Innovation + Job News

Harsha Mohan of new Toronto application developer Madras Mirchi says the company's mission is to create mobile apps that will "serve, connect and share community services" for the people of the Greater Toronto Area. The first app they have launched for the iPhone is Toronto Waste Pickup--a self-explanatory title for a piece of software that gives users schedules and information about when waste is being picked up in their area and what bins should be used and put it out, and sends a reminder when the time to put out recycling, organics and garbage is near.

It sounds simple enough, but Mohan points out by email that the city currently produces tens of thousands of paper booklets and sends them out by mail right now to help people keep track of the complicated collections schedule. "The number of waste booklets that gets printed out each year, can be greatly reduced, so therefore reducing carbon foot print," Mohan writes, and "the flyers and the amount of paper in order to advertise proper waste disposal and collections can be reduced."

The application is selling for 99-cents right now at the app store.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Harsha Mohan, Madras Mirchi

Mississauga's Pioneering Technology has been recognized as one of the leading innovative small businesses in Canada by the 2011 Innovations@Work Awards handed out by Rogers and Profit magazine. The awards recognize Canadian companies that have fewer than 20 employees--in the words of the organizers, "the only award of its kind in Canada, it celebrates the next generation of innovative small companies whose big ideas move their businesses and their industries forward."

Pioneering was recognized for its Safe-T stovetop cooking system, which is designed to prevent cooking fires, the leading cause of household fires in Canada. According to a recent profile in Profit, the system was designed in 2000 by Indian-born former NASA engineer and Pioneering founder Reza Shah after a small cooking fire in his own kitchen almost bunt down his own home. The element shuts itself off if it reaches a temperature higher than 350 degrees celsius and keeping the power off until they have cooled down.

After initially encountering resistance in the market, the company shifted its marketing focus substantially in 2006 and 2007. The changes brought success--the company has now reported a profit in six consecutive quarters.

Pioneering CEO Kevin Callahan greeted the innovation award as evidence the years of hard work are paying off. "We have worked hard to develop and bring some of our innovative product solutions to market. We have done a lot of heavy lifting ... and we are now seeing the benefits."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Kevin Callahan, CEO, Pioneering Technology; Profit Magazine

In the seven years since it opened, Protenergy has grown into a private label food manufacturing powerhouse, a major supplier of Tetra Pak soups, broths and sauces. Now a $22.2 million investment by the company will double production capacity, introduce innovative new processes, expand the product offerings and create 60 new jobs at its Richmond Hill facility.

In addition to increasing its production capacity, the company says the improvements to its facility will allow it to produce chunk-style soups in re-closable cartons-- a first for a Canadian company. The changes are also expected to reduce production costs.

Kevin Tracey, Protenergy's president, said the move will also help increase the stringency of its safety standards. He credited a $6.67 million loan from the provincial government for helping the project move ahead.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Kevin Tracey, Protenergy; Tim Weber, Office of the Minister of Economic Development

According to MyVoice CEO Alexander Levy, more than 90 per cent of people with communication impairments use primitive aids to help them--or no aids at all. His company hopes to change that with its launch last week of a new mobile application that Levy says will be accessible to anyone with communication challenges.

Yonge Street saw a demonstration of the product earlier this year at a mobile innovation event at MaRS where Minister of Innovation Glen Murray raved that it would transform the lives of some of his friends. It is a location-aware speech aid that offers users a menu of phrases likely to be of use. At Tim Hortons, for instance, it would offer up such phrases as "Tim Bits" and "Double-Double."

The application was developed at the University of Toronto, with investment from Google, Android and NERC. Whereas traditional communication aids cost tens of thousands of dollars, according to the company, MyVoice will be free to try and a full version will cost about $30 per month. It is available on both Android phones and the iPhone.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Andrew Rusk, MyVoice

The clean-chemical innovation company EcoSynthetix will relocate it's head office and research facility from Lansing, Michigan to the edge of the Greater Toronto Area, creating 40 new jobs and driving environmental innovation. The company's move will be supported by a $3 million investment from the provincial government, it was announced earlier this month.

The new 34,000-square-foot Global Innovation and Technology Demonstration Centre will focus on developing and marketing eco-friendly alternatives to petroleum-based products for the global paper industry--an $800 billion industry. The 15-year-old company estimates that the paper-coating share of the market is worth more than US$5 billion annually.

Minister of Innovation Glen Murray said he was pleased the province's investment would help bring the company to Ontario. "EcoSynthetix's technology has the potential to fundamentally change the paper and paperboard industry, and capture a huge share of this $800-billion market � while protecting our environment and boosting Burlington's economy," he said in a prepared statement.

