Looking Back at Q1 Labs, Radian6

I was astonished – and, to be frank, a little embarrassed – by how much I learned reading Gordon Pitts’ superb new book, Unicorn in the Woods: How East Coast Geeks and Dreamers Are Changing the Game.

Any regular reader of Entrevestor should be familiar with the story of Q1 Labs and Radian6, the two New Brunswick companies that sold out for a combined price of about $1 billion in 2012-13. Taken

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Natural Breast Prosthesis in Development

Simonne Cormier, Founder of a company that will make breast prostheses from natural fibres, is celebrating making it into Emergence, the national Bioscience Business Incubator run by PEI BIoAlliance.

It’s a big step for the Montague-based breast cancer survivor and former government administrator who has recently formed her venture Au Naturel Solutions and is beginning trials of her device

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Ignite Wins Social Innovation Award

Ignite Labs has been recognized with a national Canie Award just days after the organization opened a new facility in Pictou County, N.S.

Yarmouth, N.S-based Ignite, headed by Founder and CEO Doug Jones, is dedicated to providing incubation space and support for rural innovators. It began in Yarmouth three years ago, and opened an outpost in northern Nova Scotia last year. Late last week, it

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Volta Launches New AI Program

Volta has teamed up with Scale AI, the Montreal-based artificial intelligence supercluster, to offer a new program called Volta AI, which supports companies bringing AI to supply chains.

Volta, the Halifax-based innovation hub, said five Canadian companies will be accepted into the one-year program and each will receive $14,000 to buy services or materials.

Applications will be accepted until

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Haight Books On Sale in NS

As many of our readers know, I have a side hustle writing crime novels. A few of you have asked how or where to order the new editions of my books THE HAIGHT or A HITMAN ON HAIGHT STREET, which come out in paperback and digital formats on Nov. 10.

I’m arranging to hand deliver signed paperback copies to friends in Nova Scotia. If you’d like either or both, let me know the title and number, and I

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Bounce Health Launches Next Phase

Bounce Health Innovation, the organization supporting medtech companies in Newfoundland and Labrador, is enhancing its operations with a new full-time director and three years of funding.

The organization unveiled “Bounce 2.0” last week, in which Chandra Kavanagh, an expert in medical ethics, has been named the organization’s first director. She has created a schedule of events and programs

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Spark Awards $375K to 11 Teams

Eleven teams of entrepreneurs have been awarded a total of $375,000 in the Spark Nova Scotia program, which aims to develop startups in Nova Scotia outside of metro Halifax.

The cash prizes – ranging between $15,000 and $50,000 – were distributed during a virtual awards ceremony Monday evening.

The Spark competition is divided into three zones – South West, North, and Cape Breton – to cover all

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Navigate Creates Software Studio

Sydney-based Navigate Startup House has teamed up with the Nova Scotia Department of Labour & Advanced Education to create work experience for a team of junior software developers in Cape Breton.

The team is developing innovative business ideas at the ATOM Software Studio. The pilot program currently employs four young programmers, supervised by professional developers, in a hybrid software

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3D BioFibR Raises $550K Round

Halifax-based 3D BioFibR Inc., only formed in July, has closed a $550,000 funding round that will launch its mission to produce commercial quantities of nature’s “strongest, lightest and toughest” materials.

The equity round – believed to be the first by an Atlantic Canadian company founded since the pandemic started – includes $150,000 from Concrete Ventures and $100,000 from Innovacorp.

The

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Innovacorp Accelerates Deals in Last 6 Months

Taking issue with the notion that Atlantic Canadian startups face a major funding problem, Andrew Ray says the companies in the Innovacorp portfolio have raised $71 million in the last six months alone.

Innovacorp, the Nova Scotia government’s early-stage venture capital agency, did not participate in all those funding rounds, but it did invest more in the first six months of the 2010-21 fiscal

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