The recent financings of Halifax-based startups Affinio and Analyze Re highlight one facet of the innovation ecosystem in Atlantic Canada that is healthier in 2013 than last year – the number and diversity of major institutional fundraisings.

In 2012, the startup scene in Atlantic Canada was characterized by a lot of exciting companies receiving seed funding – usually $200,000 to $2 million -- to finance the early stages of their growth. That was great, but it also meant that there were a cluster of young companies all scrambling for follow-on financing, each of them looking for rounds of

A year ago, Cam McDonald and Daniel Bartek were Dalhousie University students enrolled in the Starting Lean course. Yesterday, they announced their company Sage Mixology has signed a distribution deal with the biggest liquor purveyor in the world.

The speed with which Sage – whose third founder is Bobby Besant – is bringing its product to Liquor Control Board of Ontario outlets says plenty about the drive of its young team and their execution of a great idea.

Sage is dedicated to revolutionizing the ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverage market, the pre-mixed fruity drinks you can buy

It was great to see some friends from Arkansas at MentorCamp in Halifax last month.  It reminded me of our trip to Northwest Arkansas this past summer, when I witnessed what a startup community can and should be.

I was lucky enough in August to be one of a quartet of Atlantic Canadians – the others were Patrick Hankinson of Compilr, Shawn Carver of Fiddlehead and Gavin Uhma of GoInstant – serving as mentors in a MentorCamp held in Bentonville, Ark., the home of Walmart. Permjot Valia, the Founder of Halifax-based MentorCamp, invited us to come and serve as some of the international

Analyze Re, a Halifax company whose software-as-a-service product helps reinsurers assess risk, has received almost $1.4 million in funding from a range of venture capital funds and angel investors.

The company came together when a trio of executives — Oliver Baltzer, Adrian Bentley and Shivam Rajdev — took their idea for a SaaS product for reinsurers to the Starting Lean course at Dalhousie

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation released its 2012-2013 annual report on Monday, which details the innovation agency’s record investments in the year to March 31.

NBIF, which is a sponsor of Entrevestor, invested a record $1.95 million in 12 companies, comprising nine new investments and three follow-fundings. Other investors put an additional $7.1 million into these companies. The foundation said it now has a portfolio of 28 companies, the most since its inception in 2003.

CEO Calvin Milbury noted in the report that the agency also invested $1.9 million in 27 research projects.

The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council has highlighted a recent development  that is adding to economic growth in Atlantic Canada – the growth of tech startups.

APEC this week released its economic forecast for the region for 2014, which foresees tepid GDP growth overall next year and a notable improvement in Nova Scotia to 2 percent. One of the bright spots in the detailed look at the region’s economy is the tech sector, which is benefiting from a rising tech economy in the U.S.

President and Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Beale noted the recent successes in the segment, such as

Health Outcomes Worldwide has launched  a new mobile apps for its how2trak software, which allows nurses and other healthcare providers to use data to improve their service for patients while reducing costs.

The Cape Breton healthcare administration company said in a press release last week the app can be used on iPads and Android mobile devices.

Health Outcomes Worldwide has the largest proprietary database of wound care treatment data in North America. When it received $1.5 million in funding last year from Nova Scotia Business Inc., the company said it would use the proceeds to

Halifax-based Equals6 announced last week that 50,000 students have now signed up for its career-focused social networks for students. The company had 30,000 students on its social network when it entered the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Boston in March, and CEO Andy Osborn says the company is expanding by about 10 percent per month.

 

The following is the company’s full press release:

 

Equals6, the career, networking and scholarship site for students, hits 50,000 members milestone  

 

Total student membership increased 100% in last six months. Company sees continued

Employees’ lack of interest in their work is a widespread problem. Only 30 percent of American employees are fully engaged and happy at work, according to Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace report. The apathy of the remaining 70 percent (including the 18 percent who are actively disengaged) may be costing the U.S. economy as much as $550 billion a year in lost productivity.

Respected Moncton businesswoman Paula Morand has spent 18 months working on the issue. ConquerPro is her software-as-a-service solution designed to combat the problem by assessing employees’ workplace

A new event will connect IT and food specialists in Wolfville, N.S., in January in the hopes of fostering new ideas and partnerships.  F5/Food will be held at Wolfville’s Acadia University and will take the form of a 48-hour Idea Lab.

“The idea is to set aside two days to design new solutions in the new media space that focuses on one of our greatest assets here in the Annapolis Valley -- food,” said Melissa Quinn, manager of the Acadia Centre for Rural Innovation, which is organizing the event.

“We have created an incubation lab event where people across new media and agricultural