A team from Fredericton geomapping startup 3D Planeta has launched a Software-as-a-Service business to help stores and restaurants manage social distancing during COVID-19.

The 2metre app allows shoppers waiting in line to disperse and receive a text message when the store can accommodate them. It can also log personal information to comply with government contact-tracing requirements.

On the surface, the St. John’s tech community showed more excitement about the exit of InspectAR Augmented Interfaces Inc. than the company’s nine-member team.

The news broke on Thursday that the sophomore company has been acquired by Silicon Valley-based Cadence Design Systems for an undisclosed price. As expected, techies and startup types in the Newfoundland and Labrador capital took to

InspectAR Augmented Interfaces Inc., a St. John’s tech company less than two years old, has been acquired by Silicon Valley-based Cadence Design Systems for an undisclosed price.

The Newfoundland company, which has strong links to Northern California, issued a press release on Wednesday saying it is now part of Cadence. The statement described the California company as the market leader in

Dartmouth’s Nxtgen Care, which tracks the movements of staff and residents in assisted living facilities, is ramping up its U.S. expansion as it reshuffles its installation schedule to focus on unoccupied buildings.

The American rollout is part of Nxtgen’s deal with a major U.S. care home company to eventually install its technology in 50 facilities across five states.

Several of the homes,

Dartmouth-based bioscience centre the Nova Scotia Innovation Hub,along with Innovacorp and the Ontario-based Bioenterprise Corporation have announced a partnership to allow agriculture, biotech and cleantech companies to compete for up to $40,000 worth of grants.

The program, called GreenShoots, will fund early-stage, Nova Scotia companies with laboratory-validated prototypes and less than $1

TechImpact, the regional information technology group based in Fredericton, has launched a new $1.2 million program to help established New Brunswick companies improve their digital capabilities.

The support organization on Wednesday announced its Digital Boost program, which will provide 75 percent of the cost of each digital project, the maximum value of which is $50,000. The program will pay

Venn Innovation, a New Brunswick innovation hub, has accepted three companies into its Venn Garage incubator program via its first Open Pitch Competition, in which 13 New Brunswick businesses competed for access.

The winners and their CEOs are: Welkom-U, Ajibola Oluwatosin; LifeTrack Safety Systems, Amy Andrews; and Parados Cerebral Solutions, Pascal McCarthy. The three companies also appeared

Charlottetown incubator Startup Zone has used COVID-19 as an opportunity to rebrand its Summer Startup Summit as a national event.

The conference has historically been a gathering place for PEI entrepreneurs and industry luminaries. But with the pandemic forcing Startup Zone to take the event digital, a lack of geographic barriers is facilitating a nationwide expansion.

“Targeted at current and

The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. has cleared Halifax-based Appili Therapeutics to expand its Phase 2 clinical trial of a drug that could help to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities.

The company, which specializes in bringing anti-infectious drugs to market, said in May it would began Phase 2 trials of the drug Favipiravir in Canada, with the goal of proving it

Sponsored

Halifax public relations consultant Michael Kydd has opened his own PR firm, the Kydder Group, which is targeting small and medium-sized businesses, including startups.

The Kydder Group provides affordable public relations services and small business advice to budding and established tech entrepreneurs and others focused on changing the world through their own stories.

"Founders in