Two local health-tech companies have received a combined $1.9 million from the Government of Ontario to expand manufacturing, accelerate commercialization and bring advanced medical technologies to global markets.
Intellijoint Surgical Inc. and Vena Medical were both founded by Waterloo Engineering alumni and grew out of their fourth-year Capstone Design projects.
Intellijoint Surgical, co-founded by Armen Bakirtzian (BASc ’08), Andre Hladio (BASc ’08, MASc ’10) and Richard Fanson (BASc ’08), specializes in orthopaedic surgical technologies and will receive $450,000. The funds will support the integration of artificial intelligence and automation into Intellijoint’s production and distribution workflows, helping the company scale operations while maintaining precision and reliability. The investment also supports 34 existing jobs and will create three new highly skilled roles.
Vena Medical, co-founded by Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper, develops intravascular imaging technologies used by physicians during stroke interventions and real-time diagnostics, will receive $1.5 million to establish a new Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in Kitchener. The funding will support nine existing positions and create 13 new high-skilled jobs as the company expands production and brings its imaging technologies to more hospitals and patients.
"Our team has engineered a highly complex, microscopic medical device, and now we have the state-of-the-art cleanroom and manufacturing infrastructure to build it at scale," says Phillip Cooper (BASc ’17), co-founder & COO of Vena Medical. "With the backing of the LSSUF, we are scaling our manufacturing right here in Kitchener. We are ready to take this Kitchener-Waterloo-born innovation to the rest of the world.”
The provincial funding is from the Government of Ontario’s new Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund (LSSUF), a $24-million provincial initiative designed to strengthen Ontario’s biomanufacturing sector, accelerate innovation and attract new investment in life sciences. By supporting companies that have moved beyond early validation and are ready to scale, the program aims to help Ontario-based innovators grow globally while creating high-skilled jobs at home.
Vena is part of the Velocity Health stream, which supports early-stage startups in validating and commercializing medical and health-related technologies.
Go to Intellijoint Surgical Inc. and Vena Medical awarded $1.9 million from Ontario’s Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund for the full story.