Entrepreneurship

Building ethical technology is “not a destination, it’s a journey,” said Jennifer Boger, professor in the Faculty of Engineering and chief science officer at ESG.AI. 

As tech evolves, so must our approach to its responsible development. But the increasing complexity and speed of innovation make it feel impossible to keep up. 

The University of Waterloo will become the first post-secondary institution in Canada to invest from its endowment into a venture capital (VC) fund launched by the team behind its affiliated startup incubator.  

Earlier this year, the Narwhal Project released their annual Narwhal List, which tracks Canadian technology companies that are on their way to unicorn status based on their billion-dollar annual revenues.    

The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) proudly announced the recipients of its prestigious Sustainable Future Competition funding during its Annual General Meeting. The competition, which attracted project proposals from small- to medium-sized enterprises in southern Ontario, aims to drive social, environmental and economic sustainability in the aviation or aerospace sectors.

Robotics company Cobionix has raised a $2.8 million seed round to deploy its commercial robotics system Codi, an industry-first tele-robotic medical imaging tool.

The company, which is part of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity incubator, hopes that Codi will increase access to diagnostic imaging services and save healthcare costs by reducing procedure time, ultimately improving patient care.

Anna Liebenberg ( BASc ’22) and Shreshth Mehra ( BASc ’22) bonded over a mutual love of fitness.

Both, however, experienced moments of isolation in their athletic pursuits. For Mehra, it was when he was training for Iron Man, a long-distance triathlon event. For Liebenberg, it was when she was lifting weights at the gym without help from a personal trainer.

Grand River Hospital Foundation’s Care Never Stops Week (from May 23 to May 28) featured a Health Innovation Challenge in partnership with the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Incubator, a free public talk with Tomi Poutanen, CEO and Co-founder of artificial intelligence-driven health company Signal 1, and a grand finale Rally for Health, with a free public concert. 

Waterloo student-founded company Safi – from the Swahili word for “pure” or “safe” – is a startup with an ambitious mission. They want to empower East African farmers to pasteurize milk cheaply and easily, with the ultimate goal of ending milk-transmitted disease. Today, Safi’s founders are working with governments, presenting at international conferences and preparing for a 300-unit test rollout in Rwanda. Two years ago, however, Safi was just an idea.

On May 16, Velocity kicked-off a partnership with the Grand River Hospital Foundation (GRHF) as part of their Care Never Stops campaign by presenting the Health Innovation Challenge.  The student hack-a-thon with a twist provides an opportunity for University of Waterloo students to take part in designing solutions to health care challenges being experienced within our local c

When COVID-19 restrictions started rolling out in March 2020, workplaces were forced to quickly adapt from in-person operations to virtual.  

This meant big changes for Velocity and the companies operating out of the downtown Kitchener and University of Waterloo locations. 

Ribbit and 1Mentor are among the 88 companies that have joined Velocity since the start of the pandemic.  

Despite ramping up operations amidst pandemic restrictions, their drive to innovate and scale their business remained limitless.