The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation announced this week that it made $2.8 million in venture capital investments in its fiscal year to March 31, 2014, following through on its promise to accelerate its funding of innovation in the province.

The Fredericton-based innovation agency – which is a sponsor of and advertiser in Entrevestor – said in its annual report that it recorded a total of 17 transactions in the 2014 fiscal year. Two companies – AraLabs Security Solutions and Populus Global Solutions, both of Fredericton – received funding in two transactions, so in all there were 15

There is a singular reminder of the Atlantic Canadian startup community in the reception area of the Communitech hub in Kitchener, Ont. In the dim, atmospheric space lit mainly by mechanics lamps hanging from the ceiling, there are digital art installations and notices of peer-to-peer learning meetings, and there is a huge video monitor broadcasting goings-on at Communitech.

The video display runs off software provided by Charlottetown-based ScreenScape Networks, whose technology is powering such devices across the continent.

Sitting in the reception room of the famed accelerator on

Phil Romkey can stand in the sun-lit top floor of Halifax’s new library without leaving his workplace at St. Mary’s University.

Well, he can virtually stand in the new library in the Data Cave he oversees at the ACEnet headquarters at the Halifax university.

Positioned in the darkened Data Cave, wearing sophisticated 3-D glasses, Romkey can tour all of the new building, get a keen

When he pitches Help Method Inc., James Drage opens by contrasting the derision showered on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford over his addiction problems with the outpouring of compassion that resulted from the news he has cancer.

In fact, said Drage, addicts have as little control over their addiction as cancer patients have over their disease. And Lawrencetown, N.S.-based Help Method is working to personalize treatment of the disease.

“Addiction is a disease of the brain and only recently has technology allowed us to treat the gaps in the connectivity of the brain,” Drage said at the

The Nova Scotia government and GE Venture have issued the following press release:

GE to Share Intellectual Property with Nova Scotia Innovative Small Businesses

Imagine having access to the intellectual property of one of the world’s largest, most innovative and most admired companies.

What would your company do with that technical know-how to improve your products and services, grow your company, or change the world?

The Government of Nova Scotia and GE Ventures Licensing want to know.

We are collaborating to connect Nova Scotia entrepreneurs to GE-developed IP as well as the

Concussion is a global health problem. For Ying Tam, CEO of Halifax-based Mindful Scientific, this means an opportunity to be part of a solution that positively impacts millions of lives.

Tam is rejoicing in achieving a milestone with St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, where his company’s concussion detector has been used to test athletes on several of the university’s varsity

Mashup Lab, an organization devoted to building startups in Atlantic Canadian rural communities, has issued the following press release:

Bring business ideas to life at Mashup WeekendSouthwest Nova Scotia

October 23, 2014 – This fall is the right time to take that business idea you’ve been chewing on and put it into action. How? By attending Mashup Weekend, Southwest Nova’s biggest ever business creation weekend. From November 21st to 23rd at three locations in Bridgewater, Kentville and Yarmouth, aspiring entrepreneurs will come together for 54 hours of breakneck business building.

After three weeks in the Propel accelerator in Fredericton, SimpTek has quickly changed its business model and already drawn the interest of at least one potential corporate customer.

The young company – comprising tech entrepreneurs Asif Hasan, Lionel Fernandes and Keelen Gagnon – is now dedicated to developing an automated system that helps people control the use of their household appliances with the goal of saving them money.

“We are a home automation solution and we help you control every appliance in your home,” said Hasan in an interview in Fredericton last week.

Sitting in a

Michael Dunbar, the leading orthopaedic surgeon in Nova Scotia, sounded a call on Tuesday for the province to adopt new flexible methods of delivering healthcare to its citizens because the current system is not sustainable.

Speaking at the BioPort Atlantic conference, he cited the simple and effective gait monitoring technology he and his team at Capital Health in Halifax have helped to devise. The project, involving three startups, is known as Mobility at Capital Health, abbreviated as “M@ch”.

Dunbar noted that that the M@ch project lets patients waiting for hip or knee replacements

NB-Biomatrix, a Saint John startup that uses nano-technology to fight water pollution, has won the fourth annual BioInnovation Challenge at the BioPort Atlantic, walking away with $45,000 in cash and in-kind services.

The company headed by Jeff Jennings and Keith Brunt beat out fellow finalists Athletigen Technologies Inc. of Halifax and Fenol Farms Inc. of Mount Uniacke, N.S., to capture the first prize. It will receive $15,000 in cash and $30,000 in in-kind services.  

“As a finalist the pitch training alone was worth participating in the BioInnovation Challenge but actually winning