Supercharge your commercialization aspirations with Up Start

One of the most rewarding experiences anyone can have is bringing technology to market. Up Start is the opportunity for the University of Waterloo community to step out and build a technology company.

Built by Velocity and the Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo), student researchers, founders and recent alumni will be funded and have access to resources from both Velocity and WatCo.

Up Start is accepting applications now and will welcome its first cohort this October. Accepted teams will work closely with Velocity and WatCo advisors to conduct market research, develop a business plan and receive funding to help get them started.

Innovators will be guided through the process of commercializing ideas into a venture that will disrupt the marketplace and create a positive impact on society. 

Canada’s innovation university

A new generation of founders are on campus today and the University of Waterloo is one of the nation’s top research universities and Canada’s top university for founders.

Every year, ambitious students and innovators launch new ventures from the Waterloo campus with the potential to revolutionize industries and create a positive impact on society, enabled by Waterloo’s strong entrepreneurship culture, unique “creator-own” intellectual property policy and more than 45 different extra-curricular programs that support students and founders.

We regularly see UWaterloo founders who are inspiring future founders to go after their ambitious ideas.

Evelyn Allen (P. Eng., M.Eng.) wanted to make an impact by commercializing Dr. Michael Pope’s (Chem. Eng.) ground-breaking research and built her company, Evercloak, to support that goal.

“Effective solutions to global climate challenges come from world-class research that has been rigorously developed,” says Allen, the CEO and co-founder of Evercloak. “This takes time, resources and persistence, but it is immensely inspiring to see our company grow from research to market.” 

This spin-out company created with support from WatCo and Velocity is as cool as it gets. Their focus is to significantly reduce the energy use and associated greenhouse gas related with building cooling. Evercloack is commercializing a manufacturing platform for producing continuous, large area nanofilms.

“As an advanced material company with a breakthrough approach for producing 2D nanofilms, Evercloak is creating new and novel cooling methods,” Allen says. “Our nanofilms disrupt traditional energy cooling systems by dehumidifying air more efficiently, and that results in a real impact when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate change.”

Up Start your startup

Join Up Start and be guided through the process of commercializing your idea into a venture that will transform an industry, and like Evercloak, you too can make your mark. 

Seeing research efforts translate into socio-economic impact is a driving motivator for researchers. “Pursuing an entrepreneurship pathway with your research innovations is an effective way to see your vision become a reality. This program and funding will support students to explore what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and to make informed decisions about their future,” says Scott Inwood, director of commercialization for WatCo.

Are you building something big? Feeling like you should commercialize your research? Have you started a company and are looking for someone to help you move faster? We want to hear from you!