Phillip Curley of Fredericton-based HotSpot Parking and Christopher Cowper-Smith of Halifax’s Spring Loaded Technology have made the shortlist for the 2015 BDC Young Entrepreneur Award, joining two other Atlantic Canadians as finalists in the competition.

BDC, the federal government’s business development bank, announced the finalists in a statement this morning for the competition that seeks to find the country’s leading entrepreneur aged between 18 and 35. The other Atlantic Canadian finalists are Martin O'Brien of the Cascumpec Bay Oyster Company in Prince Edward Island, and Melissa

After settling on its 15^th design iteration, Spring Loaded Technology is finally ready to unleash its “bionic” knee brace on the world.

As it opens its new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Dartmouth this month, the company that grew out of Dalhousie University’s Starting Lean class is preparing for a pre-sales campaign it hopes will validate demand for the product. Spring Loaded has

In many ways, The Rounds exemplified what happened in fundraising by Atlantic Canadian startups last year. It was a record year largely because companies like The Rounds tapped angels and government-owned agencies. 

The Rounds, a Halifax startup that operates a social network for medical professionals, announced a capital raise of $1 million in April 2014 from Innovacorp and a host of angels.

If you want a quick visual presentation of startup financing in 2014, check out our infographic here.

Our artist Roxanna Boers has done a great job capturing in a single image the various nuances of how Atlantic Canadian high-growth companies raised money last year.

We look at total funding, the sources of funding and major deals. We even break down sources of institutional funding in the

The least-noticed part of the Ascenta Health Ltd. exit may be the most interesting: it is the development of a new company around the Ascenta Skin product.

Ascenta Health, whose NutraSea brand of nutritional products are made naturally from omega-3 fatty acids, said last month it had been bought by Nature’s Way, an affiliate of Dr. Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals of Germany. And a single sentence in the announcement said Founder and CEO Marc St-Onge would “move on and retain ownership in Ascenta Skin, the company’s newly developed high-end skincare brand.”

Though the financial details

Sydney-based Techlink Entertainment has suspended operations and laid off about 60 employees.

Techlink’s specialty was producing VLT games that accepted prepaid cards rather than cash with the goal of alerting players when they’d spent a certain amount.

Such machines had been mandated in Nova Scotia under the province’s responsible gambling rules. But the provincial government ended Techlink’s responsible gaming contract last year, saying its My-Play system was flawed.

The company had received financial backing from Nova Scotia Business Inc., which had approved equity investments and

Things are going so swimmingly at Xiplinx Technologies that CEO Brent MacDonald is going back to where he was three years ago – in the PropelICT accelerator.

Xiplinx, the Saint John company that helps manufacturing plant managers monitor data from around their factories, was recently accepted into the Propel Build program. That’s the advanced accelerator for growth stage companies, and the

As the incoming chair of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, Cathy Simpson intends to help more startups achieve the kind of accelerated growth that pushes companies and regions forward.

Simpson also aims to get more women involved in science, technology and management. To that end, she is leading youth initiatives that demonstrate that women can succeed in the innovation sector.

I’m pleased to be the guest speaker at a TecSocial gathering Thursday in Sydney – one of a few events Entrevestor will be attending in Cape Breton late next week.

I’ll be delivering a brief chat on communications for startups at the TecSocial get together from 5:15 pm to 7:15 pm June 4 at the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre.

My talk will focus on the need for startups to identify their key message and make sure the entire team can deliver it.  They have to communicate internally and to investors, customers, and the broader world.  It’s important because no one can achieve their

Futurpreneur Canada, a group that supports young entrepreneurs, has launched the fifth annual Spin Master Innovation Fund, a competition for innovative young people.

The national organization is looking for innovative Canadian entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 39 to apply to the competition by June 19.

The competition’s judges will select as many as 10 contestants to win a  development loan worth up to $50,000 and two paid trips to Toronto to attend mentoring events. Each winner will work with one of Futurpreneur Canada’s 2,800 volunteer mentors, specially selected to meet the