The AC Celebrates Our Newest Graduates

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Alaunus and TrafficSoda mark milestone as the AC approaches 10 years!

The Accelerator Centre is very proud to continue building on our track record for fostering amazing, successful tech  companies with the Graduation of Alaunus and TrafficSoda, our 50th and 51st Graduates. This milestone graduation coincides with our 10th anniversary, capping off a decade of supporting some of the most innovative and successful companies anywhere. We’re excited to welcome Alaunus and TrafficSoda to the elite club of AC Graduates, which includes Canadian tech stars such as Axonify, Clearpath Robotics, Kik, Magnet Forensics, Miovision, Plasticity and Top Hat.

Founded in 2011, by Wilfrid Laurier University graduate Andrew Ringer, Alaunus provides mobile IT solutions for the Canadian healthcare landscape. The company’s flagship product HealthPlanr is a fully mobile practice management solution that allows care providers to increase efficiency, improve care and collaborate securely.

TrafficSoda, founded by Wilfrid Laurier University business graduate Jessica Chalk, is a powerful B2B platform that helps businesses drive prospects to their website and convert those visitors into buying customers. Jessica was recently nominated for a 2016 Business Excellence Award in the category of Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

“We are incredibly proud of our Graduates and the contribution they are making every day to economic growth in Waterloo Region. These are tomorrow’s business and technology leaders,” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre. “Collectively our Grads have created 1,500+ jobs, and have generated more than $500M in investment and revenue. That’s a hugely impressive achievement over just a decade of effort.”

First AC JumpStart Cohort Announced

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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.