Eastern Innovation Corridor comes together for First Look – Investor Collision
For Immediate Release
March 21st, 2018
Oshawa, ON – Eastern Innovation Corridor comes together for First Look – Investor Collision
Spark Innovation Centre, in partnership with the Regional Municipality of Durham’s Economic Development and Tourism Dept. and Open People Network (OPN), are hosting their inaugural First Look Investor Collision, focused specifically on the Eastern Ontario Innovation Corridor. This invite-only networking event will provide opportunity for high potential startups, accredited investors and stakeholders of the entrepreneurial community to come together to collaborate with the goal of fostering partnerships, growth and development.
The Eastern Innovation Corridor – spanning from Pickering to Corwall – is a rapidly growing technology and innovation ecosystem that is developing competitive, world class businesses. First Look aims to connect the innovative entrepreneurs located in this corridor with the expertise of accomplished investors from across Ontario.
The Eastern Ontario First Look is modeled after the highly successful First Look event hosted by the Regional Innovation Centre, The City of Mississauga, and Angel One Investor Network. Now in its fourth year, this consortium is producing real results for investors and startup companies, one of which closed $925,000 in seed financing, thanks to the relationships made during First Look.
“We want to improve the connectedness between high-potential startup companies and the robust Angel networks that exist in Ontario. We want to ensure that our regional startups get their share of the more than $66 million dollars of angel investment made in Ontario alone last year,” said Spark Centre CEO, Sherry Colbourne.
Clients in attendance include:
- Neothane, who has developed a magnetic urethane patch, called Magnaseal, which is used to stop and prevent hazardous leaks
- WeTraq, who has developed a more advanced and versatile tracking device, called Tab, and
- MeetScribe, who has developed a smart productivity assistant that provides a layer of intelligence during meetings that allows users to collaborate seamlessly with each other using natural language.
Kathy Weiss, Director of Economic Development and Tourism, Regional Municipality of Durham is thrilled to be co-hosting such a high-profile event. “Meaningful partnerships are key to economic development prosperity. Both the Federal and Provincial governments emphasize collaboration amongst municipalities in order to build strong clusters, allowing the country and province to remain competitive on the global stage. We are pleased to be working closely with Spark Centre and Open People Network to set the stage for an Eastern Ontario Innovation Corridor,” said Kathy.
Participating partners include Venture Lab, Peterborough Innovation Cluster, Startup Durham, Northumberland Community Futures Development Corp., University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Durham College, Quintevation, Startup Bay of Quinte, PEC Innovation Centre, PELA Community Futures Development Corp., Launch Lab and Queen’s University.
About Spark Centre: Spark Commercialization and Innovation Centre is one of seventeen not-for-profit Regional Innovation Centres (RICs) that form part of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE). The centre works to improve competitiveness and visibility of Durham Region and Northumberland County as a world-class innovation cluster. For more information on Spark Centre, please visit www.sparkcentre.org.
For more information:
Kristina Svana – Marketing Director, Spark Innovation Centre
[email protected]
