Cleo Collar – AC Demo

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 15^th 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:

Healthcare technology provider, Alaunus
Transportation analytics provider, Brisk Synergies
Healthcare technology provider, Bykart Software
Mobile shopping deals provider, Consumer Kinetics
Wealth creation solution provider, Emerging Star Investment Group
Medical diagnostic tool developer, ExVivo Labs
Pet wearable creator, Konectera
Mobile device education solution provider, KTS Global
Programmable surface creators, Maieutic Enterprises Incorporated
Fresh meals on the go provider, Meal in a Jar
Advanced nano-composite manufacturer, NanoQuan Inc.
Learning platform provider, NeuRecall Inc.
Smart footware provider, NGTronix Industries Corporation
Web-based dental practice management provider, iKylk Dental
Social media curation company, Trending.Info
Intelligent digital out-of-home advertising solution provider, SmartAd
Circuit board prototype innovators, Voltera Inc.

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.

When former BlackBerry Ltd. employee Peter Mankowski became the latest casualty of the struggling technology company’s corporate restructuring, he didn’t spend a lot of time mourning his old job.

The 50-year-old scientist took his severance package and dipped into his RRSPs to help fund his own startup, CLEO Collar, a wearable pet technology firm inspired by his love of animals.

Since Mr. Mankowski’s job ended in the first week of June, the CLEO Collar CEO has put together a team of 20 employees, including three other ex-BlackBerry engineers, to work with him to develop and sell the electronic hardware device. It allows pet owners to remotely track the location and vital signs of their cat or dog.

“I always had this voice in my heart. I didn’t just want to build phones,” says Mr. Mankowski, who spent four years working at Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry. His last title there was technical team lead for advanced connectivity, until his research division was shut down.

BlackBerry, Canada’s best-known technology company, has laid off more than half of its employees in the past few years – shedding roughly 10,000 workers since 2011 – as it dukes it out with Apple Inc. and other providers in the highly competitive smartphone space

Mr. Mankowski is one of several ex-BlackBerry employees who have decided to stick it out in the Waterloo region and start their own companies, instead of being lured away by other technology firms in Canada, the United States and other parts of the world.

Read the full article here.

Tag: Cleo Collar

AC Client Konectera talks to the Globe & Mail about their New Wearable Pet Technology Startup