Innovation + Job News

The two-year-old start-up My City Lives, based at the Centre for Social Innovation at the Annex, is dedicated to local storytelling. As founder Adil Dhalla explains, after a grassroots recession-beating brainstorming initiative he and his business partner set up in 2009, "we realized our city required innovative ways to support local business people, artists and creative people, and to find ways to help people better appreciate Toronto." After meeting with various community leaders and thinkers--including the office of David Miller--they founded their project: an interactive online map that allows people to post stories about places in the city.

Since beginning in earnest in 2009, My City Lives has shown impressive growth, attracting more than 150,000 views of videos of Toronto stories, and growing from the two founders to six staff. Now, armed with more than $500,000 in funding from the Canada Media Fund, the company is "a couple months away from relaunching the website and mobile platforms that will position us for global growth." Dhalla sees the coming expansion growing the staff to 12-15 people over the next 12 months.

But in addition to business success, Dhalla sees the project as contributing to the cultural life of the city. "What's important for us to articulate is that the site is not simply a collection of videos, it's a collection of stories of individuals that collectively tell the story of the city." Dhalla, who has a history background, sees the eventual global network as offering a new perspective on local history, once the archive of location-based stories is five or 10 years old. "It could have a dramatic impact on how people can learn about not just where they live, but where other people live--places they'd like to visit or possibly move to."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Adil Dhalla, Founder, My City Lives

Local startup LeanIn reached a significant milestone earlier this month when it was among 20 Canadian firms that made a trip to Silicon Valley for the C100"48 Hours In The Valley" pitch and mentorship conference. The event allowed LeanIn and the other companies to meet and pitch venture capitalists and mingle with mentors in the digital capital of the world.

"It was pretty awesome to go and hang around in San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a 48 hour period," says Luke Davies, president of LeanIn. "We got to meet  a lot of influential Canadians who live in the valley who are incented to help us...we met 100 or so new friends in the valley who have joined our support network."

LeanIn's technology allows users to use search and social media tools within videos. As Davies puts it, the product allows users to search within videos for specific scenes, and to share specific scenes within videos with their friends on social media. Davies says the motivation came when founder and CEO Hescham Ghazal, already a successful technology engineer, set out to "look at online video because it's a massive market, and it's broken." Davies says that one of the key "really cool" assets of the software is to provide companies with analytics based on how users interact with their video content at the scene level.

LeanIn was incubated at the Ryerson Digital Media Zone beginning in May of 2010, graduating from the space just last month. The software can be set up by creators within any of the major online video platforms within 10 minutes. The company has developed key partnerships Brightcove and YouTube, among other key video giants, though Davies says that parterships they are attempting to set up with social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter could be just as key to their success. Already, they have grown to six employees, and plans are afoot to hire another six. "We're incredibly resource restrained right now, like a lot of startups, everyone is incredibly overworked. I'm literally the dishwasher," says Davies. "But we're undergoing a fundraising round in the next few months and we expect to hire another six or so people--to essentially double our staff--soon after that."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Luke Davies, President, LeanIn

Waterfront Toronto announced last week that the residential condos it is building will feature ultra-high-speed fibre-optic internet service. The project will be the first residential connection by Toronto-based internet service provider Beanfield Metroconnect. "It's our first foray into residential service," says Beanfield president Dan Armstrong. "We've built quite a fibre optic network around the downtown core near the waterfront, but we've never had the critical mass to get into condominium buildings."

The service Beanfield offers will see download speeds about double what are possible through conventional providers such as Rogers and Bell, and upload speeds 50 times as fast. "What we're going to see is a significant shift in the way residents in this community use the internet," Armstrong says. While it may seem that such features would be attractive to many condo developers, Armstrong explains that typically service providers pay developers a "doorway fee" to be allowed to install their service into buildings at the construction phase. He says that while many condo boards might prefer the faster service Beanfield offers, the retroactive installation of fibre-optic cabling to every unit post-construction and occupancy is a significant hurdle. And since it is very expensive for Beanfield to install the service, it would be impractical for them to pay doorway fees.

