IoT – AC Demo

June 19, 2017

eleven-x Leads the Way in Canadian Smart City Connectivity

The last few months have been busy for Accelerator Centre client, eleven -x. The network operator, who launched Canada’s first carrier-grade low power wide area network built for IoT, has started a pilot project with the Region of Waterloo which is a North American first, expanded their network across Canada, and increased their role in the LoRa Alliance™.

Founded in 2014, the eleven-x network, built on LoRaWAN™ open standard technology, offers private businesses, manufacturers, and public institutions the ability to connect to “things” remotely and collect data from them via inexpensive, low power devices.

In 2015, they joined the Accelerator Centre in order to leverage the mentoring and resources available to startups to help their business grow. “We came to the Accelerator Centre for the mentorship opportunities. We had a lot of great ideas in the beginning, but there wasn’t necessarily a market fit. The mentors helped us through that,” explains CEO and Co-founder Ryan Hickey.

New IoT Projects

A recent development with the Region of Waterloo will result in Canada’s first Smart City Water Monitoring project utilizing the LoRaWAN network. Currently, the Region collects data on its water supply through a manual series of data collections from over 700 wells. The delays in data collection limits the ability for the Region to make decisions on it’s important water supply. The implementation of low-cost monitoring devices connected to the eleven-x network allows for real-time data and automated event-driven alerts that have the potential to save time and money and provide better quality services to residents.

Expanded Network

As a response to the increasing demand for Smart City programs nationwide, eleven-x announced this week the expansion of their network to 22 markets covering 60% of Canada’s population. “Our coast-to-coast network expansion supports Smart City programs, enabling application and low-cost device connectivity to take IoT to another level and reinforces our leadership position. The list projects we are involved in continues to grow alongside the numerous organizations across Canada looking to reduce costs, increase productivity and enhance their service offerings.” says Chairman and Co-Founder Dan Mathers.

Leading the Way

As leaders in the Canadian IoT space, eleven-x has also expanded their role within the LoRa Alliance, a global association of some of the world’s top companies which provides open standard technology for secure, low-cost, low power IoT connectivity,. The transition to the Contributor Member level will allow the Alliance to leverage eleven-x’s expertise to further innovation in the global IoT space.

The worldwide IoT market is expected to continue growing rapidly and is estimated to be valued at more than $10B by 2023. As the market expands, eleven-x will continue to innovate and lead the way in Canadian IoT connectivity solutions.

May 31, 2017

eleven-x and Region of Waterloo Partner for Canada’s First Smart City Water Monitoring Project Utilizing LoRaWAN™ Network

WATERLOO, ON – CANADA | May 31, 2017 – eleven-x™, operator of Canada’s first and only coast-to-coast LoRaWAN™ Low Power Wide Area Network, is pleased to announce a new Smart City development project with the Region of Waterloo.
The first IoT application of its kind in Canada, the Region of Waterloo and eleven-x are teaming up to test the real-time automated data collection from the Region’s water supply production and monitoring wells. eleven-x’s next generation network enables connectivity with low cost devices that could provide the Region with real-time communication of the status of key parameters for managing the Region’s primary water supply sources.

About 75% of the water supply for the Region is derived from groundwater through a system of 132 large production wells extracting water from local sand, gravel and rock aquifers. The Region automatically captures data from a network of 585 monitoring wells to assess any impacts and provide information to manage its water supply sources. However, the data is only collected manually several times over the course of a year which results in delays in getting status information for each of the supply wells. These delays restrict the decision-making ability of the Region in terms of managing its water supply sources.

eleven-x is integrating their next generation network to connect with data logging devices to enable automated measuring and tracking of well water levels and temperature from select production and monitoring wells. Water data will be collected and communicated automatically on an hourly basis. Additionally, a newly added capability of event-driven real-time alerts based on pre-determined parameters, such as significant level fluctuations, will also be tested.

According to Eric Hodgins, Manager, Hydrogeology and Source Water at Region of Waterloo, “The value we gain in having well water data at our finger tips is tremendous for us in terms of decision-making. The technology may allow us to connect our wells directly with our water operations management system and give us the ability to advance the way we monitor and manage this crucial resource”.

