The Next36, an entrepreneurship non-profit based in Toronto, wants Atlantic Canadian startup founders to apply to join this year’s cohort of 20 founders for The Next Founders, a program to accelerate startup growth.

The Next36 has been around for five years, but for the first three years it’s been solely focused on growing undergraduates’ startups. The program allows undergraduates to take courses with business experts from across North America, as well as meet The Next36’s network of more than 300 of the top business influencers in Canada.

The participants in The Next Founders have finished their undergraduate degree, but are in the early stages of creating their own startups. They can benefit from the business training and large network from The Next36.

For example, after completing The Next Founders last year, Toronto-based cardio rhythm tracking tool company Bionym raised $15 million in its early stages of funding.

“There are hotbeds of innovation across the country, and a few of them in Atlantic Canada,” The Next36’s director of marketing and events Jon French said. “If there’s someone who can scale their company and really increase their chances as an entrepreneur with access to our program, it doesn’t matter for us where they are.”

This is the second year of The Next Founders. Last year, the companies participating were almost all in southwestern Ontario. But with a grant from the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program, The Next36 will pay for founders to fly out and stay in Toronto to complete the program.

The Next Founders requires that participants be in Toronto four times throughout May to August for three-day crash courses in business-related topics, such as financing.

In its program for undergraduates, The Next36 provides funding for the startups and takes equity once the company gets started. For The Next Founders, no money is given or taken from the startup. It is expected that companies entering The Next Founders already have investors.

The Next36 receives its funding from its giving board, the government and its national partners, including companies like Toronto-Dominion Bank, Rogers and MasterCard.

The application for The Next Founders program is on its website and is due on March 3.

“Our organization’s mission is to increase national prosperity by identifying a small number of high potential entrepreneurs and proving them with all of these resources,” French said. “We’re looking for the real game-changers, the ones that are successful, that will disrupt industries, that will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and tens of millions—if not billions—of value for the country.”