Virtual startup incubator Propel has bagged $1.05 million of funding from the Nova Scotia government over three years, with CEO Kathryn Lockhart saying some of the money will go to expanding the organization’s five-person coaching staff.

She said Propel may also add programming to bridge the gap between its Vision & Validation course for very early-stage founders and its Traction & Growth stream for more mature companies.

“Because we’re 100 percent virtual — our team is located right across Atlantic Canada — the strongest part of our budget is people,” said Lockhart during an event held at the offices of Halifax equipment rental platform Frenter on Tuesday.

“We may toy with increasing our program offering in between that supports a more effective product development, and in order (for startups) to iterate with customers live.”

She added that, in deploying the funding, Propel will be particularly interested in advancing the interests of under-represented groups, including female founders. Currently, about 32 percent of Propel’s Nova Scotia founders are female, up from 20 percent last year, and 64 percent were born outside Canada, compared to half last year.

“We’re making sure to keep our eye on our women and women-identifying founders,” said Lockhart, who is also volunteer managing partner of Women’s Equity Lab Atlantic, the only pan-Atlantic Canadian angel group currently in operation. 

“Are we supporting them in their unique part of the entrepreneurial journey? Because funding, in particular, is not as easy to access if you’re a woman or woman-identified founder.”

Propel’s programming is not Nova Scotia-centric, but Minister of Economic Development Susan Corkum-Greek said the outlay was driven partly by the direct economic benefits created by the incubator’s Nova Scotia companies, like Frenter, and partly by the need for the Atlantic region to work cooperatively in order to compete with larger innovation hotbeds.

“When we get up to 10,000 feet and we look at Atlantic Canada collectively … just in terms of population numbers, if you think how Montreal has a little over 4 million people, and then you come to the Atlantic provinces and I think all of our population combined is (about 2.56 million),” said Corkum-Greek, whose department is responsible for the funding Propel is receiving.

“But there are things that you can do. You can raise your profile and pool your resources."