The Changing Market for Talent

When Halifax-based QuickFacts posted a job ad promising software developers a four-day work week, the insurance software startup received more than twice as many applicants as it typically had from previous ads — more than 350 people.

The company’s introduction of a shortened work week for employees was part of a wider bid by co-founders Christy Silvestri and Jeff Barsalou to grapple with a

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Ocean Supercluster to Host Conference

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster will host a one-day conference in Ottawa May 15, dubbed Ambition 2035, with the aim of workshopping strategies to grow the national blue economy to $220 billion over the next 12 years.

The conference will include a roster of speakers including Supercluster CEO Kendra MacDonald, executives from corporations like ExxonMobil and Swedish defence contractor Saab

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QuickFacts Wins $25K Pond Award

Halifax-based QuickFacts Inc., which has developed a customizable software platform for insurance brokers, has captured the 2023 Gerry Pond Award for sales and traction.

Propel, Atlantic Canada’s virtual accelerator, presented the award and its $25,000 cash prize to QuickFacts during a virtual awards ceremony on Monday afternoon.

First awarded in 2019, the Gerry Pond Award is given to a startup

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Meta Materials Raising US$25M

Dartmouth-based advanced manufacturing company Meta Materials said Friday it will sell another 83 million of its shares at US$0.30 apiece on the Nasdaq stock exchange to raise US$25 million, or C$33.4 million, sending its stock price tumbling.

Its shares shed 40 percent of their value on the announcement, falling to a low of just under US$0.22 Friday, and its market capitalization slid to just

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Number of Startups Rose 4.4% to 805

As we begin to dig through the data for our coming report on the Atlantic Canadian startup community, one theme that is emerging is the slowing growth of the community overall.

The preliminary data we’ve accrued so far shows there were 805 startups in Atlantic Canada at the end of 2022. Had the community continued to grow as it was before the pandemic, the number would be over 1,100. We’ll

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GIT Raises $10.2M

Halifax-based marine coatings maker Graphite Innovations & Technology, or GIT, has closed a $10.2 million Series A funding round led by BDC Capital’s ClimateTech Fund as it looks to scale up its commercialization activities.

Also investing is U.K.-based Stolt Ventures, the investment arm of Stolt-Nielsen, which was founded in 1959 and now operates more than 150 tanker ships, as well as fish

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Pulse Health to Host “Startup Crawl”

Pulse Innovation, a Halifax-based industry network for health professionals involved in commercializing innovative medical technologies, will host a “Startup Crawl” networking event in Halifax April 27 featuring headline-making supply chain software business Milk Moovement.

Inspired by the British convention of the pub crawl, in which participants visit a variety of community bars as part of a

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