event Drop by for a tour of the space on September 29th - 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, and join us for the following events: Business Headshots (11:30…
Posted in Blog, Thrive in Ottawa Sep 26, 2022 1003 words | 4 mins. By: Randy Gaudreau Home to one of North America’s most active and bustling technology communities, Ottawa isn’t short on innovative companies making headlines in the news and…
Airports like Toronto-Pearson can handle 100,000 suitcases a day. They’re deploying intelligent software to keep track of them all — and analyze how the system can go wrong. Illustration by Kelvin Li It’s been a tough summer for air travel.…
Advanced Manufacturing & Materials Entrepreneur Stories Featured Featured Home
CAMufacturing Solutions’ Software Elevates Industry
Windsor, Ontario. Long dubbed the Automotive Capital of Canada, and currently emerging as the Automobility Capital of Canada. A city of makers. CAMufacturing Solutions is just one of many local trailblazers changing the industry around them. The company is doing…
SSIMWAVE, the nine-year-old Waterloo company whose AI-driven video quality software has earned two Emmy Awards, has been acquired by IMAX Corporation, the global, Canadian-founded company best known for its jaw-dropping, large-format motion picture technology. “SSIMWAVE is doing revolutionary work at…
Companies Funded / Acquired Life Sciences and Advanced Health
Lactiga Therapeutics Raises $1.6M USD in Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Round, Secures $350k in Research Grants
Original Press Release, Yahoo Finance, September 21, 2022 NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J., Sept. 21, 2022 — Lactiga Therapeutics, an early-stage biotechnology company focused on improving the quality of life of patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases, announced this week that it has…
Digital Media and ICT Featured Featured Home Youth
Magnet Forensics helps Truth Labs deliver justice in child abuse and fraud cases in India
WATERLOO, Ontario, Sept. 21, 2022, (BUSINESS WIRE) – Magnet Forensics (TSX: MAGT), a developer of digital investigation solutions used by more than 4,000 enterprises and public safety organizations in over 100 countries, today announced that Truth Labs, India’s first independent…
Buildings, roads and sidewalks generate almost half of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some Canadian companies working to fix that. When you think of the climate crisis, there’s no end to the apocalyptic imagery that immediately comes to…
WETechAlliance is pleased to announce the appointment of two new Directors and three new Advisors to the Board of Directors for 2022-2023. WETechAlliance’s Board of Directors is composed of 11 directors, and five ex-officio advisors including WETechAlliance’s…
ORIGINAL ARTICLE, Christine Persaud, wifihifi.com, August 26, 2022 The latest candidate in our series of Q&As with influential women in the technology business in Canada is Swati Matta, Founder & CEO, Koble, a digital health app for expecting and new…
Advanced Manufacturing & Materials Agriculture
Korechi HCW among leading-edge AgTech displays at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show
Innovation Factory client, Korechi Innovations, will be showcasing their autonomous AgriTech RoamIO HCW with Haggerty AgRobotics at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this September. The mini farming tractor reduces the labour required for repetitive tasks through automation. ORIGINAL ARTICLE, Canada’s Outdoor…
Companies Funded / Acquired Digital Media and ICT Featured Home Fintech
VendorPM secures $20 million Series A to expand US footprint
ORIGINAL ARTICLE – Charlize Alcaraz, Betakit, August 23, 2022. VendorPM’s backers include Bessemer and a plethora of real estate investors. Toronto proptech startup VendorPM has raised $20 million in its Series A round led by Prudence, an early-stage venture capital…
Voluntary carbon markets are growing quickly. But before taking the leap, startups need to do their homework. The pressure is on for countries and corporations to slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Earlier this month, the World Meteorological Organization reported that…
Companies Funded / Acquired Digital Media and ICT
Quadbridge acquires Kitchener-based IT provider Able One
Montreal, Canada – September 15, 2022 – Quadbridge Inc. (Quadbridge), a leading North American provider of hardware and software IT solutions, headquartered in Montreal, is pleased to announce it has added to its customer offering the capabilities of Able-One Systems…
Oombo may have been established in 2017, but the idea for its innovative emergency signalling device had taken shape long before when Founder Mark Rizk was still in high school. His passion for protecting and supporting people and his affinity…
Auto & Transportation
Des centaines d’innovateurs et d’entreprises canadiennes dévoilent les technologies émergentes de mobilité intelligente dans la capitale du Canada
Sep 20, 2022 Zone X.O et le gouvernement du Canada présentent TCXpo, la première journée nationale de démonstration de technologies de mobilité intelligente en son genre Ottawa, Ontario; 20 septembre 2022 — Zone X.O, un complexe de recherche et développement…
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ITS World Congress – Today, Miovision announced its next-generation portable video-based traffic data collection solution – Miovision Scout® Explore. Thanks to advanced AI, Scout Explore is the first portable video-based traffic data…
“The best way to bring the real world into the classroom is to make the real-world classroom” – Dr. Mark Weyers, Co-founder and CEO of BCI Innovation Labs. Entrepreneurship isn’t always a learned skill. It’s a personality trait and a drive…
Auto & Transportation
Hundreds of Canadian Innovators and Companies Unveil Emerging Smart Mobility Technologies in Canada’s Capital
Sep 20, 2022 Area X.O and the Government of Canada Host TCXpo, the First National Smart Mobility Tech Demo Day of Its Kind Ottawa, Ontario; September 20, 2022 – Area X.O, a Canadian R&D complex operated by Invest Ottawa that…
For the first time since 2019, Hack the North was held in person at the University of Waterloo. The student-run hackathon, launched in 2014, began Friday night and continued through to Sunday afternoon. It is one of the biggest events…
When humans have tried to transition from one fuel source to another, we’ve usually ended up with a messy muddle. But there are lessons in those failures for today’s clean energy plans. To wean ourselves off fossil fuels in the…