Nearly $2 Million For Four Halifax Startups
HALIFAX — Four Halifax-area companies got serious financial boosts today thanks to $1,746,850 in interest-free loans from the federal government.
The money was split between startups working in the province’s burgeoning life sciences field. Motryx, Nxtgen Care, and IR Scientific all received approximately $500,000 in loans, while Skinfix was given $250,000.
Each has seen commercial success outside of the province and, according to Halifax MP Andy Filmore, are prime examples of the innovation driving Halifax’s “life sciences cluster.”
Motryx has been making waves with technology that helps protect and monitor blood samples moving between hospitals and labs. IR Scientific, meanwhile, has developed a product you can add to toothpaste to help sensitive teeth.
The money supporting these products comes from the Atlantic Canadian Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and is designed to help the young companies build on their commercial success.
Amy Risley, the owner and CEO of Skinfix, says this kind of help from ACOA has been “a real competitive advantage” for her business.
Skinfix sells a line of “clean” skincare products that are clinically tested and developed with the help of dermatologists. Risley says the ACOA support has helped her develop and market a product that holds its ground in the hyper-competitive skincare industry.
“I have a lot of friends in the [United States] who have beauty businesses and they always sort of ‘ooo’ and ‘ahh’ about the fact that our government is so supportive of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It’s not something that they really have any experience with, and we’re really lucky as Canadians and Atlantic Canadians that the government is putting such a priority on entrepreneurship,” she says.
Last spring, Skinfix broke big when Sephora agreed to be the exclusive retailer for its products in the U.S. and Canada.
Risley says ACOA has been an important partner for her as an organization she could turn to whenever she had “new initiatives in the queue.”
“Happily, the startup ecosystem here is really robust, so they’ve got a lot of people that they’re helping,” she says.
In a March 2 release announcing the new loans, ACOA said Skinfix and the other startups its helping to fund are part of a cluster of more than 100 locally-owned life sciences businesses.
Atlantic Canada made Startup Genome’s list of ecosystems to watch in the life sciences category in its 2019 Global Startup Ecosystem Report.
“Halifax’s life sciences cluster is at the heart of a vibrant and growing Atlantic innovation ecosystem that has the talent and resources to compete on a global scale,” Filmore says. “The economic potential of this sector is incredible and we can be rightfully proud of its achievements to date. With its continued growth, I believe we are well-positioned to move our economy into a prosperous future.”
Risley agrees. She’s been in Halifax for 16 years and says she’s seeing “tremendous momentum” with the startup ecosystem in the city.
“I’ve seen such a huge difference since I’ve been here in the last 16 years,” she says. “The city seems to be more vibrant, and there just seems to be a lot of buzz and excitement around. It’s exciting to see it all evolve.”