Swiftsure Innovations captured the $55,000 prize at the 10th annual BioInnovation Challenge pitch competition on Wednesday.

Swiftsure, which was selected from three finalists in a virtual event, will receive a $25,000 grant and $30,000 worth of in-kind services. For the past decade, the pitch competition has been a highlight of BioPort Atlantic, the annual conference for life sciences in the

The thing that stood out in Prince Edward Island’s startup community in 2019 was the big deals, especially in the Island’s vaunted life sciences sector. Led by the PEI BioAlliance, life sciences has long been a strength on PEI and in 2019 it produced transactions that brought in capital for the biotech community.

There were several deals involving BioVectra, MicroSintesis and the Centre for

The Halifax Innovation District and the professional services firm Davis Pier have launched the new Food Security Innovation initiative to seek innovative ways to improve access to food in Halifax.

The two groups are asking to hear from community members and organizations, such as restaurants, farmers’ markets, schools or food banks, who are interested in developing and testing new ideas to

On Nov. 25, I will be presenting Entrevestor’s 2019 Startup Data analysis with a special focus on Newfoundland and Labrador as part of Research Week at Memorial University.

The presentation will be a virtual event on Hopin, and you can register for it on Hopin or Eventbrite. It begins at 1 pm Newfoundland time. 

I’d like to thank Paula Mendonça, Memorial’s director of innovation and

Sixteen early-stage startups – most of them based outside Metro Halifax – will pitch for as much as $25,000 each in equity funding at the next Volta Cohort Pitch Event on Nov. 25.

And for the first time, Volta has announced that members of the Volta Cohort are eligible for follow-on funding.

Volta, the Halifax innovation hub, initiated the funding program three years ago, and so far 29 startups

Seddi, which is dedicated to the digital design of textiles and garments, has received a $477,075 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to help build up its commercialization team in Halifax.

With offices in Madrid, New York and Halifax, SEDDI has developed software that can be used to design fabrics and clothes, solving a problem that has bedeviled the global $2 trillion apparel

Catch Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart and me chatting with host Mark Leger on the Huddle podcast, which is now available. 

I interviewed Lockhart last month, and she revealed an ambition to make Atlantic Canada a farm for "baby unicorns." These would be companies that are on their way to being $1 billion enterprises but are not there yet. She is on board with the longstanding Propel ambition to

Halifax travel-planning software company Trip Ninja has pivoted to focus on brick-and-mortar travel agents and finished a major redesign of its platform.

Trip Ninja was originally conceived as a way for consumers using travel-booking websites like Britain’s Globehunters.com to find the cheapest routes for multi-city trips. The revised software, now dubbed QuickTrip, offers travel agents a more

BioNova, Nova Scotia’s life sciences association, has named six student finalists for its BIC Junior youth pitch competition, which will take place at the virtual BioPort conference on November 3.

The contest is intended to inspire Nova Scotia's high school students to create a business idea for the health and life sciences sector that has real commercialization potential.

The contest is

LifeRaft, a Halifax security intelligence company, has closed a round of funding from the Canadian Business Growth Fund, or CBGF, believed to be worth more than $3 million.

LifeRaft, which said CBGF was the only investor in the round, did not disclose how much money it raised. However, the press release announcing the funding said the Toronto-based fund customarily makes investments of $3