Month: March 2015

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Clearpath Robotics Raises $14 Million Series A Investment

Accelerator Centre Graduate Clearpath Robotics announced today that it has raised a $14 million CAD Series A round from RRE Ventures, with participation from iNovia Capital.

The company also announced that RRE co-founder and managing partner Stuart Ellman will join Clearpath’s board of directors. The influx of funding will be used to grow the company’s work force by as many as 50 people, and increase production of their unmanned vehicles designed to help researchers inspect and map dangerous environments..

Read the full story here.

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AC Grad ClevrU teams up with TVO

TVO is pleased to announce a new partnership with ClevrU, a Waterloo-based mobile education company, to bring existing TVOKids content to smartphone users in China. ClevrU operates a web site and provides mobile apps in China which allows smartphone users easy access to a high-quality mobile learning experience.

TVO is presented in China as the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVO’s legal name) under the brand Learn English. The content offered includes over 430 videos from TVOKids programs like Melvin’s Marvelous Words and Alphabet Goop that teach children how to read, write and spell in a fun and engaging way.

“What’s so exciting about TVO’s partnership with ClevrU is that it allows us to repurpose existing digital assets for an entirely new audience that we know has a tremendous thirst for quality educational content,” said Lisa de Wilde, Chief Executive Officer, TVO. “This innovative new initiative has the potential to drive an entirely new revenue stream for TVO that will support the delivery of our educational mandate in Ontario.”

To read more, click here.

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First AC JumpStart Cohort Announced

AC JumpStart banner

Seventeen early stage companies to benefit from critical seed capital injection and world-class mentorship

The Accelerator Centre® (AC) is proud to announce its first AC JumpStart cohort, the first group of companies to benefit from the $8M funding program, announced January 15th in conjunction with the Federal Economic Development Agency (FedDev Ontario), and partners Conestoga College, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Companies joining the first AC JumpStart Cohort are:

Quick Facts about AC JumpStart

  • Each member of the AC JumpStart first cohort will receive $30,000 in seed capital (to be matched by the recipient firms), mentorship from experts in finance, sales, marketing, human resources, technology and product development, access to market research and connections to investors, with services to be delivered over a 12 month period.
  • This is the first of three cohorts of companies to participate in the program in 2015, followed by two cohorts annually through to the end of 2018.
  • In total, it is expected that 180 companies will participate in the AC JumpStart program over the next four years.
  • Start-ups participating in the 2013 AC JumpStart pilot program have created 212 new jobs in Waterloo Region, have generated $3.1 million in combined revenue and are expected to raise $5 million in private investment.
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Tech Start-ups Mozzaz and Plum Graduate from the Accelerator Centre

Waterloo (Ontario), CANADA, Thursday, March 12, 2015 – The Accelerator Centre® (AC), an award-winning centre for the cultivation of technology entrepreneurship located in Waterloo, Ontario, announced today the graduation of two more tech start-ups from its rigorous incubation program. Mozzaz and Plum become the AC’s 44th and 45th graduates, joining a celebrated list of highly successful AC graduate companies including, Axonify, Clearpath Robotics, Intellijoint Surgical, Kik, Miovision, Top Hat Monocle and more.

The founders of health tech start-up Mozzaz, Rini Singh and Sammy Wahab each have a deep and personal motivation to bring modern technology to people with chronic illness and/or developmental disabilities. The company’s vision is to provide affordable, mobile and Cloud-enabled solutions to assist individuals with complex healthcare needs, while providing better connectivity and collaboration to the care teams who support that person. The company offers a personalized care app, called TalkingTiles; a coordinated care solution called MozzazCare, and a clinical management solution called Mozzaz CarePRO.

Frustrated by their own hiring experiences, Plum’s founders Caitlin and Neil MacGregor and Christine Bird were inspired to create Plum, a revolutionary new hiring solution. Plum’s cloud-based hiring solution identifies job applicants with the highest potential and matches them to a company’s culture and position using the science of psychology. Plum assesses each applicant’s problem solving ability and attitude before a resume is read, allowing employers to find hidden gem candidates and predict their future performance on the job even before they are hired.

“Health and HR tech are two of the hottest and fastest growing segments within the start-up landscape and we are happy to be graduating innovative high potential companies in these markets,” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre.

Congratulations Graduates!

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AC Grad Kik strives to become the third great network

Kik’s pursuit of the youth market has kept the Waterloo, Ont.-based company largely off the mainstream radar.
“I think we’re the most under-the-radar company of our size in Canada, certainly. If you were to go to the average Canadian and say, ‘Have you heard of Kik?’ probably everybody would say, ‘No,’ ” Mr. Livingston said.

“And yet, on Christmas Day, if you were to look at the top free apps on iTunes, Kik was the only Canadian company in the top 100 (at No. 7).”

Securing mainstream attention isn’t a priority for Mr. Livingston. He’s primarily focused on adding new users, many of them teenagers. The company claims it adds 250,000 users a day, but won’t say how many actually stay as active users.

Mr. Livingston said his goal is to create the “third great network” (after telephone and the Internet). That goal may seem far-fetched for a mere chat app, but if Mr. Livingston is to achieve it, he must boost Kik’s profile. “We need a much bigger reputation,” he said. “We need to be known as a hot company.”

Founded in 2009 by a group of University of Waterloo students, Kik has raised a total of $70.5 million, including $38.3 million late last year.

To read the full article, click here.

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Intellijoint Surgical receives $550,000

Intellijoint Surgical has received up to $550,000 from FedDev Ontario to develop and commercialize the company’s innovative Intellijoint HIP™ sensor system for orthopaedic surgery. The announcement was made by MP Peter Braid on site at Intellijoint on Tuesday March 6th, as part of a larger FedDev funding announcement.

“We are extremely grateful for the FedDev Ontario Investing in Business Innovation initiative and its continued support for great start-ups like Intellijoint Surgical”, says Armen Bakirtzian, CEO of Intellijoint. “With FedDev Ontario’s support we are able to accelerate the commercialization Intellijoint HIP™.”

Intellijoint HIP™ is a miniaturized system consisting of two disposable sensors and a display unit. It is designed to help orthopaedic surgeons in the selection and positioning of orthopaedic implants during hip replacement surgery. “Intellijoint Surgical’s technology has been leveraged by surgeons in hundreds of surgeries in Canada. Now the company is  expanding into new markets,” said Peter Braid, MP for Kitchener-Waterloo. “In fact, in September of last year, Massena Memorial Hospital in New York became the first hospital in the United States to use the technology.”

Intellijoint Surgical was one of three companies to receive FedDev investment, with Auvik Networks and Dejero also receiving funding rounds as part of the announcement. Overall, FedDev committed $1,775,000 to the three companies, which is anticipated to allow for the creation of up to 55 new jobs in Waterloo Region.

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AC Grad Kik adds video option for its 200 million registered users

Mobile messaging app Kik has added native video capture to its service as it lays the groundwork to offer more interactive content options for its 200 million registered users.

An update to Kik for iOS and Android today now lets users record videos of up to 15 seconds from inside their chat windows. The feature includes a full-screen playback option, and videos will loop continuously.

The new addition is pretty smooth, but video capture is a standard part of any communications service these days.Kik Video SMKik — which offers a sophisticated in-chat browser for sharing web content — admits it is playing catch up here.

Now that it has established its own video platform as a base, however, the Canada-based company plans to go forth and be more creative. Or, at least, offer its users the chance to unleash new shades of creativity on its service.

To read the full article, click here.