Venn Innovation Announces 7 New Members Of Its Incubator Program
MONCTON – Seven early-stage, tech-based New Brunswick startups will receive mentorship, coaching, access to resources and networks to bring their projects to the next level.
Venn Innovation’s virtual Open Pitch competition on April 1 narrowed 15 teams down to the seven that will participate in the Venn Garage incubator. The five-minute pitches presented how their tech-based solution would help their communities and small and medium businesses thrive.
“We are very happy to see their aspiration to address the gaps in our society. From providing education opportunities to solving commuting challenges for pilots, this quarter’s pitch competition was a showcase of New Brunswick’s entrepreneurial and communal spirit,” said Alicia Grayeb, Program Manager of Venn’s Startup Services in a release.
The selected companies will receive $47,000 of in-kind value through mentorship, resources, investment planning guidance, and technology validation for business model scalability.
Venn Garage gives New Brunswick residents the opportunity to test their startup ideas and prepare them to move into accelerator programs. So far, $4.7-million has been invested by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and the provincial government. It has helped over 100 startups including The Farmers’ Truck, FITIV, and Porpoise.
The new teams joining Venn Garage are as follows with descriptions provided by Venn Innovation:
- Homeschooltogo: virtual education solution that focuses on guiding parents along their homeschooling journey.
- Flourish sales: a unified, virtual, multi-vendor marketplace for local vendors to connect with customers within their community, with options for in-store pickup and delivery.
- Crew pass: booking platform with a punch pass system, allowing commercial airline pilots access to comfortable stays and commute, between flying shifts.
- Water Integrated Design & Empowerment (WIDE)– designing distillation water treatment systems driven by waste heat readily available in communities, to provide safe and reliable drinking water, in a sustainable and affordable way, to remote communities.
- Christofe Tremblay is working on a sports analytics system to help coaches assess their individual players and teams’ performances and rankings.
- Boostedu: tutoring system focusing on addressing the gaps created by the pandemic.
- Foghorn news: an online print publication for news, culture, and local interests that represents the cultural and demographic shifts taking place in New Brunswick.
“It’s amazing to see so many teams innovating to solve problems that people want to have solutions for; it is truly ‘tech for good.’ I look forward to helping them move ahead in their journey,” said Norbert Demps, Entrepreneur in Residence at Venn Innovation.
Liam Floyd is a reporter for Huddle. Send him story suggestions: [email protected].