Tag: ac client

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Emmetros Launches MemorySparx One – Their First in a Suite of Products for People Who Live with Dementia

For Mary Pat Hinton, helping people who live with dementia and their care-partners have a better quality of life is personal.

Seeing her grandmother, Jean, suffer with Alzheimer’s disease in the 80’s, a time it was not well understood and there were few resources available for patients, made a lasting impact and inspired her to change the way those with dementia cope with their conditions.

As a result of her experience, Mary Pat started Emmetros – a company dedicated to creating solutions that help dementia sufferers to live independently and with dignity.

In 2016, Mary Pat joined the AC’s Accelerator Program to help guide her business to success. “Before I joined the AC, I did a lot of research into incubators and the resources available to entrepreneurs like me,” Mary-Pat explains. “I came to the AC because of their focus on long-term success and their stellar mentorship team.”

When she started Emmetros, she knew she wanted to create something bigger than a single app to support people living with dementia, and the mentors at the AC helped her build out her business in a way that will see the company develop a full suite of solutions that will work together to create an all-in-one digital solution – not only for those living with the disease, but for their families and care communities as well.

“The mentors at the AC are like an extension of my team. They are always there for me.” she explains. “They are incredibly experienced, can shift focus easily, and can go as deep into my business as I need them to. No moment spent with them is a wasted one,” she adds.

Last week, Emmetros launched MemorySparx™ One. The first application in the planned suite of solutions to support those with dementia and their families.

MemorySparx One is a digital memory aid that helps individuals living with dementia organize and recall important information like personal photos, health information, and more.

Traditionally, those living with dementia (or their families) were instructed to create paper booklets to help them organize and keep track of important information. “One of the major challenges with paper-based memory aids is keeping them up to date, while making sure that they remain easy to use and meet the changing needs of a person who is experiencing declining cognitive abilities,” Mary Pat explains.  MemorySparx One leverages decades of research on the value of those paper-based memory aids and combines it more than a thousand hours Mary Pat and her team have spent partnering with and getting to know people who live with dementia, their families, and academic researchers to create a mobile digital solution that provides these people with a way to communicate with confidence and greater independence, wherever and whenever they need to.

MemorySparx One allows users to:

  • Add and update content using intuitive templates designed with the unique needs of people with dementia in mind
  • Store personal details, captioned photos, audio recordings, and personal health information in one easy-to-access tool
  • Access information that’s important whenever and wherever it’s needed – at a doctor’s office, a social engagement, or a professional event
  • Keep track of personal health history, medications, and changes to mood or behavior so you can speak for yourself at appointments with care professionals

Emmetros’ next focus is on developing their complementary suite of products and on continuing to build out their incredible team and work culture. ‘We are fortunate to have a team of very talented and experienced people. Every one of them is incredibly passionate about our vision,” Mary Pat explains proudly. “When I started this, I never expected that people would be asking me how they could join our team, but they are and that’s pretty amazing. Every single day I wake up grateful.  There’s nothing better than that.”

MemorySparx One is available for iPad and is on the iTunes store now. For more information, visit memorysparx.com.

Media Contact:

Tabatha Laverty
Community Manager
tlaverty@acceleratorcentre.com

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GainX is on a mission to eliminate billions in wasted innovation spending for global financial services companies

Across the innovation landscape, agility matters. Fast innovators are 42% stronger, 27% more disruptive, get new products to market quickly and generate 30% more revenue from those products.[1]  And yet, 90% of CEOs across all industries remain unsatisfied with their year/over/year progress and returns on innovation. They are plagued by a lack visibility across their complex innovation portfolios and processes. This poor transparency translates into billions of dollars in waste and Innovation DragTM across the industry.

Entrepreneur Angelique Mohring founded her company GainX in 2012 after spending two decades as a technology executive, working for large enterprise software organizations such as OpenText.  “After working with Global 1000s for 20+ years as a tech executive and global change agent, I realized I had the skills, passion and expertise to help the world’s biggest businesses better understand and overcome the innovation challenge and finally realize real financial payback from their efforts,” says Angelique.  “I want people to understand that innovation is so more than simply counting ideas. It is about cultural and digital transformation, and it is about producing measurable business impact.”

GainX, a fast-growing leader in the FinTech market (the company will target other sectors but is initially focused on Financial Services) is leading and defining the Innovation Strategy Management (ISM) market, providing financial services companies with the critical bridge between innovation happening at the edge of business and the core enterprise.

