Four Ontario-based startups are receiving funding through a new provincial program.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s first budget last year included $295 million over two years to boost youth employment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Among the projects in that youth job strategy was a “Youth Investment Accelerator Fund,” which would award up to $250,000 each to tech-based companies whose founders are less than 30 years old.
As YongeStreet Media‘s Hamutal Dotan reported, this month the Youth IAF announced the first four recipients of funding through the program. All four recipients are based in Toronto.
- PUSH, which is working on wearable devices that help athletes train more effectively by providing real-time feedback about their performance. PUSH is an alumni of MaRS.
- Rubikloud, a B2B tool which uses e-commerce data to yield insights into purchasing patterns, sales conversions, traffic changes, and more. Rubikloud also came up through MaRS.
- SoapBox, an employee engagement tool that was developed with the support of Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone and whose clients now include RBC and and Indigo.
- Greengage, which comes out of Rotman’s Creative Destruction Lab. Greengage focuses on helping organizations meet their sustainability goals by giving employees the tools to do things like monitor and reduce the environmental impact of their behaviours.
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The Youth IAF’s goal is to accelerate the commercialization of young tech-based companies, “that have graduated from recognized accelerator programs within the province and Ontario Universities and colleges, or are enrolled with a Regional Innovation Centre under the ONE program.”
Photo from YongeStreet
