Looking back on the first half of 2014 in the Atlantic Canadian startup world, there’s not a single event, company or story that stands out as a singular highlight.

So in writing a wrap-up of the first half, I think the dominant feature would really be a state of mind that didn’t exist six months ago. It’s a new-found maturity.

There were lots of candidates to be highlights of the first half. The Big Data Congress in Saint John and Atlantic Venture Forum in Halifax were both successfully held for the second time. St. John’s held its first Innovation Week. There were exits by UserEvents

Milan Vrekic will soon step down as the Executive Director of Volta Labs, the organization that has established itself as the hub of the startup community in Halifax.

In an Interview Tuesday, Vrekic said he is eager to return to his first love, which is building young companies. He said he is considering three options, one of which is in Halifax, and his preference would be to remain in the city. He is aiming to leave Volta on about Sept. 1, but it will depend on the ability to find his replacement.

“We basically agreed from day one that this should be a temporary role,” said Vrekic.

The Federal Government on Tuesday announced that it has awarded $43 million in loans to research projects in the region through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic Innovation Fund.

The AIF lends money to startups and public organizations to conduct market-oriented research, usually over a period of years. The ACOA press release said the projects have a total value of more than $123 million, and will bring in an additional $80 million from a variety of private and public sector sources.

The following is a description of the projects and the amount they will receive:

Now that it has completed the Launch36 accelerator, Fredericton startup HotSpot Parking is gearing up to roll out its solution for downtown shoppers and merchants in its third Atlantic Canadian city.

HotSpot Parking began as a product that allows consumers to pay parking meters remotely through their cellphones. But as it passed through two accelerators — ACelr8 at Planet Hatch and Launch36 — the company has refined its product and the focus of its technology.

When he presented the company at the Launch36 DemoDay last month, CEO Phillip Curley said the company is now operating in

Startup Cape Breton, the new group promoting entrepreneurship on the island, will hold its inaugural event Monday, July 14, from 4 to 6 pm at the Verschuren Centre of Cape Breton University.

The event aims to explore new opportunities in technology, business, and education and will feature speakers from Cape Breton, Atlantic Canada and outside the region.

Startup Cape Breton said it aims to develop a startup community on the island to capitalize on its strengths in creativity and human resources. It wants the island to be a “place that is home to hundreds of startups — small and

Whenever we build a component of the Atlantic Canadian ecosystem, we have to model ourselves on the best examples in the world.

So we need to develop an accelerator in the region that meets the criteria of the Global Accelerator Network, or GAN, the governing body of startup accelerators. That means there has to be an Atlantic

Canadian accelerator backed by a fund, and that invests in the companies it mentors.

It’s the model used in the U.S. by Y Combinator, TechStars and 500 Startups. It’s also being used in Canada by such leading groups as Grow Labs in Vancouver and FounderFuel in

Eight years after it was founded to save a sick child, Uganda Venture and its dedicated managing director, Fadi Al Qassar, are getting high-profile help in its efforts to finance Ugandan entrepreneurs.

Among its many valuable projects, Uganda Venture reduces poverty in rural Uganda by providing entrepreneurs with access to capital through micro-credit loans of between $300 and $750.

There

Having spent a career in rural economic development, Andrew Button was blown away when he discovered the potential of startups in creating jobs and wealth. Now he’s using the startup model to encourage economic growth in rural communities.

He was the CEO of the South Shore Business Growth Association when he began to notice a few years ago that new tech businesses were growing strongly. He heard about the growth prospects from entrepreneurs like Blair Ryan of the Rounds and Leah Skerry of Norex, two Halifax tech companies.

 “I was working in the business development role for eight

LifeRaft, a Halifax startup focused on detecting signs of dangerous behaviour on social media, will launch its beta test this week with the participation of several educational and law enforcement groups.

LifeRaft is a social media monitoring tool that detects language signalling threats, cyberbullying and other signs that people may pose a threat to themselves or other people.

While most social media monitoring systems are used in marketing or measuring public opinion, LifeRaft is designed to help educational bodies and law enforcement agencies ensure public safety.

The company is

As Canada’s new anti-spam legislation went into effect yesterday, we want to assure our readers that we respect their privacy and to clarify our policy on spam.

Every single person receiving our daily email does so because they left their email on our website. We therefore felt no need to pester people with emails asking them to confirm their wish to continue.

If you now receive the emails and wish to stop, please use the unsubscribe function at the end of each email. If that doesn’t work, please contact me at peter@entrevestor.com and we’ll remove you from the list.

At the same time,