Eight first-year startups have been named to our list of Rookie All-Stars, which we publish each year in our Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report to showcase promising young companies.
While several of the companies are in the artificial intelligence space, the list this year touches on a range of disciplines, from creating packaging from seaweed to modernizing the weighing of trucks. All of these companies came to our attention in 2025 and were highlighted in our 2025 data report, which was released Wednesday.
To be frank, this is always the most subjective part of the report because we never have the metrics for young companies that we’d need in order to flag the true rising stars. But highlighting the new companies that are creating buzz is a worthwhile exercise.
Here, then, is our all-star roster for 2025 (and apologies if a few of these founders were working on the companies before Jan. 1, 2025):
Halifax
Alaagi is a Halifax-based cleantech startup developing biodegradable, seaweed-based packaging as a sustainable alternative to plastic food packaging. The company was founded by Saint Mary’s University student Sheheryar Khan. Despite its early stage, Alaagi achieved significant traction by September, securing more than $12 million in commercial letters of intent and launching pilot programs with major food companies including Sobeys and High Liner Foods. Alaagi’s packaging uses seaweed to create materials that can naturally break down, addressing the growing environmental concerns around single-use plastics in the food industry. The company has gained international recognition, being named among the top 100 global startups in the Nestlé and UNESCO Youth Impact: Because You Matter program.
New Brunswick
Ebben.ai is building a new kind of intelligence platform designed to eliminate the fragmentation that slows modern teams down. Instead of scattering work across tools and losing critical context in chats, documents, and meetings, Ebben.ai creates a connected system that remembers, learns, and amplifies how teams actually operate. By preserving strategic intent, project history, and decision‑making context, it enables AI to deliver deeper, more relevant insights—not generic advice. Co-Founders Kerry Knee, David Alston and Derek Hatchard are a team of experienced entrepreneurs whose pedigree makes Ebben a startup to watch.
St. John’s
Serial entrepreneur Mathias Nielsen started Final in January 2025 to build a drag-and-drop tool to help retailers build customized point-of-sales systems without writing code. Merchants can create full‑featured, flexible POS systems, while resellers can build tailored solutions for their clients. Using a visual editor or preset templates, teams can craft custom checkout flows and run them across in‑store terminals, self‑service kiosks, mobile devices, or bespoke applications. Fifteen months after its founding, the company already has about 30 employees, according to LinkedIn.
Fredericton
Infralytix is the brainchild of Dr. Ethan MacLeod, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Brunswick who has been working with advanced bridge weigh-in-motion technology. It aims to improve infrastructure monitoring and overweight enforcement with minimal installation. Infralytix uses data to help infrastructure owners make better decisions about roads and critical assets, bringing a faster, more modern approach to infrastructure management. The company won a $100,000 investment from NBIF for the first place in the 2026 breakthru competition. Infralytix also took home the $2,500 Viewer’s Choice Award, receiving the most in-room votes following the five live pitches at the breakthru live event.
Fredericton
Fredericton-based Mulli Swing Solutions has rapidly gained recognition for its golf‑tech innovation after winning several competitions in New Brunswick. The company created grip‑mounted sensors that generate data to help golfers and coaches analyze and improve swing performance. Founded by Brycen Munroe, Alex Khoshbakhtian, Matthew Ryan, and Ethan Belliveau, Mulli Swing has won UNB’s Student Pitch Competition, the Masters of TME demo day at UNB, and Profitual’s No‑Pitch Competition.
St. John’s
Co-founded by Memorial University engineering students Rohith McKim, Liam French, and Jordyn O’Brien, OmaScan modernizes home safety by using smartphone 3D scanning to help occupational therapists and families create accessible home environments. The company won the $25,000 first prize in the 2026 Mel Woodward Cup hosted by the Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship.
Halifax
Studley AI has developed a tool that uses AI to help students study for their exams. They simply paste the material they need to know into the dashboard and it produces digital flashcards in seconds. The company’s website says it is now used by more than 2 million students in many of the world’s top universities.
Halifax
Founded by Navy veteran Max Bjork, Writing Battle is an online creative writing platform that hosts competitive short-story contests for writers around the world. Participants receive prompts – such as a genre, character, or object – and must write a short story within a limited timeframe. The platform emphasizes community feedback and skill development while offering cash prizes for top stories. Writing Battle describes itself as providing contests “for writers, by writers,” combining friendly competition with collaborative critique to help writers develop. The company has generated a lot of buzz in the Halifax tech community.
