Bridgit, a Kitchener startup that has developed a mobile communications platform for the construction industry, has secured US$1.7 million (C$2.2 million) in venture capital financing, which it hopes will help to fund its U.S. expansion.

The company led by Co-Founders Lauren Lake and Mallorie Brodie said in a statement the round was led by Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners. Vanedge Capital of Vancouver also joined in the round.

Lake and Brodie have developed a cloud-based app called Closeout, which replaces the pen-and-paper task of documenting unfinished, damaged or incorrect work. People in the industry refer to this list as a “punch list.”

With Closeout, users take pictures of the work areas and upload them along with notes for immediate viewing by the team, significantly streamlining the task. The app has been adopted by more than 100 companies since its launch in March 2014, including powerhouses Minto and CentreCorp.

“The construction industry has been slow to adopt to new technology, but as we talk to residential and commercial builders, it’s clear they are hungry for technology that lowers cost, simplifies processes and make it easier to get their jobs done,” said CEO Brodie in the statement. “We’re excited to partner with Hyde Park and Vanedge so we can put Bridgit’s solutions into the hands of more people who need them.”

The statement said the new funds will help to hire new engineers and sales people as well as fund the U.S. expansion.

Bridgit Sets its Sites on the U.S. Market

In December, Bridgit won Google for Entrepreneurs’ inaugural Demo Day: Women’s Edition, beating out 450 applicants from 40 countries. Bridgit was one of 11 woman-led startups to make the finals and the only one from Canada.

“We created Google for Entrepreneurs Demo Days in order to highlight amazing entrepreneurs like Bridgit,” said Mary Grove, director of Google for Entrepreneurs. “Many founders have told us that they’re able to hire more quickly, get the attention of large corporate partners and open doors with investors as a result. We were very impressed by the Bridgit team and their traction at the event, and are thrilled to see them continue that great momentum.”

Previously, Bridgit raised angel financing from such investors as prominent New York City angel investor Joanne Wilson and Rypple co-founder Daniel Debow of Toronto.

“We believe that this type of innovation is sorely needed in the construction industry and that Bridgit has the ideal team to deliver it,” said Greg Barnes, principal of Hyde Park Venture Partners. “We can’t wait to see Mallorie, Lauren and their growing corps of experts build upon their solid foundation in the U.S. market.”

Ridesharing platform HitchPlanet has bought Maritime Rideshare, adding 8,000 East Coast users to its base of more than 20,000 customers in the West.

Vancouver-based HitchPlanet and Maritime Rideshare are both ridesharing services – that is, they allow drivers with empty seats in their car to link up with people who need a lift, cutting travel costs and reducing fuel consumption. The companies did not reveal the terms of the deal.

By buying out Maritime Rideshare, which started in Prince Edward Island in 2012, HitchPlanet now has communities on both coasts and plans to expand to become a true coast-to-coast service.

“We have come a long way since our genesis offering rideshares between Vancouver and Whistler,” said HitchPlanet CEO and Co-founder Flo Devellennes in a statement. “We saw a very strong market opportunity because of limited options for non-drivers or those without vehicles in Atlantic Canada. The popularity of Maritime Rideshare also gave us confidence in the Atlantic market.”

Maritime Rideshare was developed by a company called Seeets, which went through the second cohort of the Launch36 (now PropelICT) accelerator.

The statement said HitchPlanet is among the new breed of for-profit companies driven to create impact and change the way business is done. Through technological innovations and new business models there has been a surge in collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer platforms in the global market.

“Ultimately, HitchPlanet is a community,” said Devellennes. “We feel strongly that technology is our tool, not our objective.”

The company, which received $150,000 in angel investment last year, has set the goal of attaining 50,000 members who have shared 500,000 kilometers of journeys by the end of 2016. Members so far this year have logged 184,000 kilometres.

It also hopes to create 10 jobs across Canada including two in the Maritimes, this year.

Jason Pearson hopes that chemists around the world will soon be using a machine-learning system to accelerate the discovery and development of new compounds.

In fact, he’s preparing to release such a platform to a restricted group in July.

A professor at University of Prince Edward Island, Pearson is a computational chemist — that is, a chemist who uses computers in the development and analysis of compounds. He’s also the head of Retrievium Inc., the Charlotte-town-based startup that is developing the platform.

For the past three years, Pearson has been collaborating with Ray Poirier, a chemist at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and with another Charlottetown startup, discoverygarden, to build the platform.

They’ve produced algorithms that recognize molecular patterns and properties and automatically lead researchers to new compounds that might have similar properties.

Discoverygarden, which oversees a digital repository for archives and museums around the world, worked with the team on developing the dashboard.

“If we compile a big enough data bank for chemists, then the computers we have get will smarter and smarter and smarter and eventually they’ll do a lot of things that humans can’t do,” said Pearson in an interview on Monday.

He explained that elements can be combined in an infinite number of groupings, and chemists in industry and research institutes spend their lives in search of better compounds than previously existed.

Charlottetown's RevIQ Plans to Double Staff

Retrievium will allow chemists in a variety of fields to input their data on compounds, the elements used and the properties of the molecules.

As the databank grows, the algorithms can make intelligent decisions on how to group together different elements to produce better drugs or industrial materials.

It would analyze the composition of chemicals and how different chemicals interact with one another.

“We’re putting together a business model,” said Pearson. “We’ve got some anticipated revenue streams that we’re going to have to test. We’re looking at industrial clients that have a lot of data and need a way of managing that data. It includes Big Pharma, of course, but it also includes industrial companies.”

He added Retrievium is also considering marketing the platform to data centres and academic researchers, who could benefit from its artificial intelligence.

The company will release a working prototype to about a dozen close collaborators in July, and then seek feedback from them.

Depending on the response from these working chemists, Pearson is hoping for a general release late this year or early in 2017.

Pearson and Poirier have fund-ed the project so far from various sources, largely from Springboard Atlantic, the organization that helps to commercialize Atlantic Canadian university research, and NSERC, which helps companies work with academic researchers. Pearson said their universities, especially the UPEI tech transfer office Synapse, helped as well.

In the future, they plan to seek private funding for the company and would be especially interested in teaming up with a corporation that would use the platform.