“By combining predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, semantic analysis and in-depth behavioural analytics to drive cultural change and improve innovation capacity, our ISM platform ensures creativity and delivery stay in balance, and allows businesses to achieve sustainable market success and drive greater return on innovation investment (ROII). This results in increased productivity, improved employee engagement, greater clarity of vision and reduced risk of in-market failure,” says Mohring.

Recently, GainX released the findings of a benchmark survey it conducted on behalf of the Canadian financial services industry assessing the innovation capacity of Canada’s leading financial services institutions (FSIs). More than 375 executives and employees participated in the analysis, which captured both data and semantic analytics on innovation derived from their respective organizations. More than 27,000 data points were analyzed through the GainX platform, and FSIs were plotted on an innovation maturity curve, measured against the critical gains necessary for innovation and transformation, including strategy and clarity of vision, appetite for risk, digital enablement, culture, and engagement and collaboration.

While the Canadian FS executives and employees surveyed all identified innovation as a top priority, our analysis found that the sector’s capacity to achieve those goals remains limited. 77% of Canadian FSIs surveyed indicated they lacked an integrated innovation process, and only half (51%) believed their organization to be innovative. More than 90% of those surveyed indicated they lacked a clear, actionable digital strategy and effective tools and technology systems, representing significant barriers to innovation and growth.[2]

After joining the Accelerator Centre in 2015, Angelique has been able to drive the business forward, landing key deployments of the GainX platform in several Canadian banks. Thanks to critical AC JumpStart funding made available through FedDev Ontario, she’s also expanding her presence into the US, the UK and other international markets.

“It’s been powerful to be at the Accelerator Centre and to be able to tap into the fantastic network to draw on the resources most needed to help our company grow. The JumpStart funding provided yet another critical stepping-stone in our company’s development and growth.

“We are on the brink of massive change in the innovation market,” says Mohring. “The emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will provide a critical catalyst for innovation, by allowing organizations to unburden smart people from administrative tasks, and to put the right people on the right project to accelerate innovation. It is going to be a huge year for GainX, and I’m so excited I could just about explode.”

 

[1] Boston Consulting Group, 10th Annual Survey, Most Innovative Companies 2015

[2] GainX Insights™ benchmark analysis data.

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TrustPoint finds a culture fit with ETAS Embedded Systems

Originally Published in Communitech News

Written by Craig Daniels

It was the autumn of 2015 and TrustPoint co-founder and CEO Sherry Shannon-Vanstone knew she had a decision to make.

TrustPoint, which develops secure products for the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine communication, needed to grow. And it needed to grow fast. The IoT was booming. Security, smart cities, connected critical infrastructure, all the areas in which TrustPoint was working, were generating unmet demands.

“It takes a lot of resources,” Shannon-Vanstone explained recently.  “We had bootstrapped the company, and we weren’t going to be able to move fast enough. It was time to go out and get a huge investment, and work with a VC, bring in lots of cash, hire people. But even then we would have had to disrupt some of our current projects, just to try to grow. We had to move faster.”

And then opportunity presented itself.

Shannon-Vanstone learned that ETAS Embedded Systems, which provides secure diagnostic and calibration solutions for the automotive industry, was going to open an office in Waterloo Region. A subsidiary of the Bosch Group, ETAS was well known to Shannon-Vanstone and her late husband and co-founder, Scott Vanstone.

Discussion began.

“At first it was just a conversation,” said Shannon-Vanstone, “just a general information gathering of what they were looking for and what we were looking for. At that time, we were interested in a strategic partnership or an investment.

“The conversation was on a casual basis until June (2016) when ETAS Canada opened their office in Kitchener. And at that time, they indicated an interest in TrustPoint.”

Fast forward through many more conversations, and a process of technological and legal due diligence, and you reach the events of last week, when TrustPoint agreed to be acquired by ETAS — when Shannon-Vanstone agreed to sell her “baby.”

“Emotionally, yes, it was tough,” she said. “It’s my baby, and it’s hard to let go of it.”

But the time was right. The fit was right. “There’s a huge opportunity in the Internet of Things right now,” she said.

TrustPoint grew out of a company called Certicom, which was founded by Scott Vanstone in 1985 along with two professors from the University of Waterloo. Certicom worked closely with Research In Motion in the late 1990s, providing security for the company’s smartphones. In 2009, RIM acquired Certicom, and Vanstone and his wife, recognizing the market for secure devices that was building around the rise of IoT, left in 2012 and started TrustPoint.

