The Ocean Startup Project has announced the 30 idea- and early-stage bluetech startups from across Canada to win this year’s Ocean Startup Challenge.
Each year, the startup competition awards development capital, as well as training and mentorship services to dozens of emerging companies with the goal of building out the pipeline of Canadian bluetech businesses. This year, the 30 winners are taking home a combined $640,000 of funding.
“These early stage ideas have the potential to make a massive impact on ocean health and sustainability, and scale quickly,” said Ocean Startup Project Executive Director Don Grant in a statement.
“They are nimble, innovative, and have the passion and fortitude to build globally competitive companies.”
The Ocean Startup Challenge began in 2020 and helps turn entrepreneurial ideas or technology into viable businesses. Organizers said that since 2020, more than $1.4 million in funding has been provided to 43 teams through the first two cohorts of the Startup Challenge.
The organization has offices across Canada. In Newfoundland, it operates out of the Genesis startup hub in St. John’s.
Here’s a look at the victorious companies:
Vancouver
Wholesale fish leather textiles for B2B and vertically integrated custom-made fish leather goods, all upcycled from food processing waste
St. John’s
AI web platform to streamline, standardise and de-skill microplastics analysis and reporting
Akwekon Enterprises
Halifax
A fast, stable, long range smart electric fishing vessel
Surrey, BC
A remote real-time environmental and structural farm monitoring system
Halifax
A biodegradable electric autonomous target vessel for navies
Coastal Carbon
Calgary
An IoT-enabled remote sensing data platform for quantifying offsets from blue carbon projects
St. John's
A modular runway system for remote and northern communities made from recyclable materials
CuredCarbon
Cambridge, ON
Corrosion-resistant graphene coating for marine infrastructure
Cuttlefish Robotics
Listowel, ON
An efficient and silent underwater ROV
Surrey, BC
Wind assist technology for ships via retrofitting sails
Halifax
Prebiotics from coconut residue for aquaculture and humans — a potential alternative to antibiotics
Québec, QC
Two technologies developed to eliminate plastic pollution in beaches and in grey water rejects from ships
Hypérion ML
Témiscouata-sur-le-Lac, QC
Autonomous bioreactor using microalgae for urban carbon sink purposes
Integrated Nanotech
Halifax
A novel EI spectroscopy based sensor with efficient ocean sensing capabilities
Intel Vision Technologies
Vancouver
An intelligent ROV for underwater welding operations
MF2S Industries
Grande Rivière, QC
“Double threshold weak link to reduce whales entanglement”
St. John’s
Real time hazardous gas monitoring technology for marine operations
Nereus Therapeutics
Toronto
A novel formulation of oxytetracycline (an antibiotic) for dose reduction and environmental sustainability
Vancouver
OnDeck makes fisheries monitoring scalable with artificial intelligence: reducing compliance costs for fishers while enabling better insight for fisheries management and conservation
PhyCo
Vancouver and Charlottetown
A natural bio-based plastic derived from seaweed
Hampstead, NB
Innovative and sustainable building materials using plastic from oceans
Planette
Victoria, BC
An intelligent, data-driven maritime climate risk assessment platform
Precision Pathways
St. John’s
Machine learning-driven intelligent decision support tool for ship operations in ice
Salus Automated Technologies
Halifax
Drone monitoring system for tracking ocean infrastructure
New Glasgow, NS
An imaging platform for non-destructive analysis of ocean infrastructure
Seathru Technologies
Holyrood, NL
A digital twin remote monitoring system for marine vessels
Vancouver
Underwater turbine to harness clean energy from oceans
Ultimate Lobster Bait
Souris, PE
A biochemical attractant for use as bait for American Lobster