“If there’s an industrial client who sees a lot of potential, there’s a chance they will underwrite the development,” he said. “As researchers who developed the tool, we really want to see this tool grow.”

Fish farming often gets a bad rap. New Brunswick scientist Dr. Amber Garber is working to make farmed salmon and farming processes healthier, more sustainable and more profitable.

She’s doing it by breeding for traits like fast growth rates and improved natural resistance to sea lice and bacterial kidney disease.

“Selective breeding programs use the fishes’ natural genetic variability to make them better,” said the scientist who has been working on this broodstock program since 2010. Broodstock are a group of mature individuals used in aquaculture for breeding purposes.

“The broodstock program is responsibly improving fish. It’s maintaining genetic diversity, helping industry, and using fewer resources. It’s more sustainable.”

The scientist at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, who was recently recognized at the R3 awards for scientific research, has been living in St. Andrews for 10 years. She previously worked on the Atlantic cod genomics and broodstock development project.

She said that breeding fish for desirable natural qualities helps the industry expand and become more efficient.

“It allows the use of fewer chemicals and antibiotics and increases the quality of the fish,” said the scientist who grew up on a farm in Ohio and learned to love animals while helping her father, a vet.

Read our Report on the R3 Gala

By producing a fish that is more resistant to sea lice, for example, the program decreases the number of treatments required, reducing many costs and the stress on fish.

Garber said the combined Nova Scotia and New Brunswick farmed salmon industries are currently worth $356 million annually.

“This equates to over 300 million meals of farmed Atlantic salmon every year and over 3,000 jobs.”

She said the latest generation of salmon in the broodstock program are growing 26 per cent faster than their parents did.

In Norway, where broodstock programs are more developed, farmed Atlantic salmon typically reach the harvest size of four kilograms in less than two years, compared with four years in the 1970s. The fast growth rate means the salmon industrysaves around 120,000 tons of feed annually.

In New Brunswick, Garber and the Huntsman team work with their industry partner Northern Harvest Sea Farms.

The research program is supported by Northern Harvest, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, and Huntsman.

Broodstock programs are not new or unusual, although it’s estimated less than 10 per cent of aquaculture production is based on these stocks.

“Breeding programs add a level of complexity and cost which often makes themseem unattainable, but set up and executed properly the benefits can outweigh these costs.”

Broodstock programs may not be new but winning the R3 Award has brought recognition and validation.

“The win helped boost awareness of the importance of aquaculture,” said Garber.

As a youngster, Garber knew she wanted a career that would make a difference.

She considered cancer research, but later gained a masters in population genetics in stock enhancement.

“I hadn’t done genetics to that point and I liked it, liked working with numbers and statistics,” she said.

“Aquaculture was growing, so I pursued my PhD in that at North Carolina State University.”

She said broodstock programs can also help wild species.

“Depletion of wild fish is a problem. Many commercially harvested species of fish are depleted to some extent…We’re protecting wild fish by shifting pressure from fishing to farming and consumption from wild to farmed. We’re trying to help the industry grow and reduce the environmental footprint…”

She said the Huntsman has recently been contracted by companies in Atlantic Canada and Ontario to design, assess, or complete statistical analysis associated with breeding programs.

“I want to help other industries become more sustainable,” she said. “Other species can all have broodstock programs.”

Eigen Innovations Inc. has a new CEO and $1.4 million in fresh funds to help him grow the company.

The Fredericton-based Industrial Internet of Things company has been gaining international attention lately, and now it has named former CTO Scott Everett as its new CEO. He replaces Richard Jones, who will remain on the board of directors.

“Scott has grown from co-founder and visionary to an executive leader doing a great job shaping the strategic direction of the company, and now is a good time for me to step away and let Eigen continue on its upward trajectory,” said Jones in a statement.

A graduate of the PropelICT tech accelerator, Eigen’s product, Intellexon, helps manufacturers improve production efficiency and reduce waste. The system uses algorithms developed under the guidance of researcher and co-founder Rickey Dubay at the University of New Brunswick. Everett worked with Dubay and has been the technical expert developing the product for the past few years.

Intellexon selects data from sensors and other sources in a customer’s plant and sends the relevant data to the cloud, where it is analyzed. Finally, it sends information back to the plant, where action is taken. All of this happens in real time, so the actions are precise. With offices in Fredericton and Toronto, Eigen is working with partners, including Oregon’s FLIR Systems Inc., the world’s largest thermal camera and sensor maker, to develop Intellexon to suit these customers’ needs.

Having previously raised a bit of seed funding, the company has now received $250,000 from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. NBIF has now invested a total of $500,000 in the company. The other investors are BDC Capital, which invested $100,000, and a range of angels. The company is listed as one of the portfolio companies of East Valley Ventures, a division of Mariner Partners that channels private money into startups.

Eigen Places Third at Cisco Event in Dubai

Last week, Texas computer maker Dell unveiled its Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program to help build an ecosystem to help customers navigate the fragmented IoT landscape and identify the right technologies to develop solutions. Eigen is one of the partners in the program.

In December, Eigen won a US$25,000 cash prize by placing third at the second annual Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge in Dubai. Because of the bronze showing, Eigen was given a long-term relationship with Cisco, the global maker of networking equipment and a huge proponent of the Internet of Things. The top three finalists have VIP access to industry, investment and business experts.

Also in December, when CB Insights listed the 100 companies worldwide influencing the IoT market, Eigen made the list in the industrial category. 

Heather Anne Carson fully understood she was on to something big with her new startup Repable when she attended the KeSPA eSport championship in South Korea last autumn.

Operating out of Moncton and Toronto, Repable collects and analyzes data on eSports, or competitive gaming, a fast-growing international phenomenon. It’s estimated some 200 million people will watch competitive gaming this year.

KeSPA was held in a packed arena in Seoul. Thousands of fans — many dressed like characters in the games — were screaming madly as two five-member teams faced off against each other. It was the mania that convinced her and technical co-founder Sean Power they are in a fantastic market.

“When I started looking at the ecosystem of gaming, I learned it’s amazing,” she said in a recent interview. “When I started looking at the numbers I couldn’t ignore the potential in this space. It’s the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry.”