For Shannon-Vanstone, the decision to throw in with ETAS — other suitors were also interested, she said — was in large part motivated by culture.

“We found the cultural alignment was high on the list. Bosch is a private corporation. They are owned by a foundation. That foundation uses all the profits to build hospitals around the world.

“When Scott and I started TrustPoint, one of our objectives was to be philanthropic. To be a positive influence, globally and locally. So this aligned perfectly with our founding principles.”

The deal with ETAS is still subject to antitrust approval. When it’s finalized, TrustPoint’s 30 people will join ETAS in a yet-to-be-determined location in Waterloo Region.

“I’ll be staying involved for the time being,” said Shannon-Vanstone. “The work, the focus will be the same. Most of the people will have the same job description. We may fine tune over time.”

She doesn’t need to fine-tune her commitment to local tech ecosystem, which she has watched grow since the mid-80s — before there even was a local ecosystem.

“It’s tremendous. We decided to set up in K-W because of the access to talent. The access to the university. The access to the resources for a startup.

“This is my fourth startup but my first as a founder.

“It’s supportive even for people who are little more grey-haired than others.”

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Knowledgehook named BNN’s Top Disruptor of Season 3

Knowledgehook_TopDisruptor_Season3

TORONTO, Ont. (June 2, 2016) – Knowledgehook was today named Top Disruptor of BNN’s original series about tech innovators, The Disruptors.

Knowledgehook, a software company that analyzes the academic performance of math students in real-time play to recommend alternative teaching practices, was one of 38 companies to this season pitch their business concept to hosts Bruce Croxton and Amber Kanwar.

“We’ve been watching The Disruptors since founding Knowledgehook in 2014 and following many of the companies they report on,” CEO Travis Ratnam says. “We’re excited and humbled by this acknowledgement.”

Startups profiled on each segment of BNN’s The Disruptors, a weekly, half-hour program that airs at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, compete each season for the Top Disruptor title.

Following tonight’s appearance, Knowledgehook will be given the opportunity to pitch Croxton’s investment company, Round 13.

Winning the Top Disruptor title comes less than a month since Knowledgehook received Google’s Game Changer Award at the tech giant’s annual Demo Day in Silicon Valley.

To date, more than 6,000 Ontario math teachers have begun zeroing in on each students’ key misunderstandings after reviewing predictive insights which Knowledgehook software generates.

Early results from Knowledgehook suggest that at least 1 in 6 Ontario students in Grade 9 Applied Math are struggling to understand ratios. Knowledgehook unpacks their misunderstanding and suggests how teachers can address it.

The finding, which echoes those of Ontario’s 2015 standardized tests, is based on analysis of more than 2,400 anonymized users between September and April 2016, accurate to within 95% confidence, and a margin of error of 2.5%.

Knowledgehook was founded by Travis Ratnam, Lambo Jayapalan, Arthur Lui and James Francis.

The team is grateful for the support of mentors from Communitech’s Rev and the Accelerator Centre’s AC JumpStart programs.

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Waterloo startup uses drones to inspect all buildings

FTD Highrise

By Terry Pender

WATERLOO — Workers inspecting the outside of a highrise taped a camera to a broomstick to get photos of the structure around the corner of the building.

They worked from a platform that dangled on ropes from the roof, a so-called swing stage, to complete the mandatory visual check of the building’s exterior for cracks, shoddy work and other defects.

Filip Sobotka was working nearby with his father’s construction company and he could not believe his eyes.

“It is just insane. We are dangling humans off the side of a building,” Sobotka says. “That is the best we have come up with so far.”

His father wondered if robots or drones would not do a better job.

“That was the eureka moment,” Sobotka says. “We just thought: ‘There has to be a better way.'”

Sobotka launched a startup based in the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo called FTD Highrise Inspection Inc. that uses drones to take detailed pictures of outside walls, balconies, windows, railings, ledges, bays and the decorative mouldings at the tops of buildings.

“The drones are just a natural fit for this,” Sobotka says. “This is a good opportunity.”

The startup was already generating revenue before it moved into the Accelerator Centre in the David Johnston Research and Technology Park one year ago. The company also is hiring an engineer, a software developer and a machine-learning specialist.

“I like to say: ‘We are not just an idea, this is working, we are doing buildings,” Sobotka says. “We have done 25 to 30 buildings to date.”

Those buildings are across Southern Ontario, including in Waterloo, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Guelph and London.

