By this summer, a new startup based in Sydney hopes to be producing gold nano particles to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue cancers.

SONA Nano Tech recently won $50,000 in Innovacorp’s Spark competition and is using the money to establish itself in the Sydney startup community. The company is now working at raising $300,000 to $500,000 with which it plans to begin producing nano particles for medical treatment.

“Current radiation therapy techniques are limited in their effectiveness because they damage healthy bone and tissue,” said Gerrard Marangoni, a St. Francis

The Acadia Institute for Data Analytics will host a symposium next Tuesday on the use of data analysis for small and medium-sized businesses.

Cathy Simpson, the Vice-President of Marketing at T4G, will be the keynote speaker at the Productivity & Competitiveness for SMEs through Data Analytics Seminar, which will be held from noon to 4:30 pm at the Clark Common at Acadia University.

Simpson was one of the founding members 12 years ago of Propel Saint John, which has grown into Propel ICT, the regional tech accelerator. She is also one of the founders and organizers of the Big Data

The UIT program at Cape Breton University reached a milestone Monday when its dozen students were to present their best ideas to the members of the One Nova Scotia Coalition.

UIT is a new technology and entrepreneurship program championed by Gavin Uhma, the CBU graduate who went on to co-found GoInstant, one of Nova Scotia’s most successful startups. The program offers free tuition to 12 students, divided evenly between men and women.

While two or three students are focusing on developing real companies, most are being encouraged to come up with ideas in various forms of technology and

Since we reported on the federal government’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development program two months ago, we’ve heard a strong message from several Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs. They’re angry at that their claims under the program are either being denied or held up in an appeal process that is taking too long to settle. The word “anger” may understate the sentiment. There’s a certain fury around this issue that is unlike anything I’ve witnessed in the three-and-a-half years I’ve been covering Atlantic Canadian startups.

To recap, we reported on Nov. 27 that several

Libbe Englander’s voice mail was a sign that fresh opportunities are brewing in the tech segment in Atlantic Canada.

On Tuesday, Englander called Entrevestor and left a message asking if we have a job board. She wanted to know because her company, Pharm3r (pronounced farmer) is hiring developers in the Halifax area.

Nothing unusual in that. Most companies I speak to are looking for programmers. What caught my interest is the fact that Pharm3r is based in New York City.

The company, which conducts data analysis in the pharmaceutical industry, will remain headquartered in Manhattan. But

After the sale of one of his companies, Dartmouth entrepreneur Keith Gallant is focusing on the growth of his startup, Email Opened,  by bringing in more capital and a new CEO.

Gallant recently sold his website hosting service, JustHosting.ca, for more than $100,000 to VivosWeb Inc. of Hamilton, Ont. The sale will allow Gallant to focus more on Email Opened, which helps organizations analyze and improve their email campaigns.

With 1,500 customers, Email Opened is bringing on Rob Gowans as CEO, allowing Gallant to return to his first love of product development. Gowans has worked with

Planet Hatch, the Fredericton-based startup hub, is hosting a three-day “pre-accelerator” to give novice entrepreneurs an introduction to the field.

The Startup Crash Course will take place on Jan. 31, Feb. 14 and Feb. 15 at Planet Hatch in Knowledge Park in Fredericton. Applications, which must be submitted by Jan. 20, are available here.

“The Startup Crash Course is an intense 3 day program that will give a select group of committed founders a unique opportunity to take their startup the next level,” said a notice from the organizers. “It is designed to give teams valuable training,

Entrevestor today is launching its second annual campaign to collect data from startups across Atlantic Canada, with the goal of again publishing metrics that are vital to the development of the startup community.

Last year, Entrevestor surveyed about 300 startups, promising confidentiality to all the respondents. We published the aggregated data free for everyone in our Entrevestor

Smartpods has raised $750,000 in equity financing to help it battle one of society’s great health problems: sitting.

The Dieppe, N.B., company makes tables that have work areas that automatically rise, fall and move from side to side to get users off their butts.

Its technology controls the movement of the working space, and it is finding customers among corporations and government.

Having graduated in November from the Launch36 tech accelerator, the company late last month closed $250,000 in funding from BDC Venture Capital, part of the Business Development Bank of Canada, and

Continuing to gain momentum, Fundmetric of Halifax last week received a $150,000 convertible note from BDC Venture Capital.

The startup actually became the 100^th startup in Canada to receive convertible notes from the VC arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada after graduating from a Canadian accelerator. Fundmetric, which helps charities to organize and carry out their fundraising