Charlottetown's RevIQ To Double Staff

An expert in public relations and marketing, Carson is a veteran of the East Coast startup community. (She actually emceed the first PropelICT Demo Day four years ago.) In 2012, she and Renee Warren launched Onboardly, a PR and marketing agency that targeted startups and quickly secured clients across North America. Last year she left the agency to co-found a product-based startup.

“I always knew that eventually I would build a product company,” she said. “Most of it was being exposed to so many really, really, really smart startups in my job. You get the bug. But ideas don’t always just come and it takes just the right catalyst.”

She teamed up with Power last year, and they found that his background in data analytics complemented her marketing savvy. They knew they wanted to do a Big Data venture, and they eventually settled on eSports.

This pastime is growing so quickly that major consumer product brands want to use it as a marketing vehicle, but they don’t know how. Major TV networks want to broadcast it. It’s an opportunity to reach a young audience that doesn’t usually watch television, let alone read newspapers. But these brands don’t have firm metrics on who or what to sponsor or how to approach this new craze.

Repable can charge the brands to provide the data. Power is close to completing a dashboard that will analyze the data collected from the audience of 60 million people around the world. It can tell brands what teams are hot, how to engage players and spectators, and what is gaining in popularity.

The seven-month-old company is now preparing to enter the market. It is now going through the PropelICT accelerator in Moncton and working out of the Digital Media Zone of Ryerson University in Toronto. The company expects to launch a product for enterprise clients in the late summer. Eventually it would like a consumer product that will help people playing the games what is hot and how they can move up in the industry.

“We help teams and agencies understand the attention of the fans,” said Carson. “It’s a huge, huge, huge market and the excitement for us is helping people to make informed decisions.”

When the federal government announced funding in February for Charlottetown-based Natural Products Canada, it was the culmination of several years of effort by the PEI life sciences community.

The PEI BioAlliance first applied to create a natural products commercialization centre after the federal government launched its Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, or CECR, program in 2007. But it was rejected at the time because the original proposal was too local. So it began to work with partners from across the country and came up with a proposal that won the backing of Ottawa. It’s the first time a Maritime proposal received CECR funding.

“What we’re really good at is bringing our local networks around the best idea and developing a strong structure in terms of design,” said BioAlliance Executive Director Rory Francis in an interview. “We have a very credible name across the country and we were able to bring in partners from Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan to make it happen.”

In February, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Navdeep Bains announced that the federal government would contribute $14 million to Natural Products Canada, which would be headquartered in Charlottetown. While the BioAlliance would serve as the Atlantic Canadian hub for the centre, the partnership includes AgWest Bio in Saskatchewan, the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization and the Institute for Nutrition and Functional Foods in Quebec. The federal contribution will be matched by over $10 million from industry and other sources, for total funding of more than $24 million over the next five years.

The Natural Products Centre will be headed by CEO Shelley King, who previously worked with Synapse (the tech transfer office at the University of P.E.I.) and Genome Atlantic. She and her eight staff members will work with companies that have products based on natural substances and need to bring them to market.

PEI's Retrievium Brings Maching Learning to Chemistry

It’s a project that has Francis and others in the Atlantic Canadian life sciences community excited, and here’s why.

First, the sector it works in is hot. There’s a push from consumers and government for businesses to offer more products made from sustainable materials, including those drawn from nature. That offers a huge opportunity to study how to extract useful chemicals and materials from natural sources, and to apply them to products ranging from food to cosmetics to agricultural inputs to drugs to animal health products. The list is endless.

Second, by working with partners from across the country, the companies in the NPC program will have access to a tremendous network. All four of the founding institutions bring with them vast groups of contacts in business, government and academia. That means a company in Atlantic Canada entering the program will have access to researchers, labs, investors, mentors and potential customers from across the country and beyond.

And third, the centre has the ability to finance companies, but the competition is tough. That means the companies interested in gaining the funding will have to up their game, which should benefit the entire sector.

“I get excited because the bar to get to CECR funding for that program is really, really high,” said Francis. It is the second time in three years that Charlottetown has won a federal competition to offer programing for life sciences companies.

In 2014, the PEI BioAlliance won funding from the National Research Council’s Canadian Accelerator and Incubator Program. That created Emergence, a life sciences incubator that is now working with 22 to 24 companies.

“NPC can do a bunch of things that Emergence can’t – it’s sort of Emergence on steroids,” said Francis. “The nature of these CECRs is they have to be sustainable over a period of time. … so [the member companies] have to have a stream of income.”

And Francis believes the NPC will be adept at helping companies develop those streams of income because so much of the expertise is drawn from private business. It will have academic partners like University of New Brunswick Saint John, UPEI and universities in other regions, but it’s led by private business people.

“Most of these CECRs tend to be academically led,” said Francis. “They’re known for great science and academic research. In this case, we’ve kind of turned this around – you haven’t heard too much about the academic component because this was really very much a private sector-led initiative.” 

InTheChat announced at Facebook’s recent F8 Conference that it can now offer Facebook Messenger as a platform for enterprises worldwide, allowing companies greater reach and flexibility when dealing with customers.

The Waterloo-based company offers a full-scale digital customer service platform that enables companies to serve customers through social media chat, email, text, and now Facebook Messenger.

InTheChat is one of the first platforms to engage with Messenger. The Ontario company reached out to Facebook late last year and both parties saw the integration of Messenger into InTheChat as strategic: Facebook wants to grow the “chat” side of Messenger among big businesses, the exact market that InTheChat specializes in.  

InTheChat makes customer service on messaging channels 58 per cent more efficient than a regular phone call, and thus offers significant savings on a company’s customer service costs. The company, which operates out of the Accelerator Centre, uses text analytics to route messages from customers to the best-skilled customer service agent. Customer service representatives can then chat with three to five customers at one time through various digital channels, rather than with one customer through the traditional method of the telephone call.

“People are so used to communicating with their friends and family through these channels that they’re waiting for companies to open them up and engage in that way,” InTheChat CEO John Huehn said in an interview.

