research and innovation : Innovation + Job News

Professor Hoi-Kwong Lo of the University of Toronto, working with fellow U of T researcher Bing Qi and Spanish professor Marcos Curty, has published research on a new encryption method that could present a quantum leap forward in the attempt to thwart hackers. And that's a literal quantum leap.

The method, Measurement Device Independent QKD, is detailed in the physics Journal Physics Review Letters. It is an advancement in the field of quantum encryption, the technique for securing data transmitted over the Internet from hackers.

"Standard quantum encryption method is currently being used by various Swiss banks in encrypting critical data traffic. I have personally been an expert in the task force on the standardization of quantum key distribution products in Europe," says Lo.

The complicated field employed to secure information from prying eyes has long suffered from an "Achilles' heel" in the form of photon detectors, a problem Lo's group proposes it has solved. "We believe that our new method will significantly contribute to the standardization process and can be a game-changer in future quantum cryptographic products," Lo says.

The research team, who have already tested their method as a "proof of concept," expect to have a prototype available within five years. Lo says that the product could be commercialized within five years—and possibly much sooner—of the building of a prototype. "We are very interested in bringing our new method to the market. Currently, we are looking for industrial partners that will help us to co-develop our prototype."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Hoi-Kwong Lo, Professor, University of Toronto

Following on the smash success of its educational app PocketZoo, which went to number one in the iTunes App Store's education section after its release almost two years ago, Toronto app developer Tiny Hearts recently released its second product, InstaMatch, this February.

"It's been really well received so far," says company founder Robleh Jama. "We've gotten some great reviews from TechCrunch and others, and it was featured by Apple as a 'new and notable' application." The app turns images captured by the popular Instagram app into a card-matching puzzle game.

The company was founded in 2010, Jama says, because he loved apps and wanted to create apps he'd want to use himself. He says PocketZoo in particular was inspired by his becoming a new father. "I wanted to create an app I could use with my daughter." Since then, his company has tweaked the app, released a version for the iPad and grown to three employees working out of both the Ryerson Digital Media Zone and a shared workspace in the east end called Work Republic. All the way along, Jama's company has been self-financing.

"I'm not a big believer in spending time chasing investment," he says. "I think your customers are your best investors."

Jama says Tiny Hearts will soon be hiring three more staff—a developer, a marketing representative and a summer intern—as it improves InstaMatch, prepares an Android version of PocketZoo and gets ready to work on a new app.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Robleh Jama, founder, Tiny Hearts

Fisker Automotive bills itself as a maker of the "world's first true electric vehicle with extended range"—and they're luxury cars, to boot. This month the company opened its first Toronto showroom, employing one staffer, with its Fisker of Toronto location at the Shops of Don Mills.

General manager Michael Cornacchia says that so far, customers have been very impressed to see the two models on display.

"It's been very positive. We've got a good mix of people, and I think they're just excited to see a car dealership in the mall," says Cornacchia. All Fisker vehicles are custom-made; Toronto customers can expect delivery within three months of ordering.

The cars boast high-end sedan performance with low energy consumption: "It can travel from  zero to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds," states the news release, "yet was recently given an astonishing emissions rating of just 51g/km CO2 by the TUV [an independent European inspection agency] and a 112mpg equivalency rating."

Shops of Don Mills marketing representative Lauren Genz says the Fisker location was a natural fit with the mall's concept. "It's a good pairing. We're re-thinking the retail experience and they're re-thinking cars as a sustainable luxury product."

The Fisker Karma—that's the model Justin Bieber got on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for his 18th birthday—will sell for $102,000 when it becomes available in the coming weeks.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Michael Cornacchia, Fisker of Toronto; Lauren Genz, Shops of Don Mills

Karan Walia was working at his cousin's startup company GoClean—a waterless car-washing product that hit it big on the CBC program Dragon's Den and wound up in Canadian Tire stores—when he was struck by inspiration.

"I realized while I was there that it was a big inconvenience to drivers to go out to the car wash, and they'd often spend a lot of time there waiting in line," he says. "And most car washes use an average of 300 litres of clean drinking water, while our waterless process uses less than 170 millilitres, so there are major eco-benefits."

The resulting company, launched last week in Mississauga, is Washly, a service that allows people to park their cars in a publicly accessible spot, call or check in online using a computer or smartphone, and have experienced car detailers arrive to wash their car using the waterless system.

