Startup Weekends Set Across Region

As surely as it brings jack-o-lanterns and fresh apples, autumn is a season that brings us Startup Weekends. And this year, Startup Weekends – or events following a similar format – will be held across the region.

Springing from a Seattle-based organization, Startup Weekends are 54-hour events in which strangers come together on a Friday evening, pitch business ideas, and break into teams. On

Continue Reading

Propel Names 28 to Fall 2017 Cohort

Propel ICT, Atlantic Canada’s startup accelerator, has announced the 28 companies that will make up its autumn 2017 cohort, more than one-third of them from Newfoundland and Labrador.

The organization today revealed its latest cohort, including the five companies that will enter the Build program, which helps companies with products in the market to scale their businesses. The Build cohort,

Continue Reading

Breton SmarTek Extends its Reach

Four years after launching its first app for firefighters in Cape Breton, Breton SmarTek offers a suite of four products and is eyeing expansion into new sectors and jurisdictions.

The Sydney company came to light a few years ago when it was a prizewinner in the I-3 competition in 2013-14. At that time, it was marketing FireQ — a communications app that would allow for interaction between

Continue Reading

McCrae Back in the Mentorship Game

Returning to a task she loves, Gillian McCrae is once again working in the accelerator world, serving as Venture Manager at Creative Destruction Lab-Atlantic.

The former entrepreneur-in-residence of Propel ICT is now hard at work fielding interest in CDL from companies in Atlantic Canada and in such locations as New England and Toronto. She and the team are preparing for the opening of the first

Continue Reading

32 Finalists in EY Atlantic Competition

The global business service consultancy EY will name the Atlantic winners of its Entrepreneur of the Year competition next Thursday in Moncton.

EY has selected 32 finalists in eight categories, who will be showcased at a gala at the Delta Beausejour on Oct. 5. The winners will move on to the national competition. Tickets for the Moncton event are available here.

“Although Atlantic is one of the

Continue Reading

8 Semi-Finalists In BioPort Contest

BioNova has announced eight semi-finalists for the 2017 edition of The BioInnovation Challenge, or BIC, the pitching event at BioPort Atlantic in Halifax on Oct. 17 and 18.

Scott Moffitt, Managing Director of Nova Scotia’s life sciences organization, announced the semi-finalists last month. (We were on our annual summer break when the announcement came out, so we’re getting around to publishing

Continue Reading

Startup Education Gained in Africa

As he gets into stride in his new role as director of Memorial University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, French-born Florian Villaume keeps in mind what he learned working in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Villaume’s six years in Africa taught him how communities isolated by geography and climate can thrive by striving for the common good. Since assuming his St. John’s-based role in March 2016, Villaume

Continue Reading

ADI Wins BioNB Achievement Award

Fredericton-based ADI Systems was presented the New Brunswick Bioscience Achievement Award on Thursday by BioNB, New Brunswick’s bioscience agency.

BioNB presented the award, sponsored by McInnes Cooper, at an event called Innovation at the Market. More than 150 members of the business and research community gathered to celebrate the substantial growth in the province’s bioscience sector in

Continue Reading

PEI’s BioVectra Opens New Facilities

Charlottetown drug manufacturer BioVectra Inc. on Thursday announced the opening of its new flagship warehouse and process development suites.

The company said in a statement the new 21,000-square-foot warehouse enhances BioVectra’s ability to grow with the global demand for its products and services. Equipped with 400 pallet positions, the new warehouse also provides the opportunity to grow

Continue Reading