EcoSynthetix CEO John van Leeuwen told the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance that the support of both provincial and federal governments was key to the decision to move to the GTA, and that as an environmental innovator, he looked forward to working with the Toronto region's universities.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Office of the Minister of Innovation; John van Leeuwen, EcoSynthetix; Sustainable Chemistry Alliance

It was $250,000 in student fundraising that got Trinity College's solar panel development started, and soon they will been giving money back to students as an innovative--and sustainable--source of student aid funding.

The 252 solar panels installed on the roof of the school by a team led by consultant Oxtoby of CarbonFree Technology, which were unveiled last week, are a direct result of a student fundraising drive in 2007 that generated $250,000. An additional $262,000 for the project was provided as an interest-free loan from the City of Toronto. Now that the panels are plugged into the grid, generating revenue for the school through the province's feed-in-tarrif program, the school estimates it will repay those loans in approximately 12 years.

After that, the revenue generated by the panels will be used to fund student aid at the school. They will generate approximately 67,000 kiloWatt hours per year of sustainable energy.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: David Oxtoby, CarbonFree Technoloy

The Don Mills-based web analytics company Unilytics ramped up its expansion into the US last week with the opening of an office in Palo Alto, California [PDF]. Company President Peder Enhorning said the new office was a response to the growing list of American clients, and the Silicon Valley location would ensure the company was "close to our customer base."

Unilytics is headquartered on Eglinton near the Don Valley in Toronto, where the company has built a web analytics empire built on analysis software of its own and web optimization consulting for other projects, especially Google Analytics (they were the first authorized Google consultant in Toronto).

The company's list of over 800 clients includes large finance and institutional clients, and various institutional and government agencies (including the City of Toronto, the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada). They are hiring in Toronto now.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Sheri Bellak, Unilytics

In a report released last week called Toronto: Canada's High Tech Hub (PDF), the city's Economic Development and Culture staff reported that Toronto remains Canada's digital innovation capital, home to 30% of the country's ICT sector. The report singled out one small startup headquartered at Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone incubator as an example of the exciting activity taking place: HitSend Inc, makers of Soapbox.

Soapbox, the first application developed by HitSend, aims to give people in specific communities or networks (companies, for example) a platform to put forward ideas, debate them and vote on them. Founded by Ryerson students Brennan McEachran, Graham McCarthy and recent graduate Ayu Er, the company launched Soapbox in October of last year. Already it has added a fourth staff member, a sales and marketing representative.

Brennan says the products soft launch has been very successful. "In Vancouver, a company site we set up had 900 users within three days, and their page had 14,000 interactions. Within a week their largest competitor called us to set up a page of their own."

HitSend is preparing for a more widespread launch of SoabBox in July of this year.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Brennan McEachran, HitSend; Heather Kearney, Ryerson Digital Media Zone; Shane Gerard, City of Toronto



 

Yanina Chevtchouk is a full-time Ryerson business student. She's also the owner and CEO of the fashion design label Paria Lambina Inc, headquartered here in Toronto. That combination of traits has earned her an award from the organization Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship as the 2011 Ontario Student Entrepreneur Champion.

She says that being a full-time student and running a business at the same time gives her the opportunity to put her learning into practice immediately. "It has its ups and downs, but I think the benefits outweight the drawbacks."

The recognition comes with a cheque for $1,000 and the chance to move on to the national-level competition, where the prize is $10,000 cash. But Chevtchouk, says the opportunity to network and "receive feedback from top executives" that could improve her business as the real benefits of the citation.

Founded last year, Paria Lambina debuted a collection at Montreal Fashion Week in the Fall, earning writeups from sweetspot.ca, Canoe.ca and Flare magazine. She's preparing for bigger stages yet--next up is Toronto Alternative Fashion Week.

Chevtchouk says that it's an interesting time to be in the fashion industry in Toronto. "It's definitely an interesting place given the number of US retailers that are coming here. It's an exciting time."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Yanina Chevtchouk, Paria Lambina; Jaime Szegvary, ACE

The Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) recently announced the companies selected to participate in its inaugural Technology Accelerator program (which we wrote about here). Among the three selected to win three months of rent-free residence at the famed Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley was Toronto's Fuse Powered Inc.

The game developer specializes in creating applications for branded content supplier clients--so far, for example, they have developed games for the movies Jaws and Dawn of the Dead. CEO Jon Walsh says the company was originally founded in 2009 and headquartered in Old Toronto as an independent game developer, but the company has shifted recently--launching its rebranding just last month--to focus on mobile publishing and providing services to outside clients.

Walsh says that for his company, the opportunity to be in California where both the game development industry and the entertainment clients he hopes to work with are headquartered is excellent. "It's really gonna accelerate our progress," he says. And that progress is already gaining momentum: Walsh says the company has grown in the past year to seven employees, and after closing a second round of seed funding in the near future, he expects to double the size of his staff.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jon Walsh, CEO, Fuse Powered Inc.

