The Norman Newman Centre at Dalhousie University has announced its teams for the 2016 LaunchPad Cohort, the university’s summer entrepreneurship program.
Overseen by professors Mary Kilfoil and Ed Leach of Launch Dal, LaunchPad accepts 10 teams that receive $10,000 each in development costs to help get their business off the ground. The program received 20 applications this year.
A statement from Launch Dal said the teams chosen have what it takes to participate in a fast-paced and forward-thinking environment.
The 10 teams are:
Dugo: Provides intelligent remote-site battery and power management to the wireless industry. Cell towers sometimes suffer from power interruptions, in which case they are powered by batteries. But batteries degrade over time and have to be monitored. Dugo is developing a software-as-a-service platform that helps test batteries, centralizing the work and presenting the results.
SWAP: Developing a secure-payment system that identifies users through their fingerprints, and does not store the fingerprint data after the purchase. That means users can rest assured that it is much harder for hackers to access their accounts.
NeoTES: Aiming to take advantage of time-of-day electricity rates, it has designed proprietary technology that uses chemicals to release heat in a home that was produced when electricity costs were lowest.
Dal Hosts Accelerator for Military Personnel.
REP: The company is producing an app that helps amateur sport coaches communicate with athletes and their families. It is meant for the 32 million young people who participate in minor sports in North America. The app can help coaches communicate easily with families, and find and distribute content to aid in the coaching of young people.
Barkskin: The founders mission is to design watches and beauty accessories made from wood that has been sustainably sourced from Canadian forests. The goal is to encourage the proper nurturing of our forests.
Pursu.it: This is a crowd-funding platform that helps elite athletes raise money to cover the costs of their training. The company, which was spun out of the Halifax website company Norex, focuses on developing crowd-funding campaigns that are developed on the basis of quality, not quantity.
StuGig: Is developing an online platform on which students can find work doing odd jobs. It takes a percentage from each completed job, and lets students pay 99 cents for a recommendation card when they finish job. The more recommendation cards students have, the more likely they are to be hired.
Fresh-Tech Farming: The company is creating an online marketplace for local restaurants and local farms in which they can check each other’s stock to make sure there is never a shortage. It helps to solve the problems of restaurants running out of food and encourages local purchasing.
PowerWhys: Aims to encourage energy efficiency in home renovations. The company has created an application that will lets renovators select appliances and products before starting the renovation to ensure maximum energy efficiency.
Coldstream Clear: Produces high-end moonshine liqueurs and vodkas. The company has had success in the Nova Scotian market and wants to grow into national and global markets.
