Propel Demo Day Set for June 21

Atlantic Canadian accelerator Propel ICT has announced that its next Demo Day will be held June 21 at Neptune Theatre in Halifax.

The event featuring company presentations will begin at 5:30 pm, and is being held on the eve of the Atlantic Venture Forum, which will take place at the Nova Scotian Westin on June 22 and 23.

Demo Day will include pitches from the nine teams that are going through the Build Program, which is for growth-stage companies. In the last Demo Day in September, some promising companies in the seed-stage Launch Program also pitched, but there has been no announcement whether that will be the case in June.

In the current cohort, the Build Program is being run out of the Venn Centre in Moncton, while the Launch Program is being offered in startup hubs in Charlottetown, St. John’s, Halifax and Fredericton.

Johnson Concrete To Use CarbonCure Technology

Halifax-based CarbonCure Technologies has announced that Johnson Concrete Co., a family owned business with locations across North Carolina, added the CarbonCure Masonry Technology in its Lexington plant. The CarbonCure technology recycles waste carbon dioxide into concrete products, effectively making Johnson concrete masonry units more environmentally friendly.

“We completed extensive due diligence into the viability of the technology, and its potential to create value for Johnson Concrete, and we are now pleased to offer our customers concrete products with a reduced carbon footprint,” said Johnson Executive Vice President Charles Newsome in a statement.

The CarbonCure technology injects carbon dioxide gas captured from nearby smokestacks into concrete products during the mixing phase. Once introduced into the concrete mix, the carbon dioxide chemically converts into a solid calcium carbonate mineral.

Since the gas has been converted into a mineral, it will never escape into the atmosphere. This means that Johnson Concrete will continue to provide high quality concrete products, and effectively get rid of local air pollution at the same time.

SMU, Dal Teams Compete at IBMC

Three teams of Halifax university students will compete this weekend at the International Business Model Competition at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Each team competed for a spot during Canada’s Business Model Competition, hosted last month by Dalhousie’s Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship. Eight teams from the Canadian event are proceeding to the international competition.

The two Saint Mary’s University teams will pitch in Redmond are: ProTell, which is creating wearable technology for people with Sickle Cell Anemia; and SeeMePly, which is lessening the administrative burden of African students applying to private schools.

 As the organizers of the competition, Dalhousie University was also able to nominate a team to compete in the international competition. As such, 3 Meals, from Dalhousie’s Agricultural Campus, will attend the IBMC. The company is generating a protein from meal worms that can be used as a protein supplement.

Lucey To Speak at Startup Grind Halifax

Ian Lucey, the founder of the Lucey Fund, will deliver a talk to the Halifax chapter of Startup Grind on May 31 starting at 6 pm at the Innovacorp Innovation Centre in Halifax. Tickets are available here.

The Lucey Fund is a venture capital fund that backs early-stage IT startups. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based fund has offices in six countries including the U.S., Ireland, U.K. and Spain. It has invested in more than 70 startups over the past three-and-a-half years. In 2015 alone the Lucey Fund invested in 30 new projects and it plans to invest in more than 50 in 2016.

Lucey recently opened an office in Los Angeles and is actively seeking further investment opportunities across the United States and Canada.