Halifax food delivery startup Smooth Meal Prep has hired organizational design firm Symplicity Designs to help with a franchising strategy and is eyeing expansion into a second community.

CEO Nevell Provo told Entrevestor in an interview that he expects to spend the next two or three years preparing to sell franchises. Meanwhile, he sees the possible expansion outside Halifax as a way to show

New Brunswick startup hub Venn Innovation has added a new board member: Welkom-U Chief Executive Oluwatosin "Tosin" Ajibola, whose company finished a closed test of its software last month.

Ajibola, a recent immigrant to Canada, started Welkom-U with his three co-founders last year with plans to help newcomers to Atlantic Canada integrate into their communities. Now, he oversees a team of 11

Halifax startup hub Volta has opened applications for its free LEAP program, which aims to prepare entrepreneurs to submit an application to a startup accelerator, such as Creative Destruction Lab or Techstars.

Created in 2019 and headed-up by venture capital veteran Toon Nagtegaal, training will be held over four half-day sessions. Nagtegaal was a co-founder of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based

Halifax’s Centre for Women in Business will launch a virtual accelerator for women tech entrepreneurs beginning Feb. 25. Its aim is to introduce founders of companies with revenues to the fundamentals of running a business before they join more advanced accelerators and incubators.

The new accelerator, dubbed Grow Now, will last for six months with twice-monthly classes and will be free for

Halifax science museum The Discovery Centre and rural innovation hub IGNITE have announced a joint project to encourage Grade 12 students to pursue careers in “STEAM” fields -- science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

The Discovery Centre uses interactive exhibits to encourage young people to be interested in science. IGNITE, meanwhile, runs four centres across Nova Scotia that provide

Guelph, Ont.- and Bible Hill, NS-based vertical farming startup GoodLeaf Farms has inked a deal with Alberta for the provincial government to pay $2.73 million towards a 74,000-square-foot facility in Calgary.

GoodLeaf, a subsidiary of TruLeaf, uses high-tech vertical farming facilities to grow microgreens, such as micro radishes and baby spinach. Its process relies on LED lights designed to

Venn Innovation, a New Brunswick startup hub, has added a pair of ideation-stage software companies to its Venn Garage incubator via one of its open pitch events. Judges chose Oz Health and DYOFOX from a field of largely immigrant-led businesses.

Of the five startups that took part in the most recent pitch competition on Oct. 21 and 22, four had immigrant founders, Venn spokesperson Nandhini

Nova Scotia Business Inc.’s Scale-up Hub: Atlanta program has announced its six-company fall cohort -- down from eight participants in the spring session -- with four startups from Nova Scotia, one from Newfoundland and Labrador, and one from New Brunswick.

Created in 2018, the Scale-up Hub program encourages Atlantic Canadian companies to commit to spending extended periods in a major city with

Milk Moovement, which makes supply chain management software for the dairy industry, now controls about 10 percent of United States milk production and has bagged a $1.5 million grant from federal agency Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

CEO Robert Forsythe said in an interview that, in the wake of a United States expansion that saw the company move its sales office to Minnesota, Milk

Almost three months after Halifax travel scheduling startup Trip Ninja announced it was ceasing operations, an eleventh-hour buyout has saved the company and the jobs of both its founders and employees.

In September, CEO Andres Collart said he was shuttering Trip Ninja because of the damage wrought by COVID-19 on the travel sector. Now, the company has announced it is being acquired by