Walia, the company CEO, and his business partner, CTO Aysar Khalid, have financed the project themselves. "I guess in the startup world they'd say we're bootstrapping," Walia says. They work with six licensees, experienced car detailers, who do the washing. Walia says that in the first week demand has been high—they're already planning their expansion.

"We're getting a lot of calls from people in Toronto, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, so the demand is there," he says. "We're moving quickly to offer our service in Toronto by mid-April."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Karan Walia, CEO, Washly

"It's been a big week for us," says InGamer Sports co-founder Nic Sulsky. The MaRS-assisted Toronto startup announced March 14 that it had closed its first funding round and landed former NBC sports digital head Rick Wolf as executive vice-president. Both moves position the company for widespread growth as it launches its products in the US market this September.

As reported by Yonge Street in 2010 and 2011, the company has bootstrapped its way to growth since launching in time for the 2010 hockey playoffs. The InGamer platform allows sports fans to engage in online, real-time fantasy sports contests while watching live events. After growing steadily in Canada and internationally through partnerships with sports television networks, Sulsky says the recent developments position the company to rapidly grow.

"This was huge. The funding allows us to focus on the big picture now, which is a monstrous opportunity to grow. And Rick, with his reputation south of the border, his experience in fantasy sports companies and his background in broadcasting, validates our vision. This allows us to take the next steps to take our $1 million to become a $100 million company," says Sulsky. "And then, of course, on to turning  it into a $1 billion-dollar company."

The team at InGamer has steadily grown, from the two founders to 11 staff today. Sulsky says they continue to hire developers to add to their team.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Nic Sulsky, InGamer Sports

Over the past year, innovative Queen-and-Spadina-based startup Shiny Ads has raised more than $1.36 million in capital and added two new staff members to its team, bringing its total number of employees to six.

Launched in January, 2010, the service offers an automated self-serve way for media companies to accept and serve small advertisers on online and mobile platforms. The company had grown to four staff by last March, when president Roy Pereira says the company raised $470,000 in capital to finance growth in a round led by Intertainment Media, Maple Leaf Angels and York Angels. That private fundraising triggered a $197,500 loan from the federal government agency FedDev Ontario. Pereira says that after receiving the money from FedDev, the company hired two new sales staff—bringing its sales team to three—to kick-start growth.

"We have subsequently raised another round this January of $700,000" from the original three private investors, Pereira says.

The next step is hiring two more software engineers.

"Our pipeline is better than it has ever been and we are closing larger premium publishers," says Pereira. "Overall, that gets us into a better place for a larger financing round later this year that will allow us to grow even faster."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Roy Pereira, President, Shiny Ads

Mississauga's Research Innovation Commercialization (RIC) Centre announced the launch of its VentureStart program last week. The program will help entrepreneurs and innovators in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon launch their businesses with training and matching seed financing grants of up to $30,000.

In announcing the program, Pam Banks, executive director of the RIC Centre, said "it adds another dimension to our services in helping emerging entrepreneurs shorten the path to market success." The RIC Centre was launched in 2008 to support and incubate innovative businesses in the Peel region, and claims to have since helped more than 150 companies get their start; RIC stats show 46 per cent of those companies have gone on to find funding.

VentureStart got its own seed financing from the federal government, which provided a grant of just under $5 million to launch the program. Gary Goodyear, the minister in charge of FedDev, said that fostering innovation through grants like this one will lead to new jobs and a higher quality of life.

"How do we improve lives, create jobs and economic growth? Innovation. Our government recognizes the importance of investing in the ideas of graduates and providing them with the skills necessary to become innovators and successful entrepreneurs," Goodyear said in his statement. "Because innovation is about finding a solution to a problem, taking that idea and bringing it to market and getting it adopted by customers."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Stephanie Thomas, office of Gary Goodyear; RIC Centre

Futurestate IT, an Entertainment District-based company that was recently named one of the 10 Canadian Cloud Companies to Watch, has secured $1.5 million in financing from government and private investors to finance its growth.

One third of the money will come from FedDev Ontario, the federal government's regional economic development agency, through its Investing in Business Innovation initiative. The remaining investment is shared by the MaRS innovation incubator and the angel investors of the Maple Leaf Angels investor group.

Futurestate IT CEO, CTO and founder Alex Topitsch says he has been working in IT consulting for about 15 years, and founded Futurestate two years ago specifically to help companies solve the problems of migrating existing data and software to new operating systems with a custom software product. The company's AppRx software is the first cloud-based automatic solution for migration to new operating systems.