“Real-time updates on our wells will give us a better understanding of what is happening with our water supply sources and could really improve this key service we provide to the residents of our Region. The opportunity to reduce our costs is a real bonus,” said Nancy Kodousek, Director, Water Services at Region of Waterloo.

Dan Mathers, Chairman and Co-Founder of eleven-x, said “IoT applications have the potential to help organizations with getting accurate and timely data while greatly improving the costs associated with capturing that data. For the Region of Waterloo, the connectivity our network enables for real-time well water data collection could have an immensely positive impact for them.”

Launched late last year, eleven-x provides a LoRaWAN™ based carrier grade network that enables low cost connectivity and data communications for IoT applications. In addition to the deployment with the Region of Waterloo, the company currently also has other pilots underway enables Smart City initiatives such as Smart Parking and Smart Street Lighting, as well as Industrial and Enterprise IoT applications such as Smart Metering, Asset Monitoring, Smart Buildings and Smart Agriculture.

About The Region of Waterloo
The Region of Waterloo provides more than 60 per cent of municipal services to a growing population of 570,000 people. We are committed to creating an inclusive, thriving and sustainable community through innovative leadership and a range of services such as public health, social services, planning, heritage, water supply, regional roads, waste management, ambulance service, rural libraries, public transit, community housing, emergency planning, Provincial Offences Courts and airport services.

About eleven-x
eleven-x is a network operator enabling the Internet of Things. Our purpose-built low power wide area network is the first of its kind in Canada, providing connectivity for a wide variety of sensors and applications. Our next generation network enables customers in the Private and Public sectors to efficiently and cost effectively manage assets, create and maintain Smart Cities, and realize environmental sustainability. Visit eleven-x.com for more information.

April 28, 2017

Alert Labs Announces Intact Ventures as a Strategic Investor

Originally published by Alert Labs

KITCHENER, ONTARIO, April 19, 2017 – Alert Labs Inc., designer of easy-to-install, cellular-connected home protection technology, is thrilled to announce an investment by Intact Ventures, the strategic venture arm of Intact Financial Corporation, Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. BDC Capital, Garage Capital, Hedgewood Inc., and several angel and private investors have also invested in Alert Labs in order to accelerate marketing activities and scale business operations.

In 2015, Canadian insurance companies spent approximately $2.6 billion repairing homes due to water damage. In the USA, 45 per cent of the $41.2 billion in home insurance claims were due to water damage and freezing pipes. In the next 5 years, it’s expected that North American insurers will spend over $100 billion to repair water damage in customers’ homes. Alert Labs is committed to helping the insurance industry reduce preventable expenditures.

“This represents Intact Ventures’ first investment in Canada. It’s exciting to support a company like Alert Labs that is developing technology that will help protect homeowners and mitigate risk,” says Karim Hirji, Senior Vice President, Intact Ventures, “We appreciate the importance of providing homeowners and businesses with innovative solutions that are easy to use, cost effective and reliable. The value of this type of technology will continue to grow as we adapt to climate change.”

Alert Labs’ Flowie water sensor and Floodie companion sensor work together to protect homes from flood damage, and to provide minute-by-minute water use information. This allows Alert Labs’ analytics engine to identify leaks from the municipal water supply, like a leaky toilet or malfunctioning furnace humidifier, and to share insight into water conservation opportunities. Homeowners receive email and mobile alerts for floods, leaks, high or continual water use, and power outages. Alert Labs’ sensors are cellular-connected with a built-in battery backup, which means they don’t rely on WiFi and will continue to operate during an ice storm or power outage. Flowie also reports basement temperature and humidity which gives early warning about environments with higher potential for mould or freezing pipes.

“It is inspiring to have Canada’s leading insurance company believe in our vision and goals, and we’re grateful for the financial support of our investors. This will ultimately enable us to share our products with more customers,” says George Tsintzouras, CEO of Alert Labs. “We’ve designed our sensors with our customer’s experience as the top priority. Our sensors are as easy to install as a watch or a Fitbit – everyone can do it with no tools or professional installers.”

