Smart Skin Raises $3.9M in VC Funds

Fredericton-based Smart Skin Technologies has landed $3.9 million in venture capital and angel funding to ramp up sales and development of its pressure-sensitive product that improves the manufacturing process of beverage makers.

The company said in a press release today that it received backing from new institutional investors Rho Canada Ventures, Build Ventures and GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund. The round also includes a second investment by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and contributions from several angel investors.

Started by CEO Kumaran Thillainadarajah in 2008,

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Resolution Adds Products, Targets Asia

Having recently closed funding and international distribution deals, Resolution Optics Inc. of Halifax is conducting research and development projects on fascinating new products that will help to develop the holographic microscope maker on an international scale.

Resolution Optics was founded by Dalhousie University professors Manfred Jericho and H. Juergen Kreuzer with the goal of making submersible and desktop microscopes producing real-time “4D” images of particles and micro-organisms, meaning the devices show them from three angles as they move over time.

In the last year, the

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InNetwork Chosen for CDMN Program

Already working with some of the world’s leading advertisers, Halifax-based InNetwork has been selected to participate in the Canadian Digital Media Network’s Outbound Soft-Landing Program. 

The influence marketing company – which helps brands and advertisers find key influencers to help spread their message -- said earlier this month that it was the only Atlantic Canadian participant among the 27 startups selected for the program.

By participating in the program, InNetwork will receive as much as $4,000 to cover the costs of travel to key international markets – in InNetwork’s case,

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Press Release: ACOA Funds Somru

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency on Friday announced it is providing more than $200,000 in financing to Somru BioScience of Charlottetown. The following is the press release issued by the agency:

 

Emerging Biotechnology Company Looks to Accelerate Research Worldwide

New product development and testing will lead Somru BioScience Inc. into emerging markets

January 10, 2014 - Charlottetown, PE

Minister Moore and Charlottetown-Sherwood MLA Robert Mitchell today announced government support for Somru BioScience Inc. The emerging biotechnology company is working to expand its

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Spark Cape Breton Contest Launched

With the provincewide I-3 tech startup competition already in full swing, a new competition is being launched solely for startups in Cape Breton and the Mulgrave area.

Enterprise Cape Breton Corp., the Economic and Rural Development and Tourism Department and Innovacorp are jointly organizing the Spark Cape Breton competition. They launched the event Thursday night at TecSocial, the monthly get-together for the tech community on the Island.

The competition will target true early stage startups, meaning those that have yet to book any revenues. With an eight-member judging panel

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HotSpot Parking’s New CRM Function

Phillip Curley walked into a Fredericton Tim Hortons last week bearing a big smile and a handful of blue plastic chips that he had just received in the mail.

The chips, each about the size of a loonie, were Bluetooth low energy devices. Curley says they are key components in his plan to convert his company, HotSpot Parking, into a customer relationship management, or CRM, provider.

As a student at University of New Brunswick, Curley developed HotSpot Parking as the provider of a cellphone app that allows people to pay their parking meter charges electronically. The idea was that

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Swapskis Building Female Community

Katelyn Bourgoin had such huge belief in her plans for a bartering website that she bartered with service providers to get it built.

Bourgoin, the head of the Halifax marketing firm RedRiot Communications, had a vision about a year ago for a site that would allow service providers and entrepreneurs to swap their services without exchanging cash.

What she found as she worked on the project is that women were far more enthusiastic about the concept than men. So she will soon launch Swapskis, a site where entrepreneurial and professional women can go to swap services.

 “After

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Makerspace Halifax Seeks New Home

As a tenant of Halifax’s historic Roy Building, which will be replaced by a new building this year, Halifax Makerspace Society is looking for fresh accommodation. The fledgling group of creators needs a space large enough to accommodate a growing membership keen to work on and build their creative design and technological projects.

Halifax Makerspace, whose membership  now stands at 30, has

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Pushing the Limits with Drones

For about a decade, Siu O’Young has been wrestling with a problem: How can unmanned aircraft — commonly known as drones — fly safely in a sky filled with aircraft?

A native of Hong Kong, O’Young is a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and is now developing a young company called Seamatica Aerospace Ltd. in the Genesis Centre, the university’s commercialization incubator.

Seamatica is exploring commercial opportunities for unmanned aircraft and tackling the vexing problem of flying them so they are not a danger to other planes.

“The whole thing is collision avoidance,”

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Pixel Eyes Crowdfunding Campaign

When Ian Earle encountered a common problem with his digital camera last year, he had no idea it would lead to a business that helps chip-truck owners and street vendors.

The third-year computer science student at Dalhousie University has teamed up with classmate Colin White to form Pixel, which is developing a small mobile printer that can operate off of a phone, tablet or computer.

The genesis for the project was the fact Earle couldn’t find a cheap, convenient way to print photos from his camera. He is a passionate photographer and wanted prints from his digital camera without the

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