InTheChat at the Accelerator Centre's Client Showcase

Huehn worked at Rogers Communications for 12 years: he started as call centre representative and worked his way up to Vice President, Client Management, accountable for call centre strategy.

He started InTheChat six years ago as a more efficient way for companies to interact with their customers through social media rather than telephone. However, he noticed that many customers would prefer to privately message the company rather than send a public tweet with a query or problem and introduced private messaging capabilities via text, chat and Messenger.

He said the company’s aim is “that a customer can get service whenever and however they want, and we make that [happen] so you get a great customer satisfaction.”

Last year, InTheChat launched TD Bank Group as one of the first big businesses available for chatting on Facebook Messenger. They also put Newegg, a California-based computer/electronics e-retailer, on Messenger. Though Messenger is an unsecured channel, webforms and other applications enable customers to provide information through secure channels rather than giving out private information over the chatting platform.

Huehn himself has gone through a review of his data usage and changed his data plan with his telecom company—all through Messenger and text chatting.

“You’re able to continue your conversation without disclosing private information to get your problem solved just as easily as you can on the phone,” he said.

InTheChat targets mainly large enterprises, as the most complex part of their system is routing the right message to the right person via text analytics.

Each company pays a personalized fee, which includes a platform fee. Companies then add users on to the platforms that they can access.

InTheChat is a growth-oriented company and its 22 employees are always looking to expand channels.

“How do we innovate emerging channels that emerging generations choose to communicate on to make those available for customer service?” Huehn said.

Innovation Week is taking place in New Brunswick over the next week with a range of events across the province.

The annual celebration began last night with the Open Data Awards in Saint John, which leads into the Canadian Open Data Summit in the port city today.  

This weekend, there will be a Startup Weekend New Brunswick at the Venn Centre in Moncton. Over 54 hours, teams will come together, develop a business idea and pitch it before a panel of judges.

Also in Moncton, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation will reveal its new investment strategy, which emphasizes scale-ups as opposed to startups. The discussion at the Venn Centre will feature such entrepreneurs as Yves Boudreau from Qimple, David Baxter from Fiddlehead Technology and Daniella Degrace from Gemba Software Solutions.

The Innovation Week events also feature three themed mini-conferences in Fredericton: Innovation and Youth Day on Tuesday; Innovation and Research Day on Wednesday; and Innovation and Business Day on Thursday.

The highlight of the week will be the KIRA Awards Gala, which will recognize people who have made great contributions to the knowledge industry. The Gala will take place 5:30 next Thursday at the Fredericton Convention Centre.

You can find a complete schedule of the events here.

Executive search firm Venor has bought the assets of Equals6, a career-focused social network for students, for an undisclosed price.

Halifax-based Equals6 was designed to be a place where students could discuss career prospects, as opposed to other social media sites, which tend to be more about lifestyles. Students can communicate with one-another, or with companies that pay to join the site.

Started by Co-Founders Craig Coady and Ian Sullivan, Venor now plans to use Equals6’s Students2Mentors product to develop a resource for young people getting started on their career path. Overseeing the new division will be Chantal Brine, who has been the Venor executive in charge of youth career advancement for the past year.

“Venor has an established reputation for placing qualified candidates in challenging and rewarding positions,” Brine said in a statement. “We are taking that same standard of excellence to helping new talent in our province’s students prepare for and find meaningful employment.”

Mobivity Buys Livelenz, Signals Growth

Equals6 was developed by entrepreneurs Andy Osburn and Mark Boyle, who oversaw its steady growth over the past five years. Meanwhile, the pair was also working on SecureReset, which has developed two products for simplifying user passwords and authentication. Last November, Osburn and Boyle sold SecureReset to Atlanta-based Courion and signaled that they were also in talks to sell Equals6.

In buying the assets of Equals6, Venor plans to use Students2Mentors to link students with mentors in their field of interest. A cloud-based, automated and customizable platform, the tool enables students, mentors and university administrators to create mentorship programs and track their success.

The statement said Brine would bring her experience in organizational change, human resources, community relations, entrepreneurship and technology to help students and graduates to transition to the workforce. She is already collaborating with academic institutions to further develop Students2Mentors.

Venor said Equals6 has already impacted more than 13,000 students and 125 employers from across North America.

“We see firsthand the challenge of employers who want to attract the right talent and grow businesses here,” said Sullivan. “We want to do our part to support the call of the One NS Coalition and the Ivany Report to act. Rather than standby idly on the sidelines, we have created a focus solely on building a stronger and more inspired youth talent pool in Nova Scotia.”

Innovacorp, the innovation agency owned by the Nova Scotia government, invested $250,000 in Equals6 in 2012 through a convertible debenture. Since the company never raised follow-on funds the debenture would never have been converted to equity.

“Innovacorp anticipates repayment of our debenture and, while we can’t share the commercial terms of Venor’s license of the E6 platform, one can infer that Equals6 derives revenue from that partnership,” said Innovacorp Managing Director Greg Phipps in an email.

Equals6 is the second Innovacorp portfolio company to announce a major deal recently. Livelenz, which received $1.4 million in investment from the agency, recently sold out to Chandler, Arizona-based Mobivity Holding Corp. for less than $1 million in stock in a bid to grow with the larger company.

Propel Demo Day Set for June 21

Atlantic Canadian accelerator Propel ICT has announced that its next Demo Day will be held June 21 at Neptune Theatre in Halifax.

The event featuring company presentations will begin at 5:30 pm, and is being held on the eve of the Atlantic Venture Forum, which will take place at the Nova Scotian Westin on June 22 and 23.

Demo Day will include pitches from the nine teams that are going through the Build Program, which is for growth-stage companies. In the last Demo Day in September, some promising companies in the seed-stage Launch Program also pitched, but there has been no announcement whether that will be the case in June.

In the current cohort, the Build Program is being run out of the Venn Centre in Moncton, while the Launch Program is being offered in startup hubs in Charlottetown, St. John’s, Halifax and Fredericton.

Johnson Concrete To Use CarbonCure Technology

Halifax-based CarbonCure Technologies has announced that Johnson Concrete Co., a family owned business with locations across North Carolina, added the CarbonCure Masonry Technology in its Lexington plant. The CarbonCure technology recycles waste carbon dioxide into concrete products, effectively making Johnson concrete masonry units more environmentally friendly.

