BDC Online Event on Valuations

The Business Development Bank of Canada, a federal Crown corporation, will host a webinar Thursday, Feb. 24 about how entrepreneurs can capitalize on the trend of rising valuations for tech companies.

The speakers will include BDC’s Brenda Slauko, Regional Director for Technology Industry, and Michelle Scarborough, Managing Partner of Strategic Investments and the Women in Technology Venture

Continue Reading

MARS VR Starts Trials

Halifax’s MARS VR Lab has begun clinical testing for a virtual reality hardware and software suite that gamifies the process of teaching children how to operate motorized wheelchairs.

The technology, dubbed the XPOD, uses a virtual reality headset and joystick. Players enter a fantasy world that they navigate using the joystick, developing the same fine motor skills they need to control a

Continue Reading

Our First Canadian Oceantech Data Report

We’re super proud today to publish our first Canadian Oceantech Data Report, which we hope will provide a baseline for analyzing ocean-related innovation in Canada in coming years.

This is the first time we’ve produced a national research report rather than a regional one, and we view this report very much as a pilot project. This document is part of our expansion into the oceantech coverage

Continue Reading

Alongside Raises $8M

Two months after it inked a deal to acquire job board CareerBeacon, Moncton’s Alongside has closed an $8 million funding round, comprising 40 percent equity funding and the remainder a loan from TD Canada Trust.

Chief Executive Yves Boudreau said in an interview that Alongside, which makes human resources software, decided to rely partly on a loan because CareerBeacon is a strong revenue

Continue Reading

Early Career Ocean Professionals Sought

ECOP Canada is asking people who have recently embarked on careers in the ocean sector to fill out a survey so the group can better understand and meet the international and national needs of early career ocean professionals -- which it calls ECOPs --  during the UN Ocean Decade. 

ECOP Canada is part of an international organization that emerged out of the UN Ocean Decade to elevate and

Continue Reading

Digital NS Program Aims for Diversity

Digital Nova Scotia is seeking applications for the second cohort of its Get into IT program, which aims to help 148 participants from under-represented communities launch a technical career.

The association for IT industries expects to graduate 62 people in the inaugural cohort of the program next month. The second cohort -- which is offered at no cost to Nova Scotians who are 18-plus with a

Continue Reading

BDC Capital Launches Diversity Template

A standardized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Reporting Template for general partners of venture capital funds and their portfolios has been launched by BDC Capital, the investment arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada.

The tool is designed to align with the Canadian market.  

“We can only improve what we can measure,” Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President of BDC Capital, said

Continue Reading

Ng Eyes Governance Reform

Sally Ng, Chief Operating Officer for newly created BIPOC industry group Tribe Network, has been nominated for the Women of the Year award from Ryerson University startup incubator the DMZ.

New this year, the award will honour International Women's Day on March 8 and has a 32-person shortlist that also includes Martha Casey, CEO of Halifax startup hub Volta.

Ng is a serial entrepreneur and

Continue Reading