Entrepreneurship

Twelve senior student teams from the Faculty of Engineering competed in this year’s Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, pitching their startup ideas to a panel of judges who awarded over $100,000 across all 12 teams.    

Each team delivered a three-minute business pitch to showcase their entrepreneurial and innovative approach to solving a real-world problem. These solutions ranged from a device that improves sleep quality and cognitive functioning in children with epilepsy, to a highly porous material that can improve oil spill cleanups. 

Dr. Mikal Skuterud
Professor, Economics
> Director, Canadian Labour Economics Forum

Dr. Mikal Skuterud became interested in labour markets in high school while working in a large warehouse alongside many recent migrants to Canada. During his undergraduate degree in labour studies, Skuterud took several economic theory courses, which confirmed he was on the right career path.

Before Velocity became the centre of entrepreneurship at the University of Waterloo, it was a group of innovative students living in the Waterloo dorm life and hosting weekly meetups at Minota Hagey, also known as Velocity residence. Today, thousands of students from all backgrounds take part in Velocity’s experiential entrepreneurship learning program.  

Many of the world’s leading innovation ecosystems share a common feature: a world-class research university at their core. The University of Waterloo has played a pivotal role in establishing the Waterloo region as a premier innovation ecosystem in Canada. 

Page, the AI-powered external relations platform based at Velocity, the startup incubator at the University of Waterloo, has successfully closed $4.1 million in seed funding to expand its services into the U.S. and U.K. markets.

This funding round was led by TwelveBelow, with participation from Go Global Ventures and Canaan Partners. The company has raised more than $5 million following a pre-seed financing round led by Ripple Ventures, Garage Capital and the Velocity Fund.

Three childhood friends from the University of Waterloo have secured $500,000 from the Y Combinator (YC) for GALE, an innovative immigration software. 

YC is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious startup accelerators, with an average acceptance rate of one per cent. Every year, recipients receive $500,000 in seed funding and other resources like alumni talks and mentorship. With alumni including Airbnb, DoorDash, and Twitch, YC can help kickstart a young business. 

Velocity’s Health Innovation Challenges, in partnership with the Grand River Hospital Foundation (GRHF), offer University of Waterloo students an experiential learning opportunity with local hospitals and organizations. Students hear about the real-world challenges faced by patients and health-care workers in local hospitals and work with Velocity experts to develop practical solutions.  

Waterloo researchers, students and alumni tackle challenges through cross-disciplinary collaboration, developing creative solutions with global impact.

You’re familiar with Waterloo’s iconic inventions like BlackBerry and OpenText, and those mentioned in our 10 inventions you didn’t know came from Waterloo — but you spoke, and we listened. Our readers helped us uncover even more groundbreaking innovations from this vibrant community that continue to shape industries worldwide.