Itavio, the Moncton startup that helps parents control how much money their children spend on online games, has been accepted into the prestigious Matter accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Itavio is the first Canadian company ever accepted into the accelerator, which teaches curriculum developed at Stanford University and works with such partners as the Google News Lab, the New York Times and the Associated Press.

Melani Flanagan and Matt Pichette, the co-founders of Itavio, arrived in the San Francisco area about a week ago to attend the one-week bootcamp for the accelerator. Matter on Thursday morning announced the 13 companies that will go through the program, which lasts until October.  

“This accelerator is an amazing connector,” said Flanagan in an interview from San Francisco on Thursday. “The people who we already met in our first week are pretty awe-inspiring.”

 Itavio allows parents to set limits for their children’s spending, almost like giving them a digital allowance. Parents can use the app not only to restrict spending but also to monitor how long a child is using the game.

Flanagan says the system helps game makers, who actually pay for the product. First, they don’t hear from infuriated parents whose kids have racked up a huge bill. And second, gaming companies using Itavio know how much money each customer has available to spend so they can market products to the child appropriate to their budget.

Itavio can also reduce a gaming company’s cost of hosting a young client and thereby improve the profitability of each game.

Flanagan said that Itavio applied to Matter because the company  is designed for technology media companies. She said the curriculum emphasizes the Stanford design principals, with a strong emphasis on the fast development, testing and failure of new features for each product.

Itavio in the past year has been beta-testing its product with a couple of early adopters, including Gogii Games of Moncton. Flanagan said it is now at the point at which it needs  to connect with more gaming companies to serve as early adopters for its product, and working in the Bay area should help meet this need.

“We could think of no one better to help with our out-reach and to build our message,” she said. “Being so much closer to our customers just makes so much sense. It’s that’s building of relationships that is so important when you’re starting out. That’s how you build technology.”

The two-year-old company, which is a graduate of the Propel ICT accelerator, raised about $275,000 in its first year, including an investment from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. Itavio recently raised additional funding from NBIF, and received some investment on joining Matter. It is now hoping to raise another $250,000.