Toronto helped lead the world in its embrace of diversity when the first same-sex couple to be legally married in North America was wed here in 2003. That local tradition of re-examining legal attitudes to gender issues will carry on as York University professor Nancy Nicol has received $1 million in funding to study the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender issues across the globe.

The funding, to be delivered over five years, comes courtesy of the federal government's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. According to the announcement of the award, Nicol will lead a 22-member team to "explore how LGBT and human rights groups resist criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity," especially in the developing world of the global south.

"Our work will combine documentary and participatory video with qualitative interviewing, focus groups, legal data research and analysis, and a limited use of surveys," Nicol says in a release. "We plan to make a unique contribution to documenting and analyzing criminalization, asylum and resistance to criminalization within and beyond regions."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Trevor Lynn, SSHRC; York University

Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Japanese giant Sharp Corp., announced earlier this year that it had signed a deal with Toronto manufacturing giant Celestica to produce solar panels here. The agreement is expected to create 300 full-time manufacturing jobs locally and to further create another 2,000 construction jobs, according to the provincial government's estimate.

Recurrent Energy says the production run, expected to begin this summer, is designed to fulfill the local-supplier requirements of Ontario's solar Feed-in-Tariff program. Provincial Minister of Energy Brad Duguid issued a statement saying this is evidence of how his government's policy is creating a local industry as well as reducing our carbon footprint. "This is another great example of how Ontario is showing the world that we are open to innovative, high value renewable energy projects," he said.

Mike Andrade, a senior VP of Celestica, said in the announcement that the agreement is an example of how his company is "pleased" to help deliver on the employment promise of the provincial legislation, "This agreement reflects the depth of Celestica's solar strategy and is emblematic of our strong capability to deliver innovative supply chain solutions to the solar market to meet the demand for new energy-generation alternatives in Ontario." Indeed, Celestica recently received the "Green Supply Chain Award" from Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Patricia Pytel, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade; Sean Gibson for Recurrent Energy; Celestica

The team behind mobile application startup Enthrive are not modest about their goal to "change the world." They aim for nothing less than a revolution in the way people approach their health. The startup recently achieved the first stage of that goal by closing a $2 million financing round.

As a next step, they are currently building a team, starting with at least four hires now. The positions are in development and engineering, but they're looking for a particular type of candidate. As they write: "We're taking an unusual approach to building the company: assemble a relatively small, tightly knit collective of extraordinarily talented peers, while pursuing impact and revenue goals typically associated with large hierarchical enterprises. By keeping the team small, individual contributors can have greater ownership and input into decisions than is possible in traditionally-structured corporations, and life is generally more pleasant."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jonathan Graff, Enthrive

XMG Studio, one of Toronto's growing number of mobile game developers, is looking to grow their staff -- and they want to make it clear they are no ordinary employer, citing breakfast service and team go-kart outings among the perks they provide their staff in their call for "Rockstars from Mars."

The studio recently received funding from the Ontario Media Development Corporation for the new game "Powder Monkeys" that XMG founder and CEO Ray Sharma says "allows us to expand our team and move forward" on a game project that might otherwise take longer to develop. Sharma says of the current hiring, which will bring at least five new team members aboard, "We are building on our first year of success and ramping up for an amazing year two ... we want to bring in the best game developers, designers and artists."

Located in the Financial District, the company has released seven games since its founding just over a year ago, including "Drag Racer," "Pandemica," and "Inspector Gadget's  Mad Dash."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ray Sharma, CEO, XMG Studio

The Toronto startup Influitive has been operating in stealth mode as it builds a prototype, but that hasn't kept it from generating buzz, much of it resulting from its founders pedigree. As the digital news outlet TechVibes outlined earlier this year, "In September Toronto's [David] Crow left his position at Microsoft Canada as Platform Strategy Evangelist to co-found startup Influitive. As the organizer of DemoCamp Toronto, Founders & Funders, and StartupEmpire and an author, noisemaker, attention grabber at StartupNorth, Crow knows a thing or two about startups. Keep on an eye on Crow and look for Influitive to launch in 2011."

Now the company is ensconced in new offices at Queen and Richmond and the company is staffing up--seeking designers and developers--and some information about this hotly anticipated startup is emerging.

According to the company's own description, they plan to "make buying better" -- "No one is excited by a call from a sales person or an email from the marketing department. We're trying to make that experience better. We help prospective customers connect and have meaningful conversations with happy customers, so they can make an informed purchasing decision."

Moreover, Crow has described the company's progress on his blog, writing: "I found a co-founder. We started a company. We've hired a team. We're raising money. We've built a product. Talked to potential customers. Threw that product out. Started again. Talked to potential customers. Listened. Formed a hypothesis. Gathered feedback. Iterated. Measured. Tested. Design. Built. Lather. Rinse. Repeat."

Influitive is preparing for a beta launch soon. We'll continue to track their progress as the company grows.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: David Crow; TechVibes