Alert Labs also recently announced a program with the City of Guelph, Ontario. As the largest city in Canada that relies solely on groundwater for its water source, Guelph is promoting Alert Labs’ Flowie Water Sensor Kit as a tool to drive water conservation, and is offering a rebate to its residents for purchasing Alert Labs’ leak and flood protection solution.

Sources:
http://assets.ibc.ca/Documents/Facts%20Book/Facts_Book/2016/Facts-Book-2016.pdf
https://www.cia-ica.ca/docs/default-source/2014/214020e.pdf
http://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/homeowners-and-renters-insurance

About Alert Labs Inc.
Alert Labs is an IoT technology company based in Kitchener, Ontario. They were the $100,000 winners at Communitech’s Rev Demo day in November 2016. Alert Labs builds affordable monitoring solutions for residential and commercial property owners. Alert Labs’ simple-to-deploy sensors can be placed on water meters, sump pumps, near toilets and other appliances to detect water leaks, floods, power issues, abnormal temperatures, and other events. Customers receive real-time alerts and insightful data analytics via SMS, email, and the Alert Labs app. Visit www.alertlabs.com.

February 17, 2017

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.”

September 28, 2016

Welcome to 44 Gaukel: Accelerator Centre Launches New Hardware Innovation Lab

An incredible mix of art and technology in a groundbreaking new facility

Today we’re thrilled to announce the official opening of our new hardware innovation lab in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Located at 44 Gaukel St., this newest expansion offers hardware startups 10,000 square feet prototyping and lab space, access to tools and resources, including 3D printers, as well as a freight elevator and loading dock for shipping and receiving.

The facility is run in partnership with ArtsBuild Ontario, an organization dedicated to supporting local artists by providing tools, training and resources that support the development and sustainable creative spaces. The facility is also supported in part by the City of Kitchener.

“We’re very excited to work with the City of Kitchener and ArtsBuild Ontario as we expand our world-class incubation offering, helping innovative hardware and IoT companies grow and scale their businesses here in Waterloo Region, ” says Paul Salvini, CEO of the Accelerator Centre. “Expanding into Downtown Kitchener allows the AC to support our clients who want to be in a central, urban environment, while continuing to bring the same excellence in programming, mentorship, and experience that we’re renowned for.”

“We are thrilled to partner with the Accelerator Centre and the City of Kitchener in providing creative space for our community’s artists and arts organizations,” added Lindsay Golds, Executive Director, ArtsBuild Ontario. “We are so pleased to offer those in need of rehearsal or administrative space an affordable and suitable location for their important work in Downtown Kitchener. We are excited by the potential for collaboration opportunities between the tech and the arts sector that this location can provide.”

The historic building, originally built as a Canada Post depot, also houses the University of Waterloo’s Critical Media Lab and part of Conestoga College’s School of Media and Design on the first floor. Joining the Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild on the second floor is MyShop, an industrial makerspace, offering an array of industrial prototyping tools, as well as training, allowing Clients at the AC to rapidly design and build their products right inside the building.

“Being a part of the new hardware lab at 44 Gaukel Street is an important and exciting move for us. The Accelerator Centre’s support has been pivotal for our business and we’ve already developed new customers through people visiting the facility. Being in the business of 3D printing, InkSmith is right at home in a space where art and technology collide.”
Jeremy Hedges , President, InkSmith

“There are so many great things happening in hardware and advanced manufacturing right now in Waterloo Region,” says Josh Kubassek, President at MyShop. “It’s important for us to be a part of the AC’s lab at 44 Gaukel, helping to empower startup companies to design and prototype these amazing new technologies.”

The Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild Ontario invite the community to celebrate the opening of 44 Gaukel on Tuesday, October 4 at 4:00 – 8:00 p.m., on the second floor. Tenants from both the arts and technology sectors will be showcasing their work at the event.

The space is filling quickly, however both the Accelerator Centre and ArtsBuild Ontario are currently accepting applications for tenancy. Apply to the AC.

