As an entrepreneur, Tim Burke eschews giving cigars or wine to his contacts when the holidays roll around.

Instead, he offers Kiva gift cards, which allow those in his network to support an entrepreneur in a less prosperous part of the world.

“It’s a novel and more meaningful gift,” said Burke, president and co-founder of Quark Engineering &Development of Halifax.

He has been investing in Kiva, a San Francisco-based non-profit that allows investors to put as little as $25 into one of the many ventures outlined on their website, for about two years.

Last year, Burke gave 30 gift

The Business Development Bank of Canada’s venture capital arm on Thursday committed to invest $10 million in a regional venture capital fund, bringing the federal government’s seal of approval to the initiative and raising the total funding to $47.5 million.

Senia Rapisarda, vice-president of strategic initiatives and investments with the bank’s venture capital arm, said the federally owned bank has been working on a plan to help the ecosystem for investment across the country by backing venture capital funds.

In most cases, the bank requires a dominant backing by private investors

After winning  his first business plan competition, Peter Goggin is hoping his social venture Green Trade, which trains ex-convicts and recovering addicts for employment, will take advantage of the skills shortage in the Maritimes to help people with a troubled past.

Goggin, an MBA student at the University of New Brunswick, won the social entrepreneurship category at the Pond-Deshpande Centre’s pitch competition in November, and now has his sights set on more  contests. The Pond-Deshpande Centre was established at UNB last year to promote entrepreneurship in universities.

Goggin’s idea

Jeff Slipp is heading to Anaheim, Calif., next month with the hope  of finding a manufacturer that  will be able to  produce the enhanced-expression-effects pedals for electric guitars that Slipp is developing in Sydney.

Slipp, the founder and Chief Executive Officer at Stomp Labs, will soon launch a patent application for his  product, which can enhance the range of sounds and feeling of the music produced by an electric guitar. He is also in the process of raising $155,000 in private equity capital, which he hopes to leverage into additional money from Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. and

Organizers of the Big Data Congress, to be held in Saint John on January 24, hope it  will evolve into a national event that will be held annually to promote the development of the digital economy in Canada.

Geoff Flood, the CEO of the data analytics consultancy T4G, came up with the idea for the conference as part of his movement to establish a big data centre of excellence in the region. The conference will feature some of the world’s leading thinkers in the growing industry of data analytics, interspersed with more local discussions, a trade show, and workshop.

“We’re in the very

Springleap, the South African crowdsourcing startup that was the co-winner of MentorCamp in September, will move to Halifax in the New Year, complete with a new feature and (hopefully) a new round of funding.

Now based in Cape Town, Springleap was recruited to Halifax to participate in MentorCamp, a one-day training session for entrepreneurs, by the founder of the event, Permjot Valia, who does business in the African country. The 40-or-so international mentors at MentorCamp were so impressed with Springleap that they awarded it one of two first prizes, each comprising an equity

Fredericton-based Inversa Systems, whose technology can detect structural flaws through backscattered radiation techniques, intends to pursue a twin-track strategy in 2013 to pursue its two key markets – civil infrastructure and the offshore oil and gas industry.

The company wants to scale up sales in its civil business, which is mainly testing infrastructure like culverts (corrugated metal pipes) to make sure they are structurally sound. That business accounts for about 60 percent of Inversa’s revenues, but the greater growth may be found in the fledgling business of monitoring

Halifax startup Novawise Inc., has raised an additional funding of $350,000, bringing its total equity fundraising from Atlantic Canadian angel investors to more than $1 million.

Founded last year by Chief Executive David MacKinnon and Chief Technology Officer Steve Macdonald, Novawise is developing a customerrelationshipmanagement software for pharmaceuticals and other regulated industries.

The company grew quietly with $750,000 in seed funding starting in 2011, and so far this year has made three announcements about financing.

• On Friday, MacKinnon announced the company has raised

ClinicServer, a Saint John-based company that helps health clinics digitize their operations and records, has expanded into Zimbabwe as it moves from allied health facilities into more mainstream patient care.

The company began in its current form in 2010 with $1 million in angel funding and aims to help health clinics use cloud-based software for scheduling, billing, maintaining patient records and other common tasks.  The company says its basic service can produce a 5 percent increase in each professional’s revenues by allowing him or her to see more patients, and the premium service

Cube Automation and Sunny Corner Enterprises of northern New Brunswick have formed a joint venture with seed funding from the Frank McKenna Technology Fund to develop remote monitoring and automation applications for the mining industry.

Sunny Corner, based in Miramichi, and Cube Automation of Tracadie will develop technology that will allow mining companies to monitor their machinery in remote locations, often operating in extreme climates. The device will monitor such aspects of drilling as  torque, power and performance, and relay the information by satellite to a centralized office.