“We completed extensive due diligence into the viability of the technology, and its potential to create value for Johnson Concrete, and we are now pleased to offer our customers concrete products with a reduced carbon footprint,” said Johnson Executive Vice President Charles Newsome in a statement.

The CarbonCure technology injects carbon dioxide gas captured from nearby smokestacks into concrete products during the mixing phase. Once introduced into the concrete mix, the carbon dioxide chemically converts into a solid calcium carbonate mineral.

Since the gas has been converted into a mineral, it will never escape into the atmosphere. This means that Johnson Concrete will continue to provide high quality concrete products, and effectively get rid of local air pollution at the same time.

SMU, Dal Teams Compete at IBMC

Three teams of Halifax university students will compete this weekend at the International Business Model Competition at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Each team competed for a spot during Canada’s Business Model Competition, hosted last month by Dalhousie’s Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship. Eight teams from the Canadian event are proceeding to the international competition.

The two Saint Mary’s University teams will pitch in Redmond are: ProTell, which is creating wearable technology for people with Sickle Cell Anemia; and SeeMePly, which is lessening the administrative burden of African students applying to private schools.

 As the organizers of the competition, Dalhousie University was also able to nominate a team to compete in the international competition. As such, 3 Meals, from Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus, will attend the IBMC. The company is generating a protein from meal worms that can be used as a protein supplement.

Lucey To Speak at Startup Grind Halifax

Ian Lucey, the founder of the Lucey Fund, will deliver a talk to the Halifax chapter of Startup Grind on May 31 starting at 6 pm at the Innovacorp Innovation Centre in Halifax. Tickets are available here.

The Lucey Fund is a venture capital fund that backs early-stage IT startups. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based fund has offices in six countries including the U.S., Ireland, U.K. and Spain. It has invested in more than 70 startups over the past three-and-a-half years. In 2015 alone the Lucey Fund invested in 30 new projects and it plans to invest in more than 50 in 2016.

Lucey recently opened an office in Los Angeles and is actively seeking further investment opportunities across the United States and Canada.

Aspiring entrepreneurs often go to great lengths to boost their creativity and connections. Now, a trio of students hope to raise enough money to become the first Atlantic Canadians to travel on a Startup Bus.

Similar in concept to the Startup Weekend, the Startup Bus hosts entrepreneurs for 72 hours, with the aim of allowing new networks and ideas to flourish. The difference, in this case, is that the venue travels.

The Halifax trio, who are all students at Dalhousie University, aim to join a food and beverage themed bus that departs Tampa, Fla. on May 15 and travels to Boulder, Colo. over the following three days. They are now raising money for the trip through this crowdfunding campaign.

Yoon Park, a fourth-year management student, said the bus experience allows participants to meet would-be entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Participants have the common goal of launching a startup by the end of the journey.

“I believe we need a student-initiated idea that is fun to get Atlantic Canadian students interested in entrepreneurship,” said Park, a Korean-Canadian.

“People have started paying attention to entrepreneurship, but it still sounds too monumental to most students. A lot of students in Atlantic Canada have a conservative approach to their career, and this is where we want to inspire a change.

“They intend to study hard and get a job at a big company and the company will take care of them forever, but that’s not the case.”

Park and the other Dal students — Norwegian Tobias Oedegaard, a second-year management student, and American-Canadian Isaac Greenberg, who is in his second year studying economics and sustainability — intend to document their journey on social media.

Their accounts will include video of life on the bus, which will stop overnight en route to Boulder. Once at their destination, teams will pitch their ideas to stakeholders and be mentored by industry leaders.

Each team’s progress will be documented online. The event also has a virtual stock market for trading shares in each startup as it develops.

The trio hope that Atlantic Canada will be represented with a bus of its own in next year’s competition.

“To make that happen we need a success story,” Park said.

Oedegaard and Greenberg are already establishing a tempeh business in Halifax and intend to explore the intersection of the food and tech industries as they travel to Boulder.

Tempeh is an Indonesian soy protein similar to tofu. The duo are poised to begin distribution of their product to local vendors in the coming weeks.

They hope the Startup Bus will introduce them to people who can advise on supply routes, and connect them to suppliers and other contacts in the U.S.

The three are joining the bus together but don’t have to form a team, as participants will split into groups after pitching ideas during the first hours of the trip.

“As soon as the journey starts, we all introduce ourselves. People pitch their ideas and skills and teams are formed on the bus,” Park said.

The Startup Bus was founded in Australia in 2010.

Since then, the group has held 14 events on four continents, driving across 26 countries.

The Dal trio originally wanted to begin their own journey on a bus from Halifax, but realized it was too expensive.

So, they intend to fly to Tampa to join the food and beverage bus.

They need $5,100 to fund the trip. So far, they have secured $1,200 from stakeholders at Dalhousie. They intend to try crowd-funding next, while also reaching out to local businesses for sponsorship.

Park said he is hopeful they will raise the rest of the money. You can contribute to their campaign here. 

This week we are featuring three new postings on the Entrevestor Job Board – one each from Dash Hudson of Halifax, Remsoft Inc. of Fredericton and Clockwork Fox Studios of St. John’s.

Dash Hudson, a developer of Instagram retail solutions, is accepting applications for a junior brand strategist at its Halifax offices. The company provides data analytics on Instragram posts for major brands.

Remsoft Inc. specializes in providing businesses insight into how to best use woodlands to maximize profitability and sustainability. Started 24 years ago, Remsoft has seen accelerated growth over the last five years due to its early development of software that produces key strategic information. Remsoft is looking for a QA analyst to join its Fredericton office.

Educational game developer Clockwork Fox Studios started the year by closing a million-dollar round of funding. Clockwork Fox is using this funding to publish its grade-level specific Zorbit series of math games, the Grade 2 version of which is due for release later this year. Clockwork Fox Studios is looking for a social/digital marketing specialist. 

The Jobs of the Week column features postings on the Entrevestor Job Board. Entrevestor and Qimple operate the Job Board which helps match positions and candidates in the tech and start-up communities.

