Entrepreneurship

Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario’s Minister of Research and Innovation, today announced a $3.3-million grant to be shared by the two universities in a partnership with Communitech as part of the Government of Ontario’s campus-linked accelerators program (CLA).

The grant is part of the $20 million CLA introduced as a key part of the Government of Ontario’s Youth Jobs Strategy. The program is managed provincially by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE).

The Velocity Foundry—the University of Waterloo's new incubator space for hardware, materials and life sciences startup companies—will officially open this Friday, and members of the media are invited to tour the home of what could be the next great Canadian entrepreneurship story.

The media are invited to join representatives from the federal and provincial governments and the University of Waterloo for the grand opening. Journalists are welcome to tour the space and speak to representatives of the startup companies in attendance.

PumpUp, the first photo-based community for healthy and active living, recently closed a $2.4 million seed financing round led by General Catalyst Partners. The most recent startup to successfully launch from Velocity, PumpUp has more than 1.7 million members on their app and is growing quickly. They have a new office in downtown Toronto and are on a hiring path to expand their highly skilled team.

Michael Weingert is in California right now on a summer internship at Facebook. In his spare time, Weingert is developing an app he created for hikers while still an engineering student at the University of Waterloo.

Ten startups from diverse backgrounds - everything from biotech to computer science - will pitch their businesses for a share of $100,000 at the Velocity Fund Finals (VFF) at the University of Waterloo.

Paul Salvini, a Waterloo alumnus with a degree in computer science, has been named Associate Vice-President, Research Commercialization for the University, as well as Chief Executive Officer of the Accelerator Centre, a leading technology incubator located in the University’s David Johnston Research and Technology Park.

Dominic Toselli graduates this week with a mechanical engineering degree and numerous prestigious awards for PetroPredict, a startup that’s garnering considerable investor attention.

The company he co-founded with Andrew Andrade, a second-year Waterloo mechatronics engineering student, uses data analytics to find potential oil and gas leaks that may go undetected for years.

Christina Marchand will graduate this week with all the typical memories of late nights and cramming for exams. But she also carries memories of watching women die needlessly in childbirth.

People standing in line have two choices: They can twiddle their thumbs, or put them to work.