Month: June 2014

Posted on

Prime Minister Announces Advancing Selections for Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program

Source: Prime Minister News Release

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the organizations that have been chosen to advance in the selection process for the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program (CAIP) which is designed to help outstanding small- and medium-sized Canadian enterprises to grow, prosper and create jobs. He made the announcement at Communitech, a hub for the commercialization of innovative technologies in Waterloo, Ontario. The Prime Minister was joined by Ed Holder, Minister of State (Science and Technology), Peter Braid, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Communities and Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo, and Stephen Woodworth, Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre.

The following organizations have been chosen to advance in the selection process under the CAIP:

  • BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA) (Accelerator)
  • Bioenterprise Corporation (Accelerator)
  • Centre d’entreprises et d’innovation de Montréal (CEIM) (Incubator)
  • Centre for Drug Research & Development (CDRD), in collaboration with CDRD Venture Inc. (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • Communitech Corporation, in collaboration with University of Waterloo Velocity, Laurier LaunchPad and the Waterloo Accelerator Centre (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • Corporation Inno-Centre du Québec (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • GrowLab Ventures Inc., in collaboration with Extreme Startups (Accelerator)
  • Invest Ottawa, in collaboration with Wesley Clover, PARTEQ Innovations and InnovationPark at Queen’s University (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • Manitoba Technology Accelerator (MTA) (Incubator)
  • Prince Edward Island BioAlliance Inc. (Incubator)
  • Propel ICT (Accelerator)
  • Ryerson University, in collaboration with Simon Fraser University and University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • The Next 36 (Accelerator/Incubator) University of Alberta, in collaboration with TEC Edmonton and Innovate Calgary (Accelerator/Incubator)
  • Wavefront Wireless Commercialization Centre Society (Accelerator/Incubator)
    – See more at: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/06/20/pm-helps-canadian-start-companies-grow-and-prosper#sthash.bmwzBFRz.dpuf

Read the full news release here

Check out a 24 SEVEN exclusive video on Why Accelerators Matter here

Posted on

Accelerator Centre Graduate Clearpath Robotics Celebrates 5th Birthday with an Interactive Twitter Robot

Source: CBC News
Author: Andrea Bellemar

Watch the live video from TwitBot CPR on twitch.tv
Clearpath RoboticsKitchener’s Clearpath Robotics counts the Canadian Space Agency and the Department of National Defence among its clients, plans to add more employees over the next eight months and has recently built its 1,000th robot, no small feat for a company that is now marking its fifth anniversary this June.

“It was a bit of landmark for us, especially as we approached our five-year anniversary,” said Meghan Hennessey, the communications coordinator for Clearpath Robotics. “It’s a lot of robots.”

To celebrate five years, engineer Ilia Baranov modified a robot so that Twitter users can control its movements through their tweets. (To watch the robot in action, watch the live video feed at the top of the page. Instructions on how to move the robot are below.)

Domo Arigato, Farmer Roboto
The company was founded in 2009 by four grads from the University of Waterloo’s mechatronics engineering program. Currently, the company lists nine different robots on its website, including unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, an unmanned robotic boat, and lab devices like a robotic arm and a haptic controller.

Clearpath Robotics currently employs 50 people and six co-op students, and is planning to grow to 65 employees. The move to a bigger space was needed – the company assembles the robots in Kitchener.

Hennessey says the company will launch a new kind of robot vehicle in August or September and has just launched a new division for custom services.

“We are starting to work with larger conglomerates within mining, military and agricultural divisions,” said Hennessey.

“So we could design both the hardware and the software, or just the software or perhaps just help them out with the design elements of it,” she said, adding she couldn’t expand on the exact nature of the work due to confidentially.

How to move the robot

To get the robot to move, tweet @ClearpathRobotics, use the hashtag #moverobot, and give the robot a command, such as “forward” or “backward”, “left” or “right” to move it. The lights on the robot can also be changed by tweeting a colour.

“I got one that actually said, “Make it twerk” which I thought was hilarious. Who knows, that might pop up in the next couple days,” said Hennessey.

The robot will be controllable online until the end of June.

Check out the video and read the full article here.

Posted on

TitanFile Reflects on their Accelerator Centre Experience

Source: TitanFile Press Release
Author: Olga Lioudvinevitch

TitanFile was welcomed into the Accelerator Center (AC) in December of 2011 and we are grateful for having had the opportunity.

titanStarting out on the East coast – in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we chose Waterloo because we wanted to be closer to the core of the Canadian innovation community. Here, we would look for the talent and mentorship instrumental to our success, and the  Accelerator Program seemed to have it all.