Halifax

Dash Hudson

Junior Brand Strategist

This person will work closely with the brand strategy team and assist the business development process by participating in lead generation, sales outreach, and progress tracking. The junior brand strategist will be actively engaged with both new and existing leads to move them through the sales funnel. Responsibilities for the role include reaching monthly quotas for lead generation and contacts, management of CRM and sales pipeline, and assisting in the creation of custom marketing and sales materials. No formal education is necessary, though analytical, business development, strategic, sales, and marketing skills are required.

Fredericton

Remsoft Inc.

QA Analyst

The QA Analyst will be responsible for helping to ensure customer satisfaction. This will be accomplished by developing, simplifying and refining user-acceptance tests. This person will remain up-to-date on how enhancements to Remsoft products will impact customers and share insight other team members insights on what customers want. Qualifications for the position include a Bachelor degree in Forest Management, Engineering, Operations Research/Analytics, or Computer Science/software testing. Remsoft is looking for someone with one to three years’ experience in a similar role. A Master’s degree in forestry or another natural resource science will be considered an asset.

St. John’s

Clockwork Fox Studios

Social/Digital Marketing Specialist

This person will be responsible for building and maintaining Clockwork Fox’s social media presence through an array of campaigns, as well as sending emails and deploying digital marketing strategies to drive click rates. He or she will also brainstorm strategies to create and nurture new sales leads, and evaluate all strategies against set goals. Qualifications include a Bachelor degree in marketing or a related field and proven work experience in digital marketing. Resumé and cover letter can be submitted to jobs@clockworkfoxstudios.com with the subject line “Social/Digital Marketing Specialist”. 

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation said Monday it provided $1.3 million in funding for small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, through its Innovation Voucher Fund in 2015-16.

Through the fund, NBIF provides as much as $80,000 to SMEs to help them work with universities, colleges or research institutes in conducting applied research.

“In today’s economy, finding new and better ways to do business is how the most successful companies keep their competitive edge,” NBIF President and CEO Calvin Milbury said in a statement.  “Our innovation vouchers have opened up a whole new world of opportunities for SMEs in New Brunswick, and in the three years since we started the fund, 41 companies from every corner of the province have collaborated with applied researchers to turn their ideas into enterprise.”

The startups that tapped the program last year included Moncton-based Smartpods, which makes desks that adjust automatically for standing and sitting positions, and Fredericton-based BioPolynet, which has used nanotechnology to develop a fastening agent. They worked respectively with University of New Brunswick and the Fredericton research organization RPC.  

To be eligible for the voucher, applicants must cover at least 20 percent of the project’s cost. Intellectual property developed during the project remains with the company.

Since the fund’s inception in 2014, NBIF has paid out $2.8 million in the program and companies have spent more than $700,000.

You can find a complete list of the companies that participated in the program in the year to March 31, 2016, here. 

Half a decade after first conceiving of an online wardrobe management tool, Debbie Fraser and John Leahy are preparing to beta-test their mobile app that helps people choose clothes.

Leahy owns Bedford-based web development company ImmediaC and has been working with Fraser for the past five years. Together, they came up with the idea as an enterprise-based application for clothing retailers. They launched a separate division of ImmediaC called Imagine That Technologies to develop the product. But they found it hard to land a contract with large companies for various reasons. So they started over to build a consumer app that could tap several revenue streams from individuals and corporate customers.

The product is now a two-dimensional augmented reality-based tool that lets people super-impose pictures of clothes on their own image on their phone. They can swap clothes and accessories around to find the best combination, and they can swap colours to find the one that’s right for them.

“We have an app that is about 95 per cent finished,” said Leahy in his office overlooking the Sackville River. “It’s a shopping app that lets you try on clothes and share them on social media. So it’s a virtual fitting room on your phone.”

Fraser, who joined the conversation via video-link from Phoenix, where she is on a business trip, added that users can view the clothes from their own clothes as well as something they’re thinking about purchasing to see what matches and suits the wearer. For example, a woman thinking of buying a scarf can see what it looks like on herself with clothes she already owns. She could also share the results on social media.

Over the past 18 years, ImmediaC  has built clients more than 2,500 websites — more, Leahy believes, than any other web design company in Canada. But like many service-based companies, they devote resources to the development of products. There are two other products in development that Leahy declined to detail. He simply said that ImmediaC is a bit of an incubator.

They said ImmediaC built the latest version of Imagine That from the ground up, and have been testing it in-house. Now they will test it was about 100 young fashion-conscious individuals in preparation for a full launch this summer. The initial product operates off Apple’s iOS platform, and the intention is for it to be available free in the App store.

“There’s a lot of competition but none of them has all of what we’re doing,” said Leahy. The competitors, he said, don’t allow customers to try on clothes over their own photos and are more limited in the mix-and-match functions.

Clothing brands make photos of their products available developers of such apps, so there is no difficulty in finding merchandise for the app.

There are three ways the app could make money — bringing in retailers to customize their own product; taking a cut if someone buys clothes through the app; and selling premium features on the app to consumers.

Leahy and Fraser hope Imagine That will eventually become a standalone company with its own team. But they added that for the next year or so it will continue to be a division of ImmediaC.

The Atlantic Venture Forum has unveiled the 15 companies that will present at the 2016 edition of the conference, which will be held in Halifax June 22 and 23.

The list features eight early-stage and seven growth-stage companies, including representatives from all four Atlantic Provinces, and each of the major sectors, IT, biotech and cleantech.

As a member of the selection committee, I can say the process was rigorous and the competition tough. The 40-odd entries featured some really great companies, not all of whom made the cut. Even the seed-stage companies include some companies that are developing into dynamic enterprises.

You can register for the conference here.

Here is a complete list of the presenting companies:

Early Stage

Airbly, Charlottetown – Airbly has developed the Canairy Cockpit Monitor, which is installed on top of an aircraft's instrument panel to monitor the craft’s position, usage and cabin environment. Airbly is the only member of the current Propel ICT Launch Program to present at the AVF.

DMF Medical Inc., Halifax -- DMF Medical develops biomedical devices that make the process of delivering anesthesia safer.