There are about 4,000 tall buildings in the Greater Toronto Area that require regular inspections, says Sobotka. There are about 60 in Waterloo Region. New York City is the big market, though, with 700,000 tall buildings.

“We will be there eventually, but we want to hit our stride here,” Sobotka says.

Operators of drones used for research or work, regardless of the size, must file a Special Flight Operations Certificate with Transport Canada’s Civil Aviation Office. The application must include contact information and describe how, when and where the drone will be used. The application must spell out how the operator plans to handle any safety issues.

Sobotka says Highrise Inspection won’t put a drone in the air if the winds are higher than 15 km/h and it never deploys one near airports. The company also notifies everyone in the building ahead of time to allay concerns about privacy. Sobotka notes that having a drone fly past a window is probably less invasive than having workers taking photos from a swing stage.

Photos taken by the startup’s drones are stored on a platform that clients can access at any time. Building owners and managers get a complete visual record of their property, for insurance and maintenance schedules.

The software platform being developed by Highrise Inspection will use the visual data and algorithms to predict further deterioration. That information can be used for preventive maintenance and repairs before problems become more expensive to fix.

“That is a bit long-term, but we are working on it right now,” Sobotka says. “That will happen in a year or two when we will have a machine-learning aspect to it.”

Once he hires the rest of the team, Sobotka wants to focus on raising funds to grow the business.

“Then I can go to an investor and say: ‘Here is what I need your money for,'” he says. “And I have the team in place.”

Sobotka, 29, did a degree in commerce at McMaster University in Hamilton, but his family background is in construction. His father’s company, JB&FT Construction in Mississauga specializes in caulking.

Sobotka’s father came up with the idea for using drones to inspect buildings, and spent years trying to develop a business around it. A few years ago, Sobotka took it over to pursue it full-time.

“I saw the potential in this,” he says. “I am off and running with it, and it is exciting. It’s working.”

tpender@therecord.com

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In The Chat enables TD to offer customer support through Facebook

John Huehn - AC Client Showcase 2015

TD partners with AC Client to be the first bank in the world to offer customer service through Facebook Messenger

TORONTO, Dec. 22, 2015 /CNW/ – TD Bank Group announced the launch of customer service through Messenger.  Taking comfort and convenience to the next level, TD is the first bank, globally, to offer Messenger as a way of connecting with customers.

“Whether it is in a branch, over the phone, or on your mobile device, the core of what we do is about delivering legendary experiences for our customers and unparalleled convenience and service every single day,” said Theresa McLaughlin, incoming Chief Marketing Officer, TD Bank Group. “We are excited to be able to extend our ability to engage with our customers in a convenient and timely way through Messenger. More than 16 million Canadians use Facebook every day, so it is an important communication platform for us to make a more personal, human connection with our customers.”

We are making it easier than ever for customers to connect with a TD specialist anytime. In 2011, TD was the first bank in Canada to offer customer service 17 hours a day, seven days a week through a dedicated North American Social Customer Service team on Twitter and Facebook. In addition to today’s launch of Messenger, earlier this year TD launched texting as part of Social Customer Service, TD Helps (the TD online advice community) and TD Live Chat on tdcanadatrust.com where customers are able to start a real-time conversation.

“More than 700 million people use Messenger to stay connected to the people and now, businesses, they care about. We’re pleased that TD Bank Group is leading the way in the Financial Services sector, delivering their customers the best way to communicate quickly, conveniently and within context…all inside one of their favourite apps,” said Jordan Banks, Managing Director, Facebook Canada.

“We know Messenger is a popular and widely used platform and this demonstrates our belief in making sure we bring customer service to where our customers are,” added McLaughlin.

Starting today customers can simply open up the Messenger app and search for TD to begin a conversation with our TD live agents between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. ET, seven days a week. This new service is enabled by In the Chat, a digital customer service platform that brings together messaging capabilities with social media, text, chat and emerging mobile channels in a single, convenient solution.

TD will not ask you to provide personal information, or login information such as usernames, passwords, PINs, IdentificationPlus security questions and answers, or account numbers, through Messenger. For more information on TD’s online communication policy please visit us at https://www.td.com/privacy-and-security/privacy-and-security/how-we-protect-you/online-security/onlinepolicy.jsp.

