The Venture Newfoundland and Labrador Fund, the new public-private investment body that will provide seed financing in the province, has announced its first close and should make its first investment within three weeks.

Pelorus Venture Capital Ltd., the subsidiary of GrowthWorks Atlantic that will manage the fund, said Tuesday that the contributions by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, BDC Capital and Pelorus itself have all closed. Pelorus is talking to some institutions and potential angel investors about coming into the fund. It is working with the Newfoundland and Labrador

University of New Brunswick recently launched the second year of its Summer Institute, an accelerator that melds entrepreneurial fire with artistic passion. 

The three-month program differs from other accelerators that focus on sales, market research and typical research and development. Instead, the Summer Institute aims to help participants discover an issue they are deeply passionate

At some point this summer, Sean Sears hopes Canadian startups will be raising capital on his new crowdfunding platform, ICrowdx.

Sears and his colleagues at the Halifax investment-firm-cum-startup-lab Ogden Pond have been working on developing the online portal in preparation for regulators approving equity crowdfunding. Now that that has been achieved, they are in discussions with regulators

Last fall the C.D. Howe Institute published a report titled, "Measuring Innovation in Canada: The Tale Told by Patent Applications". Innovation is a fickle concept, and patents only tell part of the story. Yet when one sees that Atlantic Canada ranks last and well below the national average, it's hard to deny that we have a problem.

Readers of Entrevestor are well informed of the vibrancy of the East Coast startup scene, especially for its size. But venture capital and startup firms are not identical to innovation. They represent the fuel and ignition behind new ideas, and as any good Cub

The P.E.I. BioAlliance, the organization that promotes the life sciences industry in the province, has issued the following press release:

Animal Health and Nutrition Businesses Converge on PEI

Charlottetown, PEI (May 25, 2015) – North America’s premier International Animal Health and Nutrition Business Conference – VetHealth Global – will convene in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, June 8-10, 2015.

Since 2007, this biennial conference has generated international interest for its ability to attract senior executives, investors, inventive startups, regulators, and researchers from

Critical Path Group has named the 22 companies that will present at the Atlantic Venture Forum and tell their stories to investors assembled from across the U.S. and Canada.

The third annual AVF, organized by Critical Path Group, will take place at the Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax on June 10 and 11. The event brings together investors and entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada’s clean-tech,

As a lawyer, Mandy Woodland specializes in offering entrepreneurs affordable legal advice. Now, she’s also CEO of Caetum, a tech startup that aims to make clinical research easier and more successful.

Woodland said Caetum will create a cloud-based application for budgeting and organizing clinical trials that will be cheaper, easier to use and offer better predictive analysis than competing

Six diverse startups from around the region have been accepted into the PropelICT Build program this summer, headlining a record intake of 33 companies in the accelerator’s sixth cohort.

The PropelICT accelerator has grown into a two-tier system that operates in four cities. The flagship is the Build program in Moncton for more advanced companies, led by former Propel Executive Director Trevor MacAusland.

Younger companies are mentored in the Launch program in Halifax (led by Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ying Tam), Fredericton (Entrepreneur-in-Residence Al Sturgeon) and St. John’s (Propel

Ascenta Health Ltd., the Dartmouth maker of natural beauty products, has exited.

The company said Tuesday it was bought by Nature’s Way, an affiliate of Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals of Germany for an undisclosed amount. The company in 2009 received a $4 million venture capital investment from Avrio Capital of Alberta. 

We were out of town when this story broke and will have more on the deal next week. For now, here is the press release:

Ascenta Health Announces Acquisition By Nature’s Way

Halifax, May 19, 2015 – Ascenta Health Limited announced today that it has entered into

Le Collège communautaire du Nouveau‐Brunswick, Springboard Atlantic and BioNB have issued the following press release:

Changing the World One Technology at a Time: The Atlantic Biorefinery Conference to Kick Off in Edmundston

May 21, 2015 (Fredericton, NB) ‐ The Atlantic Biorefinery Conference, Canada’s premier conference on biorefining and bioprocessing, will kick off May 27th – 29th in Edmundston, New Brunswick. What started out as an idea for a small Atlantic event around current issues in biorefining, has transformed into a conference that attracts international presenters and