May 2, 2016

Racing the Dream

How AC Client HH Development is making Formula 1 Racing into a data driven sport

J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, wrote, “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” For some this might seem like a flight of fancy. For others, like Andrew Hall, Director at HH Development, it’s a way of life.

He’s been fascinated by motorsports since he was a child. Now, through his company’s acceptance into the Accelerator Centre in September, 2015, his day job is his dream job.

HH Development currently has two business models. The first, HH Timing, provides endurance racing teams a consistent, accurate and graphical way to track metrics, like speed, fuel consumption and even the number of pit stops — details that matter when tenths of a second stand between a victory lap or going back to the drawing board.

The second, yet to be named venture, is a two-pronged system of inventory management and performance tracking that they are currently developing for a major European tire manufacturer. Through the use of an RFID device, it can track a shipment of tires from delivery through to how each tire performed during the race.

Commenting on his Accelerator Centre experience so far, Andrew states, “It’s like I’m going to business school. But, instead of doing case studies on imaginary companies, when I graduate, I’ll have my own business.”

With a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Waterloo and Bachelor of Aerospace Electronics and Systems Engineering from Carleton University, Andrew is rightfully confident in his technical abilities.

However, he noted that even the process of applying to the Accelerator Centre was educational. “We literally didn’t know what we didn’t know about our business. Rightly or wrongly, we hadn’t made the time to develop a comprehensive business plan.”

During their first month in the program, the lessons that the members of HH Development learned were transformative. Andrew credits mentors Kevin Elop, Steven Fyke, Kevin Hood and Bob Rushby with helping his company evolve from operating in a young, ad hoc manner to adopting more more mature and viable processes, “We looked at our structure, our finances, our markets and basically everything.”

Recently when Kevin Hood stopped Andrew to ask why they hadn’t sat down to talk in awhile, Andrew answered, “Because I’m still addressing all of the things you opened our eyes to in our last meeting.”

Where would he like to be 10 years from now? He’d like to doing exactly what he’s doing right now, but on a larger scale, serving more clients. “We love what we do and we’ve only just gotten started.”

The Rundown

Business philosophy: There’s no substitute for the value of hard work.

Business heroes: All of the AC mentors.

Person he’d most like to have lunch with: Any of his clients or colleagues.

Things most people don’t know:

His attempted career as a racecar driver was woefully short-lived.
He’s lived in four countries (Canada, England, Austria and the United States).
He’s terrified of flying.

April 14, 2016

Swift Labs and Miovision team up to make smart city magic

Miovision – a company with a history of teaming up in the Waterloo Region sandbox – has just announced its most recent strategic partnership: with hardware design and testing startup Swift Labs.

Swift Labs and Miovision are both the sort of hardcore, engineering-focused company that’s becoming the hallmark of Waterloo Region tech, and they’ve joined forces on a mysterious project codenamed “Magic Sensor”. According to McBride, developing the prototype meant Swift Labs “stretched the laws of physics beyond what we thought was possible.”

NDAs are keeping details mum, but the tea leaves suggest a wireless, connected sensor designed specially for the smart city. Miovision is no stranger to smart sensors: the company’s flagship product, Spectrum, tracks vehicle movement in real-time, collecting data that planners use to make roads and cities more efficient.

Swift Labs specializes in wireless hardware, with particular focus on regulatory and compliance testing: whatever the two companies are cooking up, it’ll probably play nicely with others. Swift Labs prides itself on working with the world’s top labs to make sure their clients have full predictability before entering the certification cycle.

“Smart cities are going to be driven by the Internet of Things,” said Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride. “Cities are basically made up of little point-problems. Some of the larger, more well-known companies are coming in with a top-down approach, saying ‘you’ve been a dumb city for a long time, now we’re going to make you a smart city, just pay us oodles of money.’

“Our approach is to come in at the point-problem level. Focus on intersections, focus on data-collection, focus on parking. Understand the real problems, and come up with smaller tools to actually solve them, but always with a mind to the bigger picture: how it will all come together to create a smart city. We’ve found an incremental approach is a lot better than one-time, transformational change.”

