Two social networks have been quietly launched in Atlantic Canada already this year, and a third quasi-social-network is set to launch within a month.

In the up-and-running category, Equals6 and Bright Seeds are Halifax-based social networks targeting specific groups of young people, and both are scalable so they could expand outside the region. And by the time Halloween has come and gone, the Moncton Cyber Social is expected to have launched its social media site to complement its regular gatherings of techies.

Equals6, a site that connects students with prospective employers, has the

Gerry Pond, the patron saint of New Brunswick tech investors, has made an investment in Charlottetown-based ScreenScape Networks and is joining the company’s board.

A person familiar with the situation said Pond is now backing the company, which allows businesses or organizations to post web-based displays on video screens in public places, reducing the cost of displays and expanding the choice. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on Pond’s investment.

A former CEO of NB Tel, Pond is now the chairman of Marine Partners in Saint John and is known as the savviest tech investor

There are people at work in New Brunswick today who will benefit for years to come from the Q1 Labs sale to IBM, and they’re not just the Fredericton-based employees of the security software provider.

They’re teachers, nurses, office workers and the like employed by the New Brunswick government.

Their pension fund, managed by the New Brunswick Investment Management Corp.,  or NBIMC, had the foresight to invest in security software company Q1 Labs, which sold out to IBM yesterday for an undisclosed sum. That investment created employment and R&D benefits in the region and is now

Hoops Innovation, which makes a shooting aid for basketball players, has received more than $200,000 in investment from the First Angel Network and will soon launch a fundraising round in the U.S. with a target of $3.5 million.

The Halifax company asked the angel network for $200,000 as the final component of its round of seed funding. The FAN members oversubscribed the issue and Hoops agreed to take the additional capital. The seed funding included investment from family and friends and investors from outside the region.

Now that the seed funding round is complete, the company plans to

Q1 Labs, an online security provider founded in Fredericton in 2001, has been purchased by IBM Corp. for an undisclosed price – the second New Brunswick-born tech company to exit this year.

The sale of Q1, which is now based in Waltham, Ma., but retains a strong presence in Fredericton, follows the $371 million sale of Radian6 to Salesforce.com of San Francisco. Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association recently named that sale the Deal of the Year for 2012.

The sale of Q1 Labs will only accentuate the growing feeling in New Brunswick that its tech sector is flourishing,

Halifax entrepreneur and lawyer Jeff Larsen has joined the Nova Scotia Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism as the Executive Director of Investment and Trade.

Until last month, Larsen had been an associate with McInnes Cooper in Halifax, and before that was Vice-President of Business Development and General Counsel at Seaforth Engineering Group Inc. and Seaforth Energy Inc.

The appointment is worth notice at the broadest level because it is great to have people from the private sector joining the government, especially in the formulation of economic policy. As well

Propel  ICT, the Saint John-based tech accelerator, will reveal a plan this month to work with more entrepreneurs in a program designed to increase each enterprise’s chance of success.

Over the next year, the group plans to implement Propel 2.0, a new accelerator format that will establish two so-called cohorts, each of which will allow about five companies to receive intense mentorship, encouragement and hopefully funding.

“Our intention is that through our network [of business contacts], you’re going to receive funding,” said executive director Trevor MacAusland in an interview last

Business people in the Miramichi Valley are hoping to put together an inaugural equity investment deal in the next three months involving two imaginative funding bodies – The Frank McKenna Technology Fund and Miramichi’s own angel network.

Brian Donovan,  Executive Director of Enterprise Miramichi and the brains behind  the Miramichi Angel Network, said the McKenna Fund and angel network are examining opportunities and hope – if due diligence is successful – to make their joint investment this year.

Assuming they do sign the deal, it will be the fruition of innovative thinking and

Globetrotting investor Permjot Valia will host MentorCamp for half a dozen Nova Scotian tech startups on Oct. 11. He will accept applications until Friday Oct. 7 from young companies that want to learn about developing businesses from seasoned experts.

The idea behind the camp is to bring together six companies with about a dozen mentors for an intense session, to help them refine their operations and improve their prospects. They will even be taught how to make the most of mentoring sessions. Valia is accepting applications and will narrow the group of young companies down to six so the

ClearRisk Inc., the St. John’s SAAS venture that helps mid-level insurance brokers assess risk, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month by launching a mobile app.

The company led by Craig Rowe got a major boost this year when GrowthWorks Atlantic and the First Angel Network teamed up to back it with $1.2 million, now it is expanding its versatility by allowing clients to use its services on mobile phones and devices.

"We’re launching our first mobile app this week,’’ CEO and founder Rowe said in an interview at Invest Atlantic on Monday. "Our software is built and priced for the