A Halifax social venture is giving youths the chance to participate in community development initiatives while enjoying a taste of entrepreneurship.

Launched in 2008, Hope Blooms works with teenagers in the city’s historically diverse North End to operate 10,000 square feet of organic food gardens and a commercial kitchen, which they use to produce and sell a roster of packaged goods products.

Atlantic startups have posted their weakest first quarter fundraising performance since the depths of the pandemic, according to new data from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, though Newfoundland and Labrador is a bright spot.

East Coast companies closed just $35 million of VC deals in the first three months of this year, according to the organization’s Canadian

The Atlantic Venture Forum, or AVF, has announced 32 showcase companies that will be highlighted at the two-day conference this June.

The AVF will be held June 5 and 6 at the Halifax Convention Centre. Backed by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the event aims to attract investors and influencers from outside the region, offering founders an opportunity to meet funders without leaving

St. John’s-based CoLab Software has raised a US$21 million, or C$28.6 million, Series B funding round led by New York’s Insight Partners, with plans to use the money for a commercialization push and “big swings” on AI.

The raise comes on the back of tenfold revenue growth since CoLab raised its Series A in 2021, CEO Adam Keating said in a statement posted to social media. The latest deal also

Halifax startup hub Volta will hold its next quarterly Virtual Pitch Competition May 28.

The competitions offer budding founders the chance to practice giving a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges. Winners are chosen based solely on the quality of their pitches, not the quality of their companies.

Victorious entrepreneurs will receive a $500 Visa gift card. 

Volta says on its website that

NovaResp, the Halifax developer of technology for treating sleep apnea, has raised a $3 million seed extension round that CEO Hamed Hanafi expects to fund the company through completion of its clinical trials.

The deal builds on a $2 million round NovaResp closed in Dec. 2022 and is led by board member Dr. Neil Smith, along with returning investors Concrete Ventures and  Invest Nova Scotia.

A Halifax startup is aiming to create an online platform that leverages the positive, community-oriented aspects of social media without relying on manipulative engagement-boosting practices or monetizing users’ personal data.

Chief Executive Sam Daviau described UpBeing Tuesday as “social, but not social media,” quoting from ads the company is running, ironically, on social media. He and

Seven companies pitched at Halifax startup hub Volta’s spring Investment Day event Tuesday, which it hosted in collaboration with accelerator Creative Destruction Lab Atlantic.

The event gave pre-vetted seed-stage and Series A companies the chance to pitch to an audience of funders and industry players from both inside and outside Atlantic Canada, followed by opportunities to meet with

Atlantic BIOCON, the industry gathering for life sciences, will be held at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University this May 28 to 30, with presenters from the startup community including Aruna Revolution and Dispersa, among others.

The event is being hosted by the Greenspring Bioinnovation Hub, with backing from Ignite Atlantic, Innov, which is the applied research arm of the

The national industry group Ocean Startup Project is looking for applicants to Ocean Idea Challenge, which offers young companies up to $7,000 of funding, as well as training and support services.

The Idea Challenge is a milestone-based accelerator program for entrepreneurs working on customer discovery and product-market fit, and for top-performing companies. It feeds into the more advanced