A pair of Halifax startups familiar to Entrevestor readers were among the companies honoured at this year’s Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards from the Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia: Sparrow BioAcoustics and MOC Biotechnologies.

Sparrow has developed a stethoscope app for smartphones, called Stethophone. The app uses a phone’s internal microphones, along with software processing, to allow the device to function as an ad hoc stethoscope when it is held against a patient’s chest. Chief product officer Nadia Ivanovo won the headline Entrepreneur of the Year award, which is sponsored by the non-profit International Women’s Empowerment Network.

Nadia Ivanova (left) receives her award

MOC, meanwhile, won Innovative Business of the Year. Founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Ali Mousavi and Arash Helmi, the company makes technology for 3D printing artificial tissues, such as cartilage, heart valves and nerves.

“I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Canada for the boundless opportunities it has provided,” said Mousavi, who originally hails from Iran, where he was a biomedical engineer and professor. “This recognition serves as a tremendous source of motivation, spurring us on our path of innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The federal government's Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency also announced yesterday it will provide Sparrow with a $504,000 grant to hire staff to gather and analyze data to help train the software.

For MOC, Mousavi has said previously that the next key step in the business’s growth will be giving users the ability to print materials with medical effects that gradually evolve over time — a process known in the industry as “4D bioprinting.”