Sandpiper Backs QuickFacts

Female-focused venture capital  fund Sandpiper Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in Halifax-based QuickFacts, a customizable software platform for insurance brokers that promises to be more user-friendly than competing software.

The QuickFacts platform lets brokers view insurance packages from competing companies side by side for easy comparison, which the company says can reduce the

Continue Reading

Kraken Top-Performing Tech Company on TSX-V Last Year

Kraken Robotics, the St. John’s maker of underwater drones, was the top performing technology sector company on the TSX Venture in 2022, according to the exchange’s yearly Venture 50 rankings, which consider movements in businesses’ share prices, market capitalizations and trading volumes.

Shares in Kraken rose 52 percent over the course of the year to end at 56 cents, and have since rallied

Continue Reading

Scient Soft Launches Mining Core Analysis

Halifax-based Scient is soft launching its technology for analyzing mining core samples by setting up its equipment for a limited time at a facility in the town of Stellarton, NS.

The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources Core Library stores rock cores collected by geologists — long tubes of rock that mining companies drill to gauge the location of mineral reserves.

The provincially owned

Continue Reading

Hatch Diversity Report Highlights Female, Indigenous Founders

Almost two-thirds of the entrepreneurs supported by Fredericton entrepreneurship hub Planet Hatch last year were new immigrants, a little under 40 percent were female and just over 10 percent were Indigenous, according to the organization’s annual Diversity Report.

The report surveyed 246 founders of 148 companies that had dealings with Planet Hatch between Oct. 2021 and Sept. 2022 on a range of

Continue Reading

Kognitiv Spark Launches RemoteSpark 2.0

Fredericton-based Kognitiv Spark has launched a sweeping revision of its main product offering that it says includes more robust spatial computing abilities, referring to the process of visualizing a digitally rendered object in a real-world environment.

RemoteSpark, as Kognitiv dubs its software, uses augmented reality and mixed reality to help remote workers use complicated equipment. If a

Continue Reading

CarbonCure’s Wagner Joins Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Jennifer Wager, formerly the president of Dartmouth cleantech star CarbonCure Technologies, has a new role as a fellow at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a VC firm led by such business titans as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg.

Wagner, who lives in P.E.I., is tasked with offering support and guidance to startups working on cleantech for sectors with emissions that are particularly

Continue Reading

Tribe Network Seeks Applicants

Halifax-based Tribe Network is inviting Black founders aiming to bring a basic product to market to apply to its BUILD program, which begins mid-March.

Founded in 2021 by social entrepreneur Alfred Burgesson, Tribe offers support and training services for Black-owned companies. One of its initiatives is the Black Start-Up Project, which aims to foster Black founders through such programs as

Continue Reading

Cleantech Accelerator Coming to East Coast

Halifax business consultancy Imaginal Ventures and British Columbia-based national cleantech accelerator Foresight Canada are collaborating to launch Foresight’s eight-month accelerator program in the Atlantic Provinces.

Participating companies in the Atlantic Canada Cleantech Scale-up and Investment Challenge will compete for the chance to be one of five to pitch to a mix of accredited and

Continue Reading