For Swift Labs, the partnership was most unique for its intimacy.

“Miovision is a big company with a really strong reputation for its engineering talent,” said Swift Labs co-founder and CEO Anthony Middleton. “But the team really trusted us and enabled us to provide services to them. In a way, we were able to augment the teams. Rather than just be stand-off and deliver a service or product in six weeks, we really integrated ourselves and embedded ourselves within their teams to understand their use-cases, customers, and culture. This delivery wasn’t stand alone, we were really enabled by Miovision and I think that’s reflected in the result.”

As Miovision brings the “Magic Sensor” to market, details will start trickling out. For now, McBride and Middleton are basking in the success of a locally-grown partnership bearing fruit.

The biggest surprise that came from these firms collaborating?

“Anthony hitting the date,” said McBride. “It was impossible.”

Photo: Mexico City-12 by Edmund Garman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

April 1, 2016

AC Grad blueRover partners with Rogers to offer IoT as a service

Rogers first Canadian carrier to introduce Internet of Things ‘as a service’ for Canadian businesses

Mar 31, 2016

Businesses can connect, manage devices and the flow of data from IoT solutions in one place

TORONTO, March 31, 2016 /CNW/ – Rogers Communications announced today it is the first Canadian carrier to offer Internet of Things (IoT) ‘as a service’ to simplify the process of managing complex IoT solutions. Two of the first solutions being offered as a service include Farm & Food Monitoring and Level Monitoring, and Rogers will deliver these exclusively with blueRover, a Canadian-based provider. The solutions will be supported end-to-end by Rogers, including the management of devices, applications and connectivity for customers.

“Connectivity is now table stakes today when it comes to supporting the Internet of Things – for Canadian businesses to drive real productivity with this technology, they need solutions that are simple to deploy and manage,” said Charlie Wade, SVP, Products and Solutions, Enterprise Business Unit. “With blueRover, we’re bringing connectivity, monitoring and management of IoT solutions in-house so our customers can focus on running their business while we take care of managing the day-to-day.”

blueRover, a Canadian leader in the Internet of Things, provides IoT solutions across many industries. These solutions allow businesses to securely track and monitor assets in real-time, and also automate manual business processes using sensor technology and secure data pathways. A Rogers-dedicated IoT Support team will additionally monitor these solutions to ensure the customer’s service is always on.

Rogers Enterprise customers will have access to the following IoT services:

End-to-End Incident Management – Today, many businesses troubleshoot and manage their own IoT device and network issues, with multiple suppliers. IoT as a Service will be fully managed by Rogers, including connectivity monitoring and management of IoT endpoints. Rogers IoT Support Teams will immediately action solutions for customers when issues arise.
Farm & Food Monitoring: Sensor technology that securely monitors, tracks and automates devices and machines that are used in farming and food services industries such as refrigerators, freezers, deep fryers and ovens. These solutions further help business customers to comply with food safety regulations and to reduce food wastage overall.
Level Monitoring: A solution for businesses that require tools to measure and monitor levels of liquids, including grain, oil, water and waste matter. The solution has the ability to monitor liquid levels in order to eliminate the labour intensive processes required by many businesses today to manually refill or empty tanks, bins, and containers prior to capacity. This automated process has potential to reduce the use of emergency deliveries and services, which in turn saves businesses time and money.

“Today just over 45% of Canadian organizations are deploying Internet of Things solutions and we predict the IoT market in Canada to reach a value of $13.5 billion by 2019,” said Nigel Wallis, Research Director, IDC Canada. “By offering IoT solutions as a Service, Rogers, together with blueRover, have the potential to drive adoption of IoT solutions by removing the burden of managing these complex solutions for Canadian businesses.”

The solutions announced today are the first in a series of IoT ‘as a Service’ solutions that Rogers will introduce to the market to remove the complexity for Canadian businesses. Additional solutions being offered as a service today include Cold Chain Management and Food Safety Monitoring for restaurants and food kitchens.

For more information about IoT solutions from Rogers, visit rogers.com/DiscoverIoT