Our first point of contact was a gentleman named Josh Wright; co-founder of a great up-and-coming company named Blitzen. Suffice it to say, we were more than a little excited to have gotten in. “When we joined we did not have many customers or revenue and now we have both” says CEO Tony Abou Assaleh, “the AC really made an impact on that.”

The Accelerator program gave us support through mentorship, networking opportunities, connections to capital; services including access to office facilities, education, and commercialization expertise.

Our space at Communitech became a second home – an experience most startups can attest to. Working deep into the  night, on weekends, only to come back to the grind again on Monday.

As you can imagine, leaving here garners mixed feelings. There is something about this place though, an electric energy – something that motivates you to keep going. You feed off the successes of your peers while knowing you have all the tools and support to achieve the same thing.

We’d like to thank our capable entrepreneurs in residence David Littweiler and Jaafer Haidar along with our public relations mentor Ellyn Winters-Robinson, finance adviser Kevin Elop, HR mentor Jackie Lauer,and Kevin Hood – our sales and marketing expert for giving us continuous guidance through our time with the AC.

We would also like to thank Frank Erschen, Communitech’s Pitch Coach, for working with us and helping us connect with angel groups in the region.

And special thanks to: Tim Ellis – CEO – Accelerator Center Gary Pooley – CFO – Accelerator Centre Andrew Jackson – Vice President of Client Services – Accelerator Center For making the program an ongoing success.

We could not have achieved what we have without the wonderful people of Communitech and the Accelerator Center, many of whom have gone unmentioned in this particular blog post.  Thank you to all, from the bottom of our hearts.

Our graduation is this Thursday June 12, at 9:30 AM at the Accelerator Center. If you can make it, we’d love for you to join us!

Read the press release here: https://www.titanfile.com/blog/graduation-day-titanfile/

Posted on

Intellijoint Surgical and TitanFile Graduate from the Accelerator Centre

The Accelerator Centre Graduates Intellijoint Surgical and TitanFile

Waterloo (Ontario), CANADA, June 12, 2014 – World renowned for its cultivation of technology entrepreneurship, Waterloo’s Accelerator Centre today celebrated the graduation of Intellijoint Surgical and TitanFile from its award-winning tech start-up accelerator program.

intellijoint surgicalFounded by University of Waterloo mechatronics grads Armen Bakirtzian, Andre Hladio and Richard Fanson, Intellijoint Surgical is setting the new standard for surgical hip alignment. Intellijoint’s technology provides surgeons with affordable, smart tools that improve precision and accuracy in joint replacement surgery, lowering the possibility of complication and improving patient outcomes.  Intellijoint Surgical received its Health Canada Medical Device License in December 2013, and the company’s technology has been used in more than 100 joint replacement surgeries.

titanTitanFile is on a mission to build better ways for people and companies to communicate securely. The company allows users to easily connect and securely share files from any device, ensuring that privileged information remains private at all times.  TitanFile’s technology has been adopted across a wide range of industries, from healthcare for the secure and HIPAA-compliant transfer of patient information, to lawyers for secure collaboration, to educational institutions for secure research collaboration.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate Intellijoint and TitanFile’s graduation from the Accelerator Centre today.  Each company has approached its respective market opportunity with tenacity – taking full advantage of the Accelerator Centre’s educational programming and unique cross-disciplinary mentorship model to transform their ideas into viable, sustainable businesses,” says Gary Pooley, Acting CEO, the Accelerator Centre.

About the Accelerator Centre

The Accelerator Centre (AC) is dedicated to building and commercializing technology startups. The AC provides an essential combination of mentorship, educational programming, professional office space, networking, and access to funding, with a goal of building successful companies. Over a 2-3 year period, we help entrepreneurs move from start-up to scale-up, accelerate their time to market, and attract customers, investment and revenue.

Since 2006, the Accelerator Centre has developed and nurtured over 130 early-stage technology start-ups, creating 1100+ new jobs, generating over $120 million in revenue, and attracting over $180 million in investment. Thirty-six companies have graduated from The Accelerator Program, and more than 85 percent of these companies have remained in Waterloo Region.  For more information visit our website at www.acceleratorcentre.com.

Follow us on Twitter @AC_Waterloo
Join us on LinkedIn

For further information, please contact:

Ellyn Winters-Robinson
Communications Advisor, Accelerator Centre
Phone: 519-574-2196
Email: ewinters-robinson@acceleratorcentre.com
@ellynjane