Increasing startup failures, a divided venture capital market, the rise of artificial intelligence and the shaky future of federal funding apparatus Sustainable Development Technology Canada are among the stories we will follow closely in 2024.

For the second year in a row, the outlook for Atlantic Canadian innovators remains challenging thanks to broader economic forces. Just as founders are

Today, we’re posting our final articles for 2023 as we begin our annual end-of-year holiday.

We’re putting down the phones and shutting down the laptops for a few days, as we do every year at this time. We will begin reporting news again on Jan. 3.

On behalf of Avery and Carol, I’d like to wish all our readers and customers a safe and relaxing holiday. We also wish you all the best for 2024.

The holiday season could soon be a little safer thanks to St. John’s-based LadderSpike.

Founded by Jordan Spencer and Dale Kean, the company has developed a footing system for ladders that drives spikes into the ground for improved stability.

The co-founders spoke with Entrevestor Wednesday from the cab of their work truck after filming a promotional video that highlighted their product’s

Fredericton’s Potential Motors has inked a testing deal with Minnesota-based CFMOTO Powersports, which sells ATVs and other off-road vehicles, to integrate Potential’s vehicle control software into CFMOTO’s vehicles.

The companies said in a statement that the partnership will involve extensive testing at both Potential’s New Brunswick testing facility and CFMOTO’s own properties, and will allow

Veer Group, the Lunenburg, NS, startup that plans to build hydrogen- and wind-powered container ships, has signed a €50 million, or about C$73.2 million letter of intent with a European backer to finance its first two vessels.

Founded by shipping entrepreneur Danielle Southcott, the company is in the midst of the tender process with shipyards. Her team recently toured a production facility for

Fredericton-based Picketa Systems, maker of the LENS hardware and software suite for analyzing plant tissues, is expanding the system’s capabilities to include analysis for corn crops, in addition to its original focus on potatoes.

The upgrade will launch this spring as part of what Picketa described in a statement as a broader effort to expand the LENS’s capabilities and grow its market,

With Atlantic Canadian startups raising more than $237.6 million in equity funding this year, improving on last year’s total, the region’s venture capital landscape remains bifurcated between established businesses with traction and young startups still finding their feet.

Despite a headline number at least $7.6 million higher than last year, more than half of total funding went to just four

Invest Nova Scotia is looking for applicants to the winter cohort of its Early Stage Commercialization Fund for university research, which offers startups up to $50,000 of funding.

The money can go towards assessing a product’s market potential, developing go-to-market strategies and other planning, finishing a proof-of-concept, prototyping and leveraging other funds.

And for the third time

The Halifax Partnership has announced the six winners of its Circular Food Solution Challenge, which will each receive $5,000 to pilot or test circular economy technologies for the food sector over the next three months.

The competition was hosted by the Partnership's Halifax Innovation Outpost in collaboration with the National Zero Waste Council, which is a public sector and industry group led

ASETS-CA hopes to make engineering work as simple as playing a video game, according to CEO Ashwini Oke, and the Fredericton maker of computer-aided design, or CAD, software now has significantly more funds with which to achieve that goal after closing its seed round.

The deal was led by multi-billion-dollar venture capital firm Accel, with additional investors including the New Brunswick