 

About TD Bank Group

The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries are collectively known as TD Bank Group (“TD” or the “Bank”). TD is the sixth largest bank in North America by branches and serves more than 24 million customers in three key businesses operating in a number of locations in financial centres around the globe: Canadian Retail, including TD Canada Trust, TD Auto Finance Canada, TD Wealth (Canada), TD Direct Investing, and TD Insurance; U.S. Retail, including TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank, TD Auto Finance U.S., TD Wealth (U.S.), and an investment in TD Ameritrade; and Wholesale Banking, including TD Securities. TD also ranks among the world’s leading online financial services firms, with approximately 10.2 million active online and mobile customers. TD had CDN$1.1 trillion in assets on October 31, 2015. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades under the symbol “TD” on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.

SOURCE TD Bank Group

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Sober Steering named as Top Ten Startup of the New Automotive Industry

AC Client, and soon to be Graduate, Sober Steering was named one of the Top Ten Startups of the New Automotive Industry today by the LA Auto Show’s Connected Car Expo Advisory Board.homepage-hero-bg

Sober Steering, the world’s only touch based alcohol interlock, has developed groundbreaking technology to prevent drunk driving. Its sensors, inserted directly into a steering wheel of a vehicle, have proven that alcohol can be detected at the palm of the hand in less than five minutes after initial ingestion. If alcohol is detected above a preset limit, the vehicle is immobilized. Random retests ensure the driver maintains sobriety while en route. Its Zero Tolerance System is designed for fleets like school buses, coaches, hazmat, and construction vehicles.

Sober Steering is set to Graduate from the Accelerator program at the AC Client Showcase this week.

Also named as a Top Ten startup were:

  • Driversiti
  • Capio
  • Elio Motors
  • Getaround
  • High Mobility
  • HopSkipDrive
  • Nebula Sytems
  • TriLumina
  • Quanergy
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AC Client Konectera launches new equine wearable SeeHorse

In a world where everything is becoming connected and quantified, dogs, cats and even horses won’t be spared. Connecting and quantifying animals isn’t new for Kitchener-Waterloo startup Konectera. The company launched CLEO Collar back in 2013 to keep tabs on smaller animals like dogs and cats and have recently introduced a new product, SeeHorse, to monitor and track horses.

Konectera is not structured like your typical startup. The company oversees multiple startups holding the IP, legal rights and equity across all of them. CEO Peter Mankowski calls it the “mothership” and both CLEO Collar and SeeHorse are the first of two startups under the corporation. For now, the mothership is focused on wearable technology for pets, but Mankowski told BetaKit that human wearables are being considered. The Konectera website positions the company as an “industry leader in machine to machine communication” using cloud-based sensor management platforms to service the pet, medical, first responder and other industrial applications. In March of this year, Konectera became one of seventeen companies accepted in the first Accelerator Centre (AC) JumpStart cohort, receiving $30,000 in seed capital and mentorship.

Mankowski’s second startup, SeeHorse, on the other hand, is already selling its product to the public, being much further along than CLEO Collar despite only being launched a couple of months ago. Mankowski told us that SeeHorse’s traction is due to work already done with CLEO Collar, along with an undisclosed round of investment received by Konectera provided specifically to get SeeHorse into the market.

To read the full article, click here.

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TD Kitchener Blues Festival Selects LoyaltyMatch

InVenue® mobile App and “Digital Passport” will let concert-goers check in and win

The TD Kitchener Blues Festival, which expects to attract more than 150,000 people this year to its multi-venue event on August 6-9, has selected LoyaltyMatch to provide its InVenue mobile app and Digital Passport for concert-goers to use to check-in and win prizes and vendors to collect information that will help them understand their customers better. Festival organizers are also interested to know which shows and venues attract the most blues lovers.

Concert-goers will use the Digital Passport festival app to check-in at various sponsored events where they can share photos, posts and Tweets on social media.  A “stamp” for attending and sharing the events on social media is placed and tracked in the Digital Passport. Using the InVenue®mobile app, the festival organizers will be able to scan a QR code created in the Digital Passport and offer the concert-goer additional stamps for food or merchandise purchase.  Attendees with enough stamps will be eligible for a variety of prizes, including 2016 TD Kitchener Blues Festival tickets.

As in the past, approximately 70 vendors will provide the food, drinks and merchandise that attendees need to keep going throughout the event. The InVenue app will enable them to gather customer data and could assist them to maintain contact after the event.

About The TD Kitchener Blues Festival 

The TD Kitchener Blues Festival is an internationally recognized, family-friendly, non-profit event, operated by a community organization and administered by a volunteer Board of Directors and over 400 volunteers. There is no admission fee for most of the shows that run over the four-days. For more information visit kitchenerbluesfestival.com.