Month: October 2013

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Accelerator Program Graduate Clearpath Robotics CEO announced as EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award Recipient

Clearpath Robotics CEO Matt Rendall with EY EOY Award(Kitchener, ON, Canada – October 29, 2013)  The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Awards, celebrating 20 years of honoring entrepreneurship and innovation in Canada, announced CEO of Clearpath Robotics, Matt Rendall, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2013 Ontario award winner in the category of Young Entrepreneur. The Ernst & Young Awards Gala was held at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre Thursday evening.

“I am thrilled and incredibly honored to receive this award,” said Matt Rendall, CEO and co-founder of Clearpath Robotics. “Entrepreneurship is a team sport; this milestone is shared equally amongst my dedicated business partners and the whole Clearpath team – we are in this together 100%.”

With Matt Rendall’s leadership, Clearpath Robotics became profitable within 18 months of its inception, and has since developed a customer base of leading researchers in over 25 countries around the world.

“Leading entrepreneurs see the future before it takes place,” says Colleen McMorrow, National and Ontario EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program director. “Inspiring others to embrace entrepreneurship is exactly what we need in Canada.”

Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates the contribution and spirit of entrepreneurs everywhere. The Canadian program is in its 20th year of honoring the country’s most impressive entrepreneurs from all areas of business. Award finalists are chosen based on their vision, leadership, financial success and social responsibility.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Entrepreneurs turn us on. To new ideas, new ways of thinking and new possibilities. We’ve shone the spotlight on entrepreneurs for 20 years – and we’ve only just begun. Nominees are reviewed by an independent judging panel composed of several distinguished business leaders and previous award recipients. The 2013 Ontario judging panel consisted of John Albright, Founder and Managing Partner, Relay Ventures; Claude Haw, Managing Partner, Venture Coaches; Tim Jackson, Vice President, University Relations, University of Waterloo; Don Morrison, Senior Managing Director and Country Head, OMERS Private Equity; Nicole Musicco, Vice President, Funds & Co-Investments, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan; David Shaw, 2010 Ontario Entrepreneur Of The Year professional services category winner and Founder and CEO, Knightsbridge Human Capital Management; and Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS Discovery District. www.ey.com/ca/EOY.

About Clearpath Robotics

Clearpath Robotics, a global leader in unmanned vehicle robotics for research and development, is dedicated to automating the world’s dullest, dirtiest, and deadliest jobs. The Company serves robotics leaders in over 30 countries worldwide in academic, corporate, industrial, and military environments. Recognizing the value of future innovation, Clearpath Robotics established Partnerbot, a grant program to support university robotics research teams, internationally. Clearpath Robotics provides robust robotic vehicles and autonomous solutions that are engineered for performance, designed for customization, and built for open source. Visit Clearpath Robotics at www.clearpathrobotics.com, follow us on Twitter @clearpathrobots or like us on Facebook.

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 Contact:

Meghan Hennessey

Marketing Communications

519-513-2416

press@clearpathrobotics.com

www.clearpathrobotics.com

Clearpath Robotics

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Accelerator Program Graduate ChangeIt® partners with MSCU to turn change into charitable revenue

Source: CBC News Online

A Waterloo tech company that allows users to donate to charity by rounding up purchases has formed its first partnership with a financial institution in Waterloo Region.

ChangeIt users are able to round up their debit and credit purchases to the next dollar, and donate the remainder to charities of their choice. The rounding doesn’t show up at the cash register but is calculated by ChangeIt software and the difference is taken out of the user’s bank account at the end of the month.

The firm has now extended its services to the Mennonite Savings and Credit Union, which is based in Kitchener with about 19,000 members and eight branches in southern Ontario.

“Basically members can say I would like to activate ChangeIt on my payment card, so that when I make a purchase, I choose to have that purchase rounded up in the background,” said ChangeIt chief operating officer Jim Stirtzinger.

Read the full article here.

 

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Accelerator Program Client (Communitech Hub) Cream.HR extends a helping hand to displaced BlackBerry workforce

Waterloo (Ontario) CANADA, October 23, 2013 – BlackBerry employees facing layoff are getting a much-needed helping hand from Waterloo Region tech startup Cream.HR.

The Communitech HYPERDRIVE graduate announced today it is offering up its online talent assessment solution to all displaced Blackberry staff for free, providing these new job seekers with an opportunity to go beyond the resume and use CREAM.HR’s behavioral science-based solution to showcase their strengths and talents, while proving their cultural fit with prospective employers.

“We’re a closely knit technology community in Waterloo Region and it was important to us to step in and offering a helping hand to our BlackBerry colleagues,” says Cream.HR CEO, Caitlin MacGregor. “Our platform uses the science of psychology to uncover each applicant’s problem solving abilities and priorities so they can position themselves with prospective employers. And we can help employers surface the highest potential candidates for a company’s culture and position and go beyond gut instinct to know how a candidate will perform on the job.”

