Dalhousie University held its inaugural Pitch Day for graduates of its Dal Innovates and Emera ideaHUB accelerators Thursday, with HerBiome Skincare and XO Technology winning for Launch and ideaBUILD, respectively.
In total, 19 startups competed for a $15,000 prize pool, with Phyco Technologies and Oxebow Enterprises each taking home a people's choice award. The pitch day complements the demo days that cap off each of the two programs.
Dal Innovates' Launch accelerator is a combination of the Lab2Market Launch program and Dalhousie's own programming. Meanwhile, ideaBUILD is a longer, 10-month program that guides startups, particularly those producing hardware, through the prototyping phase and helps them prepare to scale manufacturing.
Here’s a look at the companies:
LAUNCH COMPANIES
Julie Anne Dayrit and Manishkumar Shinde
Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University
HerBiome make skincare products derived from plant extracts for treating inflammatory skin conditions like eczema, acne and psoriasis.
Hunter King and Michael Freund
Dalhousie University
Integrative Nanotech is developing next-generation sensors made from nano materials, with the aim of identifying hydrogen leaks in industrial settings.
MetaCrust Services
Sierra Anwar
Memorial University
MetaCrust is a system for securely transmitting health data from wearable medical devices to telehealth companies.
Stacey Goldberg and Ranah Chavoshi
The University of Prince Edward Island and Simon Fraser University
PhyCo is developing a biodegradeable plastic alternative made from seaweed under a partnership with First Nations groups.
Ashwin Razdan and Katerina Msafari
Saint Mary’s University
Adrigo Insights is developing a business-to-business SaaS platform for measuring and benchmarking social media performance.
Citapay
Ali Akbar Abshar, Fariba Seyedjafarrangraz and Jafar Pashami
Simon Fraser University, Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University.
Citapay is a blockchain-based system for transferring money across borders.
Food Web Asset Mapping
Justin Andrews and Keegan Francis
Dalhousie University
Food Web is developing digital infrastructure to aid collaboration between food entrepreneurs, Kitchens, farmers, markets and consumers.
Chaz Samuel and Shayna Cort
Dalhousie University and Saint Mary’s University
No Days Off plans to use clothing to “inspire and motivate.”
Alma Ziaabadimiyanji and Solmaz Ziaabadimiyanji
Saint Mary’s University
Rivalift plans to use a combination of social media data analytics and technology from California artificial intelligence giant OpenAI to automate the development of content marketing strategies.
ideaBUILD COMPANIES
Sides Anwar
Memorial University
Bio Lab Mate
Sarika Kumari and Sanjay Dubey
St. John’s
Bio Lab Mate is developing recyclable and biodegradable plastic products for use in university laboratories and private research centres as replacements for conventional plastic lab equipment.
Dri-Print
Sam Fisher and Cameron Jantzen
Halifax
Dri-Print is developing a “highly interactive” digital whiteboard for use by teachers.
Hamid Mandi
Mexico City, Mexico
Avisyna is developing brain-computer interface technology meant to allow people to control electronic devices and interact with computers using only their brain activity.
XO Technology
Zheng (John) Wang and Jason Gu
Halifax
XO Technology is working on human-computer interface devices with health monitoring capabilities for use in augmented and virtual reality systems. Gu is also the Canadian president of the IEEE — the organization that sets computer networking standards.
Salar Salahi, Amir Kolahdouz and Seyed Nabavi
St. John’s
Nditive3D is developing a digital twin system for monitoring gas leaks in maritime settings.
Ocean Sights Technology
Artorix de la Cruz and Shaun Slade
Halifax
Ocean Sights is developing an artificial intelligence-based system for monitoring the contents of lobster traps, saving fisherman the time and cost of checking traps manually.
Maxwell and Brigham Poole
Yarmouth, NS
Oxebow is developing an on-board conveyor system for fishing boats to scan and track their shellfish catches
Safe Harbour Research & Technologies
Samira Khodadoost
Halifax
Safe Harbour is working on a self-powered buoy for monitoring the speeds of marine vessels in harbours.
Masoud Aali
Halifax
Scient is developing an artificial intelligence system for identifying the minerals in drilling cores taken during mining exploration.
Smart Bin
Aneesh Raghupathy and Niraj Shukla
St. John’s
Smart Bin has designed sensors that can be placed in commercial garbage bins to track how full they are, before an artificial intelligence system suggests optimized routing for garbage trucks.
