When he emigrated from Serbia to Canada in 2005, Milan Vrekic had just $1,250 and a suitcase. The young computer enthusiast made mistakes in his new home, but he survived then thrived. Now aged 29, Vrekic has already co-founded one successful company – secure document-sharing venture TitanFile – and is currently Executive Director of Volta Labs, the mentoring and co-working hub in Halifax, where he helps other entrepreneurs attain success. 

Vrekic’s history reads like a classic immigrant-made-good story, but that perspective minimizes his early struggles. After arriving in Vancouver, he

Milan Vrekic, entrepreneur and Executive Director of Volta Labs, shares four things he learned from observing Waterloo’s Communitech, that city’s hub for the commercialization of innovative technologies.

1. The only sustainable model is that built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. This is one reason why many U.S. venture capital funds require their partners and associates to have been part of at least one startup. Government agencies are an important part of the ecosystem, but they are the feeders, not the drivers of the system. The Ontario Government understood that very well, very

DeCell Technologies Inc., a Halifax biotech startup that is improving skin grafts for wound treatment, has landed about $500,000 in investment to finance clinical trials and its first processing system.

President and CEO Paul Gratzer said in an interview Wednesday that the company has landed a $250,000 equity investment from Innovacorp. It has also received financing from private individuals, including long-standing biotech entrepreneur Steve Arless of Montreal, who has joined the company’s board.

Gratzer said the $500,000 financing marks an initial close of DeCell’s seed round, and it

Last night on Dragons’ Den, we witnessed two groups of Halifax children who exemplify all that’s great about student entrepreneurship.

The special student episode featured Hope Blooms, a north-end community garden project that grows its own ingredients for salad dressing, which it sells at $7 a bottle. The group has earned $4,000, which is being poured into their college tuition fund.

Six of its 43 members asked for $10,000 and ended up with $40,000 as well as a promise from four Dragons to help them build the business. (Only Kevin O’Leary, still awaiting that visit from the Ghost of

Two New Brunswick companies this week have been named to lists of Canadian tech companies making impressive strides.

Smart Skin Technologies of Fredericton was named to the CIX Top 20, a list of leading young tech companies recognized by the Canadian Innovation Exchange. And RtTech Software of Moncton was named to Deloitte’s 2013 Companies-To–Watch.

Smart Skin has developed a technology called Quantifeel, which detects pressure on surfaces and produces real-time graphics on devices or computers showing where pressure is being exerted. The latest application for the technology is testing

Entrevestor and Progress Media today are proud to release our Entrevestor Intelligence report on Big Data in Atlantic Canada.

The report outlines how the Atlantic Canadian startup community fits into the global revolution in data analytics – the opportunities, the challenges, the progress so far.

What we learned is that companies involved in this space are resonating with investors, and that the segment is growing. It’s also improving healthcare, as companies begin to probe how society can benefit by using health-related data to improve processes.

The reason for the segment’s growth

The success of the Startup Weekend St. John’s this past weekend is matched by the buzz in the startup community in the Newfoundland and Labrador capital overall.

I was lucky to attend the Startup Weekend in St. John’s and it gave me a chance to catch up on what’s going on in the burgeoning community. New companies are coming into the community, and established ones are moving toward traction and funding. In broad terms, there’s excitement that something is building.  

“There’s a strong buzz here with new companies forming all the time,” said Jason Janes, the head of Startup St. John’s,

http://www.voltaeffect.com/Volta, the Halifax-based startup incubator, announced today it has become an Amazon Activator partner. Following is the press release describing the partnership:

 

Volta becomes Amazon Activate program partner 

 

November 12, 2013 -- Today, we are excited to announce a partnership with another major driving force in technology  - Amazon.com.

We are happy to say that Volta is an Amazon Activate program partner. Amazon Activate is a program designed to provide startups with the resources needed to get started building scalable solutions on the Amazon

Sentinel Alert, a cellphone app that can alert companies when an employee has had an accident, won the $15,000 first prize Sunday at Startup Weekend St. John’s, capping off a coming-of-age event for the city’s startup community.

Startup Weekend events have been held in 115 countries and several Atlantic Canadian cities but this was the first one in St. John’s. And the strong turnout and sponsorship were a testament to the work done this year by Startup St. John’s in developing a grassroots-based entrepreneurial community.

“This has been absolutely beyond our expectations,” said Jason

The Wallace McCain Institute last week announced a new funding by the Miramichi Technology Fund, which was financed by a $1 million donation by former premier Frank McKenna.  The following is a press release issued by the institute.

 

UNB’s Wallace McCain Institute supports new software start-up in Miramichi

 

The Miramichi Technology Fund, managed by UNB’s Wallace McCain Institute (WMI), recently announced an investment in a new software start-up in Miramichi, NB.

Patchell Brook Equity Analytics Incorporated (Equity Analytics) is a company focused on creating the software