The Spark Nova Scotia startup competition, which last fall held two pitching events on the province’s mainland, has announced its Cape Breton winners, both software companies: artificial intelligence bookkeeping startup Bank Scan Pro and festival logistics platform Apollo Festival.

Bank Scan, founded by Alison Gionvinetti, and Apollo, founded by Darcy Campbell, beat out four other shortlisted

A quartet of oceantech and computer vision startups, two each from Canada and England, will receive a combined $500,000 to develop sensor and decision-making technology for uncrewed marine vessels under a partnership between the Ocean Technology Council of Nova Scotia and Innovate UK.

St. John’s-based eSonar will work with Basingstoke, U.K.’s Aquatec Group, and Halifax’s Deep Vision will

Halifax startup hubs Volta and the Emera ideaHUB on May 23 will host a free seminar on media relations for startups, delivered by Entrevestor Co-Founder Peter Moreira.

Slated to be held at noon at the IdeaHUB on Dalhousie University's Sexton campus, the event will be a crash course for founders in how to build relationships with journalists and publications, as well as how to write press

St. John’s-based Mysa Smart Thermostats has bought the intellectual property of Zen Ecosystems, with plans to incorporate the Costa Mesa, Calif. startup’s offerings into its own product line and ramp up efforts to land commercial clients inside of a year.

Mysa said in a statement it will continue to support Zen’s existing customers. Before the deal, Mysa had four products, of which it has sold

The Sydney-based Verschuren Centre, which provides lab space to startups that need industrial fermentation and bioprocessing facilities, is receiving $926,500 from the Nova Scotia Forestry Innovation Transition Trust to help with the commercialization of forestry- or biomass preservation-related innovations.

The Trust operates a $50 million fund that will run until 2025 with a focus on backing

Halifax maker of sugar substitutes ZeroIN Foods, which last year received funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Sustainable Development Technology Canada, is one of six companies to win startup accelerator MassChallenge Switzerland’s Sustainable Food Solutions Challenge.

The challenge aims to find startups with proven sustainable food technologies to collaborate with

The University of New Brunswick’s J. Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management and Entrepreneurship has announced the latest cohort of its Summer Institute accelerator for pro-social startups.

The five participating companies, which span a diverse array of industries from robotics to antimicrobial cutlery, will receive training and mentorship in sales, marketing and customer validation. The

St. John’s-based trophi.ai has raised a $3.3 million seed round led by Halifax venture capital fund Build Ventures and plans to use the money to hire 10 to 15 people, with a test version of its product boasting a 10,000-person waitlist.

Chief Executive Mike Winter said in an interview that the company has enjoyed strong growth since it last raised capital in 2021. The new seed round, he added,

Nova Scotia-based inclusive innovation group ONSIDE has opened applications to its virtual startup accelerator for female founders, Start Now. Inc., which it runs in partnership with the Bridgewater-based virtual program for rural startups Mashup Lab.

The program is funded by the federal government’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy Fund and has a particular focus on backing “rural, indigenous,

Aruna Revolution Health, a Halifax startup developing biodegradable menstrual pads, won $3,000 at a “pop-up” pitch competition hosted Tuesday in Halifax by industry group Startup Canada.

Co-founder Rashmi Prakash, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Biomedical Engineering, launched the company in 2020 with fellow UBC graduate Lanna Last.

In addition to the