Two Nova Scotian startups, Unified Software Technologies and NeoThermal Energy Storage, are the co-winners of the $100,000 Smart Energy Demo Challenge, which will help them move their product closer to a market launch.

Innovacorp, which organized the competition for startups that promote energy efficiency, said Thursday night its panel of judges had chosen co-winners and each will get about $50,000 in non-dilutive funding to work on a demonstration project with their product.

The contest was aimed at companies that have a working product but have not yet launched it in the marketplace.

Innovacorp President and CEO Stephen Duff knows what the entrepreneurs he supports go through. When Duff was first involved with Precision BioLogic, the biotech startup got so behind on the rent the sheriff turned up to change the locks on the door.

Duff held business development and product innovation roles at Precision BioLogic for over 25 years. The Dartmouth-based company develops,

BioNova, the association of life sciences companies in Nova Scotia, has signed a partnership agreement with a national medical technology association that it hopes will accelerate the growth of Atlantic Canadian medtech companies.

The Halifax-based group said Thursday it signed a memorandum of understanding with MEDEC, the national association representing Canada’s Medical Technology companies.

“This is a big opportunity to support local growth as this gives us access to a very well qualified and experienced group of contacts and resources, as well as programs,” Scott Moffitt, Managing

I’d like to thank the Halifax Partnership for including my work in the Halifax Index, its annual examination of social and economic progress in the city.

I contributed a column on the startup hub in Halifax, which examined the growth and impact of startups in the city in the past few years. You can find its on page 44 of the report, and we’ve reprinted it below here.

I was lucky to appear on a panel at the Index launch yesterday to discuss the economic outlook for the city, province and region. We had a great discussion with my co-panelists, the Partnership’s Chief Economist Fred Morley

Startups of all stripes want to build capital, but the weeks-old venture of Sydney-based serial entrepreneur Mathew Georghiou is focused on capital of an entirely different kind.

Social capital is at the heart of lokol.me, the latest enterprise from the founder and CEO of software development company MediaSpark and e-learning gaming company GoVenture World. Lokol.me has already seen success, taking home $50,000 as a winner of last fall’s Spark Cape Breton competition.

Lokol.me is a platform for hyper-local publications like goCapeBreton – portals that allow community members to post a

Qimple, a Moncton human resources tech startup, has issued the following press release:

Atlantic Canadian company turns heads at international accelerator

After five months in San Francisco, HR tech startup Qimple is stronger than ever

MONCTON, New Brunswick (June 24, 2015)  After spending five months at 500 Startups in San Francisco, Moncton-based Qimple has come a long way.  Not only were they the first Atlantic Canadian company  o take part in 500, which is one of the most recognized accelerators in the world, but they were also considered one of the most promising startups in

Newfoundland and Labrador Startups in the PropelICT Build Program are now eligible for $250,000 in investment funding from the Venture Newfoundland and Labrador fund, the parties announced today.

Propel, the Atlantic Canadian accelerator, issued a statement saying Pelorus Venture Capital, the private-sector manager overseeing the Newfoundland fund, has approved the new funding initiative. The news means that startups from three of the four Atlantic provinces can qualify for two tranches of funding if they complete the Build Program.

“Propel ICT is an important part of the startup

Brilliant Labs, a New Brunswick-based not-for-profit, recently celebrated its arrival into Nova Scotia by participating in Maker Week, which encourages young people to learn about technology by making things.

Brilliant Labs helps to teach students about technology through project-based learning, especially within the classroom. The not-for-profit uses projects, such as jewellery-making, video game design and entrepreneurship, to teach people about how they can not only consume technology, but create it.

Maker Week took place June 12 to 18, which this year was the last week of high

For the next few months, Joseph Teo will be travelling between St. John’s and Moncton, taking his Newfoundland startup HeyOrca! through PropelICT’s Build program.

HeyOrca! is an online platform that helps marketers collaborate on social media content. Working out of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University, it is conducting pilots of the products with marketing agencies.

The company aims

When Kristy O’Leary went to visit Vancouver, she often heard people describe the city as “thriving.” But in Halifax, where she lives and runs Scout & Burrow, an ethics-centric market expansion consulting group, she often hears Halifax and Nova Scotia described as “resilient.”

After noticing the different attitudes between the two coastal cities and talking to a friend heavily involved in