Ella Online Marketplace Inc., Saint John – This member of the current Propel Build Program and Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone has developed an online market place through which women can sell clothes they no longer want.

Panag Pharma Inc., Halifax -- Panag is developing novel cannabinoid-based formulations for treatment of pain and inflammation. Panag’s pipeline of products includes formulations for topical application to the skin, the eye and other mucous membranes.

Photodynamic Inc., Mount Uniacke, NS – The company once known as Fenol Farm, which won $100,000 at the 2014 I-3 competition, has developed hardware that uses a combination of light and natural compounds extracted from invasive plants to cure oral health problems.

Site 2020, Halifax – Working out of the Volta startup house, Site 2020 has developed technology that reduces costs and improves safety for signage crews on highway construction sites.

Woods Camp, Mahone Bay, NS -- Another member of the Propel Build group, Woods Camp offers an online platform that helps woodland owners understand the value of their land and manage their forest.

Zora, Las Vegas and Halifax – This graduate of The Mill accelerator in Las Vegas has developed a property management platform for landlords.

Growth Stage

4-Deep Inwater Imaging, Halifax – Recently funded by Chinese optics manufacturer Guangzhou Bosma, 4-Deep makes powerful electronic microscopes, and focuses on those that operate under underwater.

Athletigen, Halifax – Athletigen uses an online interface to present genetics analysis in a format that athletes and coaches, looking to improve performance, can easily understand and incorporate into their training plan. The company recently raised US$1.55 million in venture capital.

FundMetric, Halifax – Fundmetric’s platform uses data analytics to help charities raise more money. The company has recently been growing its client base in New York after pitching at an event organized by the Canadian Digital Media Network.

Gemba Software Solutions, Saint John – A spin off from New Brunswick tech company Innovatia, Gemba helps big business employees navigate their company’s operations. It raised $1.5 million last year from Innovatia and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.

HeyOrca!, St. John’s – The recent recipient of $650,000 in funding, HeyOrca! helps marketing agencies that manage multiple client brands to visually plan and seamlessly approve social media content. The graduate of the Propel Build Program operates out of the Genesis Centre in St. John’s.

NB BioMatrix, Saint John – The company, which won $220,000 in the 2015 Breakthru competition, is using nano-technology to develop a biodegradable, anti-bacterial liquid that can remove heavy metals and other pollutants from waste water.

PACTA, Halifax – The winner among the early-stage pitchers at the 2015 AVF, PACTA has developed software that helps corporations and other large organizations manage their portfolio of contracts. The company is pitching today at the Google Demo Day in Silicon Valley. 

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation is changing its investment philosophy to place a greater emphasis on growth-stage companies.

The province’s innovation agency hosted a seminar at the Venn Centre in Moncton on Tuesday at which it unveiled the new thinking on funding. The foundation’s mandate for making venture capital investments is largely staying the same – it will continue to make about 10 early-stage investments each year. But it wants to take a more proactive role in working with companies that are seeking multi-million-dollar financing rounds.

NBIF Investment Analyst Raymond Fitzpatrick said the group up to now has had a “soft ceiling” of $1 million in investing in any one company. It would also participate in follow-on rounds as long as the company found an independent investor to lead the round.

Though it still wants other funds to be the main investor in a large round, the foundation is now more interested in initiating such rounds, possibly writing the term sheet to draw interest from other investors. In certain cases, when a startup has hit or exceeded all its milestones, NBIF may exceed its $1 million ceiling as long as there are other funds making large investments.

“We’re not happy with companies just getting going – we really want those companies to scale up,” said Fitzpatrick. “We’re going to take our best-performing companies and we’re going to step up first. One million [dollars in total investment] is good. Three million is better. Five million – now you’re talking.”

He said NBIF intends to invest $4.8 million in each of the next two fiscal years. The fund invested $4.2 million in 2014-15, the most recent data available.

Build, NBIF Invest $1.8M in Fiddlehead

As well as a more assertive investment policy, NBIF is also going to work with its 40 to 50 portfolio companies and other New Brunswick startups to encourage them to focus on all aspects of scaling.

Naturally, that includes financing. A panel of entrepreneurs speaking at Venn event said founders looking for follow-on funding have to present a clear vision of how they will create value and show they can execute on their growth plans.

“We had people coming to us because there was a sense that we had a vision and there was a sense that we were creating value,” said David Baxter, President of Fiddlehead Technology, which recently raised $1.8 million.

The other areas that NBIF wants to focus on are sales and human resources (including establishing a board of directors).

Fitzpatrick said the NBIF will probably focus more on sales development at the bootcamp for its Breakthru startup competition, which will begin later this year.

“A lot of companies think you can build a company without a sales team,” said Yves Boudreau, the CEO of Qimple. “The reality is you have to build a sales team so … be prepared to hire some people.”

Fitzpatrick said NBIF has been getting some pushback from startups when it encourages them to set up boards of directors. But Daniella DeGrace, CEO of Gemba Software Solutions urged entrepreneurs to think of a board as source of expertise and connections.

“Think about it as a great situation that you cannot do without,” she said.

Disclaimer:  NBIF is a client of Entrevestor. 

Lux Wind Approved for Cedif

Lux Wind Turbines, the developer of a vertical wind turbine that won a NASA design award in 2013, has won approval to raise equity through Nova Scotia’s Community Economic Development Investment Fund, or Cedif, program.

Lux Wind CEDC wants to raise between $500,000 and $800,000 to help bring its vertical wind turbine to market.

The Lux Wind Turbine has the potential to address a major challenge in the wind energy sector – economic viability. Now, individual Nova Scotians have an opportunity to own common shares in the company and gain equity tax credits toward provincial income taxes payable.

The company is already the first in Canada to raise capital through the equity crowdfunding exemption recently approved by the Ontario Securities Commission and security commissions in other provinces, including Nova Scotia.

“Our vertical technology has the potential to significantly benefit the wind energy sector,” said CEO Terry Norman in a statement. “Now Nova Scotians have a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor as shareholders.”

Invest Atlantic To Be Held in Moncton Oct 5 ad 6

Invest Atlantic, the East Coast conference for the entrepreneurs and investors, has announced that the 2016 event will be held at the Delta Beauséjour in Moncton on Oct. 5 and 6.

