Volta Labs' new Vice President of Innovation, Chris Crowell, is starting his job with plans to develop a larger corporate outpost within Volta as a part of the startup house's expansion this fall.

Crowell, who started with Volta last month, joined the startup house to build more corporate outposts that will connect scaling companies with valuable corporate partners.

“A key part isn’t just having the companies and entrepreneurs co-located but to also bring [the startups] closer to corporations and public-sector organizations as well,” said Crowell, who spoke with Entrevestor from Communitech in Kitchener, Ont., where he was touring its corporate outposts.

Volta models its outpost strategy on that of Communitech, the startup and innovation hub at the heart of the Kitchener-Waterloo tech community. In corporate outposts, a large corporation sets up an office in a startup hub, allowing for stronger interaction between established businesses and innovation-based startups. With this model in mind, Volta opened its doors to the Atlantic Lottery Corporation in 2016, making it the first corporate outpost for innovation in Atlantic Canada.

“We’re actively engaged with Communitech,” said Crowell, “They’ve been helping us ramp up corporate innovation and supporting us as we reach out to Atlantic Canadian companies. It’s taken a tried and proven model and implemented it in Atlantic Canada to help drive more innovation in our region.”

Corporate outposts are vital in growing the community because they allow big corporations to access the innovation and creativity found in the startup community and provide new avenues and partnerships for scaling businesses. 

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Crowell joined Volta’s team as a part of its massive expansion that’s happening this winter. He said half of one floor in the expansion will be set aside for these outposts that he hopes will consist of public and private corporations. Crowell came to Volta from the Saint John-based diversified IT company Mariner, where he was the Halifax-based Chief Marketing Officer. Before that, he was the Senior Director of Business Development at NeuLion in Toronto.

“What we’re doing with this new space at Volta is best in class," said Crowell. "It’s a really exciting thing for Atlantic Canada and will be a critical piece of infrastructure for Halifax, and the whole region.”

Last year, Volta announced its plans to triple the size of its downtown Halifax facility. The startup hub has leased out 60,000 square feet of office space in the Maritime Centre on Barrington Street to offer more office space for startups and a new event space right on the Barrington level. The expansion won’t be unveiled until the fall but it will make Volta Labs one of Canada’s largest innovation hubs.

In terms of support, Volta has received two sizeable investments through the provincial and federal government to facilitate this expansion. In September the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Innovacorp committed $2 million to the expansion followed by a $2.25 million commitment from the Nova Scotian government.

Since its 2013 inception, more than 50 early-stage companies have worked out of Volta Labs and more than two-thirds of these companies are still doing business. Volta’s goal is that this expansion will make it the cornerstone for technological innovation in Atlantic Canada.

Disclosure: ACOA, Innovacorp and the Nova Scotia government are clients of Entrevestor.