“Cream.HR’s platform is like a crystal ball,” says Gerald Valdez, a former BlackBerry employee who is now happily employed at Desire2Learn. “It highlighted my passion for technology and for building business relationships, and strongly pointed me toward a technical sales role, which had never crossed my mind as an engineer. Cream.HR helped me articulate a strong set of credentials and insights allowing me to approach my job search with laser focus and differentiate myself within a large pool of applicants.”

Former BlackBerry workers who wish to take advantage of Cream.HR’s free assessment offer can sign up today at cream.hr/bb.

On October 29th 2013, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Accelerator Centre, Meeting Room 2, Cream.HR will host a Job Seeker Assessment Workshop sponsored by Communitech. The event will assist former BlackBerry employees uncover their innate strengths and talents and best position themselves with future employers.

On November 27, 2013 Cream.HR will join with Communitech, the Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA), Right Management, the ITEC Group and the Dean Group for a panel discussion and workshop. The evening event, to take place at the Tannery Event Space and moderated by Accelerator Program HR mentor and Leadership & Culture consultant Jackie Lauer, will focus on practical strategies and advice to assist former BlackBerry employees in their job search.

For further details, please contact:
Christine Bird, COO Cream.HR
Tel: +1-610-800-1137, Email: Christine@cream.hr
@Cream_HR

About Cream.HR

Cream.HR identifies job applicants with the highest potential, matching them to your company culture and position. Using the science of psychology, our cloud based hiring solution assesses each applicant’s problem solving ability and priorities, before a resume is read.

Go beyond gut instinct, find the hidden gems and finally know how each candidate will perform months after being hired. Start using Cream.HR today to establish a standardized benchmark for hiring, build great team dynamics, and scale your culture.

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Accelerator Centre Client Avenir Medical secures $3.3M in financing

Intelligent Instrument improves accuracy in hip replacement, attracts investors and surgeons to Avenir

Waterloo, Ontario, September 30, 2013 – Avenir Medical Inc., an innovator in developing intelligent instruments to improve joint replacement surgery, announced today that it has closed $3.3M of Series A financing. The round was led by MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, Toronto, and included a syndicate of Angel Groups in Waterloo, Toronto, and Boston.

Avenir develops intelligent instruments to assist orthopedic surgeons in the operating room.  The Company’s proprietary devices integrate microelectronics and miniature optical sensors to calculate and display real time measurements of implant position and alignment, enabling surgeons to more accurately perform joint replacements.  The Company’s flagship product is for guiding hip replacement, and the same advanced technology will be applied to knee replacement and other surgical procedures.

“We are excited to attract a broad base of investors ranging from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund to Angel Groups representing prominent Canadian and US entrepreneurs and surgeons ”, said CEO Armen Bakirtzian.  “This funding will accelerate our clinical and commercialization plans in North America and Europe where the potential market is over 2 million hip and knee replacements a year.”

“In joint replacement, most surgeons use their own impromptu techniques to position and align implants,” says Dr. Allan Gross, Orthopaedic Surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, and Chairman of Avenir Medical’s Surgical Advisory Board.  “However, studies show that post-operatively, up to 10% of patients have complications and as many as half of these require expensive revision surgery.  Avenir’s new device gives surgeons a simple, reliable, and easy to use tool for implant positioning and alignment that can reduce the outliers and ultimately benefit patients.”

“Avenir really represents the type of company that fits our investment thesis. They have a great product, based on unique, differentiated technology, and have a huge market potential” said Dan Mathers, Investment Director, IAF.  “Avenir is an example of the type of high quality companies we are seeing in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, and we will continue to ensure that we focus efforts on being a key investor in the region.”

About Avenir Medical
Avenir is an early stage orthopedic medical device company committed to improving patient outcomes and hospital economics in joint replacement surgery.  Avenir is the creator of PelvAssist™, a miniaturized intelligent instrument that enhances surgeon accuracy, increases hospital economic efficiencies, and improves patient outcomes.  Avenir’s R & D team is led by the co-founder and former director of surgical navigation at Medtronic, Inc., and driven by a team of renowned orthopedic surgeons: Dr. Allan Gross and Dr. David Backstein from Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Dr. Wayne Paprosky from Rush Hospital in Chicago, and Dr. Javad Parvizi from the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia.

About MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund
The MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund manages on behalf of the Province of Ontario, the Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) (@MaRSIAF) which provides seed funding to qualified emerging companies in Ontario. A critical component of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE), the IAF supports the launch and development of innovative companies in Ontario’s priority sectors of advanced materials and manufacturing, information technology, cleantech and life sciences. To learn more, visit www.iaf.marsdd.com

For further information contact: 
Armen Bakirtzian, CEO Avenir Medical
a.bakirtzian@avenirmedical.com
647.234.8160