It will be the first time in its seven-year history that Invest Atlantic has been held outside Halifax.

Since it began in 2010, Invest Atlantic has chosen a theme each year, such as partnering with corporations, global investing, or angel investment.

B4checkin Appoints Peter J. Rogers, Jr. as Chairman

Halifax-based b4checkin Inc., which makes cloud-based hospitality software solutions, has named Peter J. Rogers, Jr. as its new Chairman of the Board.

Rogers has extensive experience working with hospitality software and will help b4checkin with future product releases and new partnerships.

Rogers was Executive Vice President of Business Development and Investor Relations at MICROS Systems, Inc., of Columbia, MD.  He helped the company to become a global leader in providing information systems to the hotel, restaurant and retail industries.

“We are thrilled to have Peter join b4checkin as Chairman of the Board,” said b4checkin Founder and CEO Saar Fabrikant in a statement. “Just as Peter helped grow MICROS from a startup to a global enterprise, we are confident he will do the same for b4checkin. His far-reaching knowledge of tech solutions and hospitality software will help guide us through the next critical phase for our company.”

Nominations Sought for Discovery Awards

Halifax’s Discovery Centre is looking for anyone involved in science, technology or innovation to nominate themselves or someone else for 14th Annual Discovery Awards.

You can find the nomination forms here, and the nominations are open until May 31.

The Discovery Awards bring together academia, business and the community to honour people whose exemplary work has helped to improve science, technology and innovation in Nova Scotia. This could be a new invention, an innovative study, a life-long dedication to science or a commitment to the promotion of science and technology.

There are four Award categories:  Science Champion; Professional of Distinction; Innovation; and Emerging Professional.

The Discovery Awards for Science and Technology will be held Nov. 17 at The Halifax Marriott Harbourfront in Halifax. 

For the second time in five months, a Waterloo Region company has won a major pitching event at the Google headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Edtech startup Knowledgehook on Wednesday received Google’s Game Changer Award at the tech giant’s annual Demo Day. When Google held its Demo Day for female-led startups in December, the winner was another Canadian outfit, Bridgit of Kitchener.

Knowledgehook was one of two Canadian entries – the other was Halifax-based PACTA – among the 11 startups pitching at the annual event in Mountain View, Calif.

Waterloo-based Knowledgehook has developed software that analyzes the academic performance of math students in real-time games to recommend to educators alternative teaching practices. Knowledgehook, which has been working with the Accelerator Centre and Communitech’s Rev accelerator, was founded in 2014 by Ratnam, Francis, Lambo Jayapalan, and Arthur Lui.

“We’re thrilled and grateful to have shared the stage with so many talented and passionate entrepreneurs,” Ratnam said in a statement. “The support we’ve received today will be pivotal to our mission of helping students all over the world build their math skills.”

A popular exam prep tool among the 5,000 teachers in Canada and the U.S. who use it, Knowledgehook software unpacks students’ misunderstanding and suggests how teachers can address it.

Since September 2015, 12 Ontario school boards have been reviewing predictive insights the software generates for each student to help teachers adapt their lessons for optimal learning.

 “We’re optimistic that the accuracy and timeliness of Knowledgehook’s insights will advance school boards in their efforts to improve students’ academic performance,” said Ratnam.

A graduate of the Propel ICT and FounderFuel accelerators, PACTA has developed software that helps organizations, especially large corporations, manage their vast portfolios of contracts. It tells the organization when an action is needed in each contract, and how external events may impact the company’s contracts.

PACTA was named one of Canada’s Top 25 Up and Coming ICT companies by Branham Group.

To be selected to participate in Google’s annual Demo Day, startups must be legally incorporated headquartered in the U.S., Canada or Mexico and be actively raising a Series A round of between $1 million and $4 million.

QRA Corp., a Halifax startup that helps manufacturers detect design flaws in the development of complex machines, has launched a public beta-test for its latest product, QVScribe.

The product, which can be downloaded free during the beta-test, helps engineers understand the requirements listed in the documents they write when they are first proposing a piece of machinery.

QRA, which started as an industry-funded research project at Dalhousie University, has already developed QVTrace, which identifies design flaws in machinery while it is still in the design stage.

“The launch of QVScribe is important because it helps to diversify our product offering,” CEO and president Jordan Kyriakidis said in an interview Tuesday. “Our previous tool was deployed deep into the engineering process. This new tool is a bit more light-weight.”

QRA said in December that it had begun to provide Lockheed Martin engineers with the QVTrace to help with the development of increasingly complex cyber-physical designs. The product grew out of research that Kyriakidis and his team performed at Dalhousie University under a contract for Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defence contractor.

Innovacorp, Extreme Fund Ubique

Whereas the QVTrace product is an enterprise product sold to large corporations, QVScribe is a software-as- a-service product that any engineer can download and use to analyze requirements documents.

Kyriakidis said these documents comprise the first step of a major mechanical project, and if there is a mistake in them it could pose huge problems that crop up down the line. He added about half the problems that cost engineers time and money occur in this phase of the process. QVScribe uses Natural Language Processing to automatically detect problems in the written proposal, and helps the engineer to identify them.

“Since our early schooling, we are asked to be creative in our writing; engineering on the other hand requires us to be precise, concise and unambiguous,” defence engineering consultant Claude Lemelin said in a statement from QRA. “QVscribe shows a requirements document’s weaknesses, so they can be quickly corrected. It’s a simple tool for a complex problem that I think has the potential to be very helpful throughout the requirement engineering process.”

Kyriakidis said in the interview that his 15-person company took the new product through a closed alpha tests with about 15 5o 20 organizations in late 2015. As a result, QRA has already received requests for additional features on QVScribe.

He said the length of the beta test would depend on the feedback the company receives. The product will be for sale after an official launch sometime in the near future.

QRA has raised funds investors, though the precise amount has never been made public. The company has received at least $1 million in equity investment from the provincial innovation agency, Innovacorp.

QRA says its mission is “to accelerate the design process and reduce costs across industries building the most complex, mission- and safety-critical systems – by building solutions that analyze system designs and requirements at all critical stages of development.”