Hannes Weiland and Robert Niven at CarbonCure Technologies in Halifax asked on Twitter last week why no one in the Nova Scotia election is discussing the potential of startups, and asked me to weigh in on the matter.

“I'll bet I'm not alone in voting for the party that credibly addresses the #startupNS economy,” tweeted Niven, the cleantech company’s CEO.

They have a point. If politicians are unveiling policies that would hasten the development of IT, biotech and cleantech companies in Nova Scotia, the message certainly isn’t reaching the voting public. It’s a shame, because startups

Puritas Energy Inc. is striving to make sure that calamities like Hurricane Sandy aren’t exacerbated by failing emergency generators, brought on by changes in the composition of diesel fuel in the past five or six years.

The Halifax company has secured the North American licence to sell DieselPure filters, which were invented by Halifax entrepreneur Peter Kerrin. The device is designed to make sure that diesel sitting in storage tanks for four to six months or longer maintains its potency so it can work when it’s needed.

“One of the challenges in an emergency situation is access to

Invest Atlantic, the conference for the Atlantic Canadian startup community, has named the companies that will appear at its PitchCamp on Sept. 24 in Halifax.

Invest Atlantic will host PitchCamp the night before the main conference as a showcase for young companies in the area, and a chance for them to get feedback on their business models and pitches. It takes place 4:30 to 6:30 pm next Tuesday at the World Trade and Convention Centre.

The companies pitching at the event are:

• Spring Loaded Technology;

• CompCamp;

• Atlantic Motor Labs Inc.;

• World United CHANGEwear;

•

Almost three years ago, New Brunswick Premier David Alward sat down with Robert Hatheway to offer the Fredericton orthodontist and businessman the chair of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. 

From that discussion, Hatheway understood that innovation and research would soon assume a broader position in the province’s development strategy, and that NBIF would play the quarterback position in that new game plan.

“When the Premier asked me to fill this role, he told me that one of the things we can’t do in New Brunswick is continue to look into the rearview mirror,” Hatheway said in

The latest incubation centre and program for Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs were launched in Fredericton on Thursday with the aspirations of being a national or international enterprise by the spring.

Knowledge Park, a development for knowledge industry companies in the New Brunswick capital, officially opened the Planet Hatch Centre (formerly called the Commercialization Environment for Advanced Learning Technologies, or CEALT), which will be home to the new ACcelR8 program. About 180 people registered to attend the launch.

The facility and program are starting off with a first cohort

Compilr, the Halifax company whose online development environment allows users to learn, write and test code in the cloud, has received interest from a number of potential suitors that may be interested in buying its assets.

Founder and CEO Patrick Hankinson said in an interview the company is talking about the sale of its back-end infrastructure and its educational product. “We’re just re-evaluating what technology we have and who the technology would fit well with,” said Hankinson.

He said the talks could result in the infrastructure and educational platform being sold to one or two

Halifax-based Karma Gaming, which develops video games for regulated lotteries, has added to its Series A round of venture capital with a $1 million funding from Vanedge Capital in Vancouver.

The funding, Vanedge’s first in Atlantic Canada, is an addition to the $4 million first closing announced in June, bringing the total for the A round to $5 million. The first closing of the round included $2.5 million from Rho Canada Ventures, the Canadian arm of Rho Capital Partners, which has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., New York and Montreal, and $1.5 million from Innovacorp, the Nova Scotia

Eggroll Digital Studios Inc., a new mobile and software development company, is launching in the Miramichi region with an investment from the Miramichi Technology Fund, which was established by former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna.

The company will be headed by Mike White, a native Nova Scotian who studied and worked in television animation in Nova Scotia before starting a mobile gaming company in San Francisco in 2008.

“We’ll be focused primarily on developing games for mobile devices,” said White in a statement. “For now we’ll be creating iOS games for the iPhone and iPad.

Ladies Learning Code, the national group that introduces people of all ages and genders to programing, is coming to New Brunswick.

The group began in Toronto a few years ago and came to Atlantic Canada earlier this year with a few sessions in Halifax. Though it does encourage females to learn about technology, the organization is somewhat misnamed because its students are simply people who are new to coding, regardless of their sex. It’s also proven a great way for children and teenagers to learn about coding.

The first New Brunswick Fredericton event will be held Sept. 21 – which is

Mindful Scientific, the Halifax company whose portable device can detect head trauma instantly, has been selected as one of six North American finalists in the IBM Global Entrepreneur Competition.

CEO Ying Tam said Monday the company will participate in the IBM North America Regional SmartCamp, to be held in Silicon Valley from Sept. 17 to 19.  

“It certainly validates where we’re going in terms of market opportunity and the size of market,” he said in an interview.

Mindful Scientific has been developing the Halifax Consciousness Scanner, or HCS, as a comfortable, attractive device