Entrepreneurship

At the age of seven, Naimah Venezia (BGBDA ’25) was reading highlighted portions of the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” that her older brother had given her. While other kids were playing, Venezia was planning to profit from her passions – selling custom-made, repurposed jewellery and baked goods door-to-door. “If I had a sibling that was closer to my age, I might not be the way I am because I'd probably be playing,” noted Venezia, who attributes her foundation in finances to her brother.

Real Life Robotics, a pioneering robotics and automation company at Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, today announces a first-of-its-kind robot-powered delivery partnership with Skip, Canada’s homegrown delivery network. 

Through an initial three-month deployment in Markham, Ont., the initiative will pave the way for enhanced innovation within the Canadian delivery ecosystem with the potential to expand across additional Canadian cities.   

University of Waterloo alumni, staff and students are among the winners of the 2025 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Rogers Women of the Year awards.

For 50 years, the organization has recognized exceptional leaders for their contributions to the local community. The awards were given out at a ceremony on May 22, 2025, and several of the recipients have connections to the University.

Tech companies with University of Waterloo connections continue to climb the annual Narwhal list of Canadian unicorns.

The list assembled annually by the Narwhal Project, a group that monitors and analyzes the technology sector, offers companies supports to become more efficient and adopt best practices. Each year they evaluate close to 1,000 Canadian technology companies. The total number of unicorns in Canada has grown from only three in 2020 to 26 this year.

Quantum computers promise more than code breaking. They could unlock commercial value in areas like banking, automotive and optimization industries. Businesses need to not only prepare for quantum attacks, but also ready their organizations to tap into the economic benefit of adopting quantum technologies.

Velocity Fund II (VFII), an early-stage venture capital fund spun out of the University of Waterloo’s globally renowned Velocity incubator, announces the first close of its fund with US$10 million in committed capital.

At the groundbreaking for the new Mathematics 4 (M4) building in October 2024, Dr. Mark Giesbrecht, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, addressed a full crowd in the Davis Centre. He told the crowd that the Faculty would shape the future of technology just as it had shaped the past. 

Dr. Don Cowan (MSc ’61, PhD ’65)

Two University of Waterloo alumni are changing Major League Baseball (MLB) with a data-driven pitching simulator that replicates the real experience of batting against a professional pitcher. 

Rowan Ferrabee (BASc ’19) and Joshua Pope (BASc ’19)
Founders, Trajekt Sports

Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep tech are revolutionizing how building developers and owners design, build and maintain their properties thanks to Adaptis, a Velocity startup. The decision-making platform supports optimizing cost-benefit and carbon usage from concept to completion by integrating financial, sustainability and operational data.

In its latest seed funding round, Adaptis has secured $4 million USD ($5.5 million CDN) from Building Ventures, including MetaProp, 2048 Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures and Blue Vision Capital.