The Pond-Deshpande Centre at the University of New Brunswick late last week announced the first cohort of entrepreneurs it is supporting with mentorship, funding and other services.
The Pond-Deshpande Centre’s mission is to accelerate the creation of sustainable, scalable businesses in New Brunswick that have significant social and economic impact. It places greater emphasis on social entrepreneurship than most support groups, which is reflected in the choice of companies.
“We’ve seen a tremendous burst of entrepreneurial activity since we launched the Centre one year ago,” said Executive Director Karina LeBlanc in a statement. “More and more, entrepreneurs recognize that they can build large, profitable businesses based here in New Brunswick. Many of these entrepreneurs are starting businesses that have a positive social impact. They are doing well and doing good.”
The companies in the cohort are:
Resson Technologies – A technology company focused on aerial surveillance using blimp and infrared camera technology.
CE d'ICI – A social business that transformed food service at three schools in the Greater Fredericton Area by transitioning from third-party catering to an in-house chef using locally sourced and organic food.
Aboriginal Millennium Health Products – A company leveraging traditional aboriginal knowledge of local plant life to develop primary health care products.
Wicked Ideas —A civil media company that offers a platform to bring together original journalism with public knowledge to enable a facilitated conversation about public issues.
Black Magic –- A company that produces an alternative to industrial hand cleaners that cleans better than any current product in the market, smells good, softens hands and is completely natural.
Arbre de Connaissances -- A company developing an alternative model for searching the Internet.
Eigen Innovations – A company developing intelligent control software for industrial automation to improve efficiency in operations.
HotSpot Parking- A company that allows consumers to pay for parking with smart phones and lets local vendors offer to assist clients with parking to attract customers.
The Real Food Centre – A social enterprises combining a medium-scale kitchen and storage facility to encourage value-added food production.
Gratitude Works - A horse therapy program for a number of diverse audiences leveraging the wisdom of horses to teach leadership, confidence, and entrepreneurialism, among other things.
Place Aux Competences - A non-profit spinoff of District scolaire francohone Sud providing funding and training to help teachers deliver curriculum involving the experience of entrepreneurship.
Mycodev – A company that produces chitosan, a natural biopolymer used in medicine that is biodegradable, biocompatible, non-toxic, antimicrobial and has low immunogenicity.
