Newfoundland Unveils VC Plans

The Newfoundland and Labrador government today unveiled a two-track policy to increase the equity funding of companies in Canada’s most easterly province.

Premier Paul Davis announced the program in a statement, confirming the previous announcement that the government of Newfoundland and Labrador would commit $10 million to Build Ventures, the Atlantic Provinces’ venture capital fund created last year.

The Premier also said the government would invest $10 million in the new Venture Newfoundland and Labrador, a private-public fund that will provide seed financing for young startups in

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After 2 Exits, Steele Launches Eyeball

Having already sold two companies to Research in Motion, Jay Steele and Shaun Johansen are launching a third startup product that they hope will find millions of users.

Bedford’s Eyeball Inc. is launching today its flagship product, a social network for mobile devices that lets those in the amateur sports community tell each other about their games. It is built in the knowledge that there are hundreds of millions of people involved in amateur sports and virtually all of them want to share their scores and highlights.

 “The NHL app is for a small number of teams, each with thousands of

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TopLog, Swapskis Launch Products

Two noted Halifax startups – topLog and Swapskis -- launched their products last week, moving into the phase of their development in which gaining customers becomes ever more important.

Both IT companies have female CEOs and are tenants of Volta Labs, the Halifax startup incubation centre. And both have an association with the Propel accelerator – topLog as a successful graduate and Swapskis as a current participant.

And there the similarities end.

TopLog helps companies or other organizations to prevent network failures – a problem that can cost (and has) cost large businesses tens

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Trevor Bernard: A CTO With 3 Exits

Trevor Bernard has a habit of joining companies that make successful exits, and his most recent venture may be his greatest success so far.

Bernard was the chief technology officer of Fredericton-based UserEvents, which sold out to LiveOps of Redwood City, Calif., earlier this year for an undisclosed sum. Though he’d been with two other companies that exited, it was the first time Bernard

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Fullsail To Focus on Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship -- with a special emphasis on funding – will be the focus of the 2014 Fullsail Conference, which takes place Tuesday afternoon at the Delta Beausejour Hotel, Moncton.

Titled "Capital Connections, the half-day conference is being organized by the New Brunswick Financial and Consumer Services Commission (which now has the duties of the New Brunswick Securities Commission) and Venn (formerly Tech Southeast), the organization that promotes technology in southeastern New Brunswick.

The get-together begins with a discussion of new programs, followed by two panel discussions,

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NBIF Logs Record Annual Funding

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation announced this week that it made $2.8 million in venture capital investments in its fiscal year to March 31, 2014, following through on its promise to accelerate its funding of innovation in the province.

The Fredericton-based innovation agency – which is a sponsor of and advertiser in Entrevestor – said in its annual report that it recorded a total of 17 transactions in the 2014 fiscal year. Two companies – AraLabs Security Solutions and Populus Global Solutions, both of Fredericton – received funding in two transactions, so in all there were 15

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Building Closer Ties to Toronto-KW

There is a singular reminder of the Atlantic Canadian startup community in the reception area of the Communitech hub in Kitchener, Ont. In the dim, atmospheric space lit mainly by mechanics lamps hanging from the ceiling, there are digital art installations and notices of peer-to-peer learning meetings, and there is a huge video monitor broadcasting goings-on at Communitech.

The video display runs off software provided by Charlottetown-based ScreenScape Networks, whose technology is powering such devices across the continent.

Sitting in the reception room of the famed accelerator on

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Take a Walk Inside Your Project

Phil Romkey can stand in the sun-lit top floor of Halifax’s new library without leaving his workplace at St. Mary’s University.

Well, he can virtually stand in the new library in the Data Cave he oversees at the ACEnet headquarters at the Halifax university.

Positioned in the darkened Data Cave, wearing sophisticated 3-D glasses, Romkey can tour all of the new building, get a keen

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Using Brain Scans To Treat Addiction

When he pitches Help Method Inc., James Drage opens by contrasting the derision showered on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford over his addiction problems with the outpouring of compassion that resulted from the news he has cancer.

In fact, said Drage, addicts have as little control over their addiction as cancer patients have over their disease. And Lawrencetown, N.S.-based Help Method is working to personalize treatment of the disease.

“Addiction is a disease of the brain and only recently has technology allowed us to treat the gaps in the connectivity of the brain,” Drage said at the

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