New program offers founders up to $100k in seed funding grants and brings together innovation partners at Uvaro, SnapPea Design, Conestoga College, Innovate Niagara, and WEtech Alliance to locate, curate, train, and build high-potential businesses across southern Ontario
MEDIA RELEASE via Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
Application Information
Applications for the program are open from June 6, 2022 until July 1, 2022 with the 100 selected startups beginning programming in September of 2022. Visit www.ac-studio.ca for more information or to apply for the program.
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At the AC, we exist to help ambitious dreamers impact global change through their businesses. The AC is ranked Canada’s #1 private business accelerator and is among the top five such organizations globally. We offer an extensive selection of customizable opportunities for startups across Canada—allowing founders to rapidly bring their innovation to life. We work with our global partners to bolster the innovation ecosystem in Waterloo and beyond.
For more than 12 years, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has worked to advance and diversify the southern Ontario economy through funding opportunities and business services that support innovation, growth and job creation in Canada’s most populous region. The Agency has delivered impressive results, which can be seen in southern Ontario businesses that are creating innovative technologies, improving productivity, growing revenues, creating jobs, and in the economic advancement of communities across the region. Learn more about the impacts the Agency is having in Southern Ontario by exploring our pivotal projects, our Southern Ontario Spotlight, and FedDev Ontario’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Uvaro started because the old approach to tech hiring is broken. The fastest-growing segment of our economy needs new sales professionals. Finding appropriate training and courses can be challenging for those in this field. Worse yet, when tech companies want to hire diverse talent, established interview practices and company cultures put up barriers. Marginalized people who do accept job offers are often left to flounder by businesses that don’t have effective sales training. We’ve created a better way to grow careers. Instead of preventing access to fulfilling work, we provide accessible training, on-demand support resources, and best-in-class tools that teach participants how to build on their successes. We’re on a mission to help the world’s professionals lead more fulfilling career—from their first job to their last. At Uvaro, we’ve created a better way to help everyday people launch and grow successful and rewarding careers in tech.Conestoga Entrepreneurship Collective The Conestoga Entrepreneurship Collective is dedicated to incubating entrepreneurial potential, equipping members of the Conestoga College community with the skills, strategies, and attitudes to create opportunities that will contribute to the economic development of local, regional, and international communities. Programming includes the Venture Lab universal business incubator, the Sales Lab incubator for high-tech sales careers, and the Gig Lab, Canada’s first business incubator for freelancers.
WEtech Alliance is one of 17 Regional Innovation Centres funded by the Government of Ontario, serving the Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent regions. They provide entrepreneurs with business services, training, commercialization and IP support, mentorship, and strategic connections to help bring new ideas to market, scale to the next level and build a dynamic culture and a community of innovation. WEtech Alliance has served as the catalyst for technology and innovation in the Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent regions since 2011.
Innovate Niagara is one of 17 Regional Innovation Centres in Ontario. Our mission is clear: we exist to support innovative entrepreneurs and companies from a variety of industries start, grow and succeed. Innovate Niagara provides the structure, services, and resources you need to get your great idea off the ground. As true collaborators and strong partners within Canada’s innovation ecosystem, Innovate Niagara works closely with local, provincial, and national partners to meet the unique demands of the modern entrepreneur and innovator.