IBI Invests in Startups Involved in Innovation
Woodland Biofuels has received a $800,000 loan from Fed Dev through the Investing in Business Innovation (IBI) initiative for the construction of their new efficient biofuel plant. The plant hopes to produce ethanol for half of the cost it takes to produce gasoline at today’s oil prices. The innovative process behind it uses a series […]
Spin Master Innovation Fund Assists Young Entrepreneurs
Toronto-based Spin Master, a children’s entertainment giant, partnered with the Business Development Bank of Canada and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) to launch the Spin Master Innovation Fund. This fund provides up to 10 Canadian entrepreneurs, between the ages of 18 and 39, with $50,000 in financing to fund their growth, plus a paid […]
How to Keep Canadian Startups in Canada
Canada has had a problem developing, incubating, and commercializing the type of products that create new economies and new jobs. According to Richard Remillard, executive director of the Canadian Venture Capital Association, while the Canadian population is 1/10 the size of the US market, our venture capital industry is only 1/12 of that in the […]
Crowdfunding in Canada
Pebble’s Eric Migicovsky jump-started his company by selling 85,000 pre-sold watches and generating $10 million in advance revenue through Kickstarter. Unfortunately, Kickstarter isn’t readily accessible to Canadian companies. Migicovsky’s initial company was based in Waterloo (part of University of Waterloo’s Velocity incubator), and was bootstrapped by SR&ED tax credits. The opportunity to obtain financing was so […]
Is Entrepreneurship Waning in Canada?
The Globe and Mail recently addressed the fact that in recent years, the relative impact of self-employment across Canada has been waning. Self-employment has always been an important feature of the Canadian economy; the OECD lists Canada as one of the highest concentrations of entrepreneurs within a working population. However in recent years, the ratio of […]
North Innovation Fund launched to support Canada’s Knowledge-Based Industries
Waterloo and Toronto, February 15, 2012 – North Innovation Fund (NIF), a privately-held alternative financing firm providing ongoing SR&ED accrual loans to early stage Canadian companies in a variety of technology-based sectors, today announced the launch of its first Fund. The Fund was created to identify high growth and innovative companies that are in need […]
Venture Capital Fundraising Concerns in Canada
According to 2011 year-end figures from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, a four-year high of $1.5 billion from VC was disbursed to Canadian startups last year. Although this was the highest level since 2008, this was far short of the $2.1 billion invested in 2007. New funds for VC hit $1 billion […]
Exciting Times to be a Canadian Entrepreneur
With Propel ICT in New Brunswick announcing their first startup cohort of 11 startup companies, and the accelerator program launches of FounderFuel in Montreal, and GrowLab in Vancouver in the past year, entrepreneurship is at an all-time high across Canada. There is a plethora of innovation in Canada these days. And one thing you can […]