Eyesover Technologies, a provider of opinion tracking and targeting software, has been selected for L-Spark, a Canadian accelerator that nurtures Software as a Service companies.
The Fredericton startup issued a press release on Tuesday saying it would be joining the accelerator to receive help in scaling into a globally competitive company.
“By working with the L-Spark mentors and business development team, our participation will allow us to take advantage of their experience and help us grow our business rapidly.” said CEO Craig Leonard in the statement.
Based in Ottawa, the L-Spark accelerator is on a mission to help market-ready SaaS and cloud startups to connect with Canada’s SaaS experts, said the statement. The accelerator offers one-on-one mentorship with software veterans, intensive SaaS workshops and interaction with successful SaaS entrepreneurs to give Canadian SaaS businesses what they need to succeed.
Gemba Software Solutions, a Saint John company whose ProcedureFlow product helps big business employees navigate their company’s operations, is listed among the accelerator’s graduates.
Following a three-week boot camp, 12 companies were selected to pitch in Ottawa to compete for a place in the accelerator. The selection committee consisted of 24 leading corporate and venture capital firms, including Lucas Matheson of Shopify, Narbe Alexandrian of OMERS Ventures and Alex Katz of ff Venture Capital.
“We’re pleased to announce the next cohort of the L-Spark SaaS accelerator,” said L-Spark Executive Managing Director Leo Lax in the statement. “With the support of our mentors and business development team, these seven companies will be on their way to increasing revenues 10x and becoming global leaders in today’s SaaS industry.”
Eyesover’s opinion-tracking software uses artificial intelligence to analyze media and uncover new issues or discussions of importance to the user, said the statement. The technology was devised by Ali Ghorbani, the director of the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity at the University of New Brunswick.
The founders believe there are a lot of social media-monitoring systems that can highlight public sentiments about a project or policy, but only if the user identifies a specific issue to monitor. Eyesover can alert users to aspects of public opinion that they might not have been aware of.
Eyesover analyzes the data on social media to detect how the public is interpreting an issue regardless of what the user is looking for.
In an email, Leonard said sales of the product are going well. He noted that a company needs at least $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue to get into L-Spark and have sales in the U.S. The company has begun to work on its first fund-raising.
“We've been able to get to this stage with funding from the co-founders, friends and family, and government sources,” said Leonard. “We started meeting with potential investors at home and in Ottawa [and] Toronto over the past few months and I would say we are optimistic on that front.”
