Invest Nova Scotia spent $8.8 million across 16 venture capital deals for its 2022-2023 fiscal year, which ended last March, and dispersed just under another $6.5 million to VC funds.

With another year-end on the horizon for Invest Nova Scotia, Entrevestor took a look back at the prior year’s performance with the help of the organization’s annual report, released in late 2023.

The largest

Spellbook, the St. John’s legal software-maker, has raised a US$20 million or about C$27 million Series A funding round after being approached by returning investor iNovia Capital with an offer late last year.

The deal, which was signed just before Christmas, is Spellbook’s second eight-figure capital raise in less than twelve months. The previous, US$10.9 million or C$13.8 million round also

Memorial University and the Ocean Startup Project have announced the 19 companies in the latest cohort of their seven-week Lab2Market Oceans program.

Part of a national group of accelerators, Lab2Market Oceans is aimed at helping academic researchers in the oceans space commercialize their work. Participants will each receive $15,000 of funding.

The Oceans stream of Lab2Market is part of the

Saint John-based diversified technology company Mariner Partners has named its Co-Founder and Chair Gerry Pond to the new position of Chair Emeritus two decades after he helped to found the company. 

Pond has spent decades as one of Atlantic Canada’s most strident advocates for innovation and entrepreneurship, first as the CEO of NBTel and president of Aliant Telecom, and then as a founder and

Halifax-based Saint Mary’s University has extended the application deadline for its biggest pitching contest, formerly March Madness, now The Arena.

The month-long contest offers the best student entrepreneur a grand prize of $10,000, and is open to students from across the country, including recent grads.

Modelled after the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) March Madness

Virtual startup accelerator Propel has announced the companies participating in its Vision and Validation program for very early-stage founders.

Nova Scotia companies have made a particularly strong showing, comprising eight of the 14 participants, with four hailing from New Brunswick and two from Prince Edward Island.

The program focuses on teaching new entrepreneurs how to validate their

Despite short-term economic uncertainty, Newfoundland and Labrador industry group techNL is preparing for long-term growth in the sector and increasing demands on the labour force, CEO Florian Villaumé said in an interview last week.

The organization is focused on developing a labour force skilled at working with artificial intelligence, as well as filling a particular deficit the organization’s

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is loaning a Saint John co-working space $472,000 to fund a 12-month pilot project for a suite of new training, networking and mentorship programs for entrepreneurs in the area.

The program, called the Premier Entrepreneurship Program and hosted by ConnexionWorks on the city’s Germain Street, will work with partners in academia and business, with the

Rise, the Fredericton B-Crop specializing in sustainable home renovation materials, reached $3 million of revenue in its second year of sales and hit break-even.

The progress comes as Rise looks to concurrently raise $850,000 from angel investors and another $3 million of venture capital financing, CEO Matt Daigle said in an interview Thursday.

The company hit the revenue milestone in June,

Halifax life sciences startup 3D BioFibR and collaborator PlantForm Corporation, headquartered in Toronto, are receiving $1.3 million from industry group Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, or NGen.

The money will fund efforts by the two companies to scale 3D BioFibR’s process for manufacturing biofibres — fibres that exist in nature and are used by humans, such as spider silk and collagen —