In two years, the company has grown to employ 14 staff. The capital injection from FedDev and the other investors will help fuel expansion, Topitsch says.

"Really, it helps us expand into the US, and that's really where we're going to make out mark," he says, saying the financing will allow the hiring of US sales staff and developers to enhance the product line. Topitsch expects the staff to reach 22 by the end of the year.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Alex Topitsch, CEO and CTO, Futurestate IT; FedDev Ontario

North York-based health technology startup Infonaut's innovative disease surveillance system, Hospital Watch Live, has been generating buzz for a while now—it's been about 18 months since the product was featured in Popular Science magazine, as Yonge Street reported in November 2010. But the system will now be tested in real hospital conditions after Infonaut signed a contract with the University Health Network last month.

After two years of live tests at various hospitals and a full-time simulation at George Brown College, Infonaut CEO Niall Wallace says this 18-month trial will be the "final-stage commercialization test" for the company.

"Innovation is a tough game," he says. "There's invention and then there's innovation. Innovation is when people start paying you for your invention." The system will be tested at Toronto General Hospital in the multi-organ transplant unit. Wallace says Infonaut is very focussed on selling to the US market; hospitals south of the border will be watching results from Toronto General very closely. "It's a very well respected academic and teaching hospital," he says.

The technology is designed to prevent the spread of infectious organisms in hospitals by automating disease surveillance and infection control functions. "Infonaut is the only system that automates and applies these techniques inside the hospital to save money, save lives and create a new gold standard for safety and quality that is driven by evidence and analytics," Wallace said in an announcement. The system tracks the movements of and interactions between patients and staff, while preserving patient privacy, in order to identify chains of transmission and prevent the spread of infections.

In preparation for its final commercialization, the company has been staffing up. Wallace says they've hired five employees in the past 10 weeks, bringing their staff to 12; they continue to hire developers, as well as sales and marketing staff.


Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Niall Wallace, CEO, Infonaut

Siemens Canada has broken ground on a new Pickering plant for its subsidiary, Trench Canada Instrument Transformers, that will create 350 new jobs.

In a speech to the Ajax-Pickering Board of Trade late last month, Pickering mayor Dave Ryan said that the plant is the result of a long effort by the city to entice the company. "We started building this relationship with Siemens Canada seven years ago. While it took some time, I'm sure everyone agrees that these 350 prestige jobs are definitely worth the time, energy and effort," Ryan said.  "Together, Siemens and Trench will solidify Pickering's burgeoning reputation as one of Ontario's preeminent energy hubs."

Mark Guinto of the mayor's office said it was largely Pickering's established status as "a strong nucleus of the energy industry"—home to a nuclear power plant and other energy industry staples—that made the city attractive to Siemens. The Durham Strategic Energy Alliance, headquartered in Pickering, was involved in meetings with Siemens from the beginning, he said.

According to Guinto, the plant is under construction now and will open in late 2012. The number of jobs could possibly increase if the plant expands in the future.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Mark Guinto, Public Affairs Coordinator, Office of the Mayor of the City of Pickering

Lowfoot founder Philip Playfair says that when smart meters were introduced in Ontario, he had a revelation.

"I realized with smart meters we'd be able to measure when people were and weren't using power," he says. "And when you can do that, you can turn conservation into a tradable, viable commodity." His own background was in running a billing company, and he was going "stir crazy' in retirement after he sold it. So he recruited a partner and in 2009 Lowfoot was born in an office near the airport. 

The company offers energy consumers reports on how much energy they consume and when, and offers them targets for reduction. When they exceed those targets, they get credits that are paid out in cash via PayPal. For now, Playfair says, the money "mostly comes from our bank account," and is generated through advertising and sponsorships. But down the road, Playfair says he expects most of his company's revenue to come from utilities themselves who will see real value through the energy reductions. A utility could spend hundreds of millions on new production plants, he says, or could instead spend substantially less reducing consumption to meet existing supply.

The service is active in Ontario, where consumers own the right to their own energy-usage information, and has launched for users of some utilities in Texas and California. Playfair says they are finalizing a pilot project in the Netherlands now. The idea is just beginning to take off. "We're moving from a culture of energy entitlement to one of efficiency," he says.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Philip Playfair, founder, Lowfoot

Switchable Solutions, a startup that formed to commercialize technology developed at Queen's University in Kingston and developed by Greencentre Canada, is working to open an innovative recycling test facility in Mississauga.

President and CEO Mark Badger says the plant will begin operating in late 2012, and could employ about five employees when it opens. "The nature of these things is to start small and scale up," he says. "So we'll grow from there."

The company will use the plant to demonstrate its plastic waste recycling process, which can recycle expanded polystyrene plastic waste, including packaging foam and coffee cups. In tests, the company claims, their process produces materials "displaying similar characteristics to virgin polystyrene." Formed last year, the company is headed by Badger, a former head of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. In addition to the recycling process, they are testing a process to process bitumen from oilsands while creating fewer toxic byproducts.

Switchable Solutions completed an equity offering last November that generated $3.23 million, and Badger says that recently announced federal development funding of $5.48 million to Switchable Solutions and GreenCentre Canada will help the demonstration plant's progress. "Some of that funding is destined for the plastics recycling facility," Badger says.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Mark Badger, President and CEO, Switchable Solutions

Over the past year, the Ontario Ministry of Health has launch six new Family Health Teams in the city of Toronto, bringing the total number of the innovative, prevention-focused healthcare outlets in the city to 21. Ministry of Health communications officer David Jensen says the new offices will create 66 new positions—46 for health professionals and 20 for administrators—bringing the number of new jobs created by Family Health Teams in Toronto to 331.

Family Health Teams, Jensen describes by email, "are locally driven family healthcare delivery organizations that include family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, dieticians and a range of other interdisciplinary healthcare providers working collaboratively to provide comprehensive, accessible, coordinated family healthcare. As a collaborative team practice, FHTs emphasize health promotion, disease prevention and chronic disease management. FHTs use information technology as the backbone of system integration, linking patient records across different healthcare settings giving providers timely access to test results and other important data."

According to the Ministry of Health, the 21 branches in Toronto will serve 316,000 patients, including 86,000 who previously did not have a family doctor.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: David Jensen, Communications Branch, Ontario Ministry of Health

Greengauge founder Lindsey Goodchild doesn't think of herself as a "typical entrepreneur." About 18 months ago, she finished her post-graduate work at Ryerson in sustainability and started doing consulting work for corporations. "I started consulting with really large companies and saw a lot of really good strategies, but when it came to executing those strategies they fell flat." What they needed, she realized, were tools to allow them to better implement their well-intentioned strategies after they left the boardroom.

She submitted an idea to a GreenApp challenge sponsored by Ryerson and Blackberry to develop an application for mobile devices and the web to allow companies to better monitor and implement their green strategies. She won the contest, and Greengauge was born. She raised $30,000 in seed funding last fall, around the time she was finally able to quite her full-time job to focus on the company. She hired a full-time CTO at the start of this year, bringing her staff to "two-and-a-half," she says, including their part-time CFO.

Just as Ottawa-based Coral CEA has invested in Greengauge as part of funding it announced for four Ryerson DMZ companies, Goodchild says the company is now weeks away from launching its first product for limited private beta testing.

"We're really focussed on researching how to embed sustainability into organizations," says Goodchild, noting that she's drawn invaluable support from the academic community, the Ryerson DMZ and some advisors at MaRS.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Lindsey Goodchild, CEO, Greengauge; Coral CEA

When the winners of the ClimateSpark Venture Challenge were announced early this month, local "mini-farming" social enterprise Young Urban Farmers CSA (YUFCSA) got a $10,000 shot in the arm. More than that, says the organization's sales manager and board president Chris Wong, they got valuable community feedback and advice during the process of working through the competition.

"It was very helpful for us, as I'd guess it was for most or all of the participants." Through rounds in which feedback was offered by members of the public and by industry experts, the organization was able to hone its message and model. "One example is, we had the chance to focus, hone and quantify our measuring of the greenhouse gas reductions that result from our gardens." The amount of reductions, it turns out, in 2011, was 2091 kg of C02, or 84 kg per participant in the program.

Those reductions come from YUFCSA's efforts to convert residential backyards and front yards into community gardens. Shareholders receive produce farmed by volunteers from neighbourhood mini-farms. In 2010, the organization's first year, they established seven gardens; last year the number grew to 14. This year, with the help of the funding from ClimateSpark, Wong expects to have between 20 and 25 gardens operating.

Wong notes too, that as one round of the competition, participants pitched their ideas directly to potential investors. Many of the companies and organizations who participated hope to gain investment as a result.

The other big winner at the ClimateSpark challenge was Zooshare Biogas, winners of $40,000 for their plan to create energy from the Toronto Zoo's animal waste. 

Writer: Edward Keenan
Sources: Chris Wong, YUFCSA; Toronto Community Foundation