So Waterfront Toronto exercised unique foresight in awarding the contract that will see this project offer premium service to residents. Armstrong says that his company plans to offer a support centre located in the waterfront community, staffed with people who will be available for onsite service. Armstrong says that while specific numbers are difficult to project, he expects to hire "dozens" of staff to fill new jobs on the project.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Dan Armstrong, President and CEO, Beanfield Metroconnect

GalaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced an expansion of its Mississauga manufacturing facility that will see more than $33.6 million invested in expanding the pharmaceutical company's production. The plant already employs more than 300 staff, and the expansion, according to a company spokesperson, will see 70 new jobs created at the facility.

The global pharmaceutical giant has had a presence in Ontario for more than 100 years, and manufactures pharamaceutical "foams,
ointments, lotions, liquids and other niche products" here, according a statement by GSK VP of Global Manufacturing and Supply Sue West. The expansion will introduce production of carvedilol tablets, zanamivir dry powder inhalation and new dermatological products.

In addition to more than $30 million in investment from GSK, the project is receiving a grant of $3.6 million from the provincial government. "GlaxoSmithKline's efforts to create a global centre of innovation here in Mississauga will create and protect hundreds of jobs," said Innovation Minister Glen Murray in a statement.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Ralph Benmergui, Office of Minister of Innovation Glen Murray

Profound Medical, headquartered in the Yonge and Lawrence area, recently closed a venture capital round that raised an astonishing $9.4 million to advance clinical trials of its new prostate cancer treatment. "To put that in perspective, venture capital financing for the entire life sciences sector in the first quarter of 2011 was $12.5 million," says Paul Chipperton, co-founder and CEO of Profound Medical. "So we've basically almost doubled that in this one announcement."

The company is a spin-off from Sunnybrook Health Sciences, where the MRI-based, relatively non-invasive treatment for localized prostate cancer has been pioneered and developed over the past decade. In Profound's short history, it has won a series of accolades, including the Premier's Catalyst Award for best Life Sciences Innovation and winning the Canada's Top 10 Life Sciences competition.

Chipperton says that the new financing will lead to the hiring of about 15 new staff--he's already hired three this month--and will help the company proceed to human clinical trials. Though time frames for trials and approvals vary by jurisdiction, Chipperton says a best-case timeline would see Profound entering the market with approval to treat in some places in roughly two years.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Paul Chipperton, CEO and co-founder, Profound Medical

BNOTIONS, which bills itself a "technology agency," set up shop in the Yonge and Bloor area just over three years ago with a team of four. Today, through a dedication to growth and innovation, says company CEO Paul Crowe, they have 30 employees and are looking to add another three or four immediately.

Last month, the Financial District company A.U.G. Signals secured an investment of almost $2.90 million from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation's Innovation Demonstration Fund to support its early-warning system to detect contaminants in drinking water. Company CEO Dr. George Lampropoulos says the new technology will lead to the hiring of more than 100 new staff at the company's Toronto manufacturing facility to develop and market the product.

Founded in 1986, A.U.G. Signals is an R&D company that focusses on monitoring and data collection and management whose products have found applications in a range of areas including national defence, natural resource exploration and environmental monitoring. Headquartered in downtown Toronto, the company now has offices in China, Greece and the United States as well.

The provincial investment will support a monitoring technology that Lampropoulos says is the first to provide real-time online reporting on contaminated water in municipal systems. Traditionally, as is the case in the city of Toronto right now, water is monitored by random sampling with report times of up to several weeks, which means that acute threats may not be discovered until after they prove deadly.

The pilot project was first developed in partnership with the city of Edmonton, and has already been deployed in London, Ontario. He says he's going to Beijing this week to negotiate a potential $200 million contract for the system, and is also in negotiations with the cities of Shanghai, York Region and Toronto.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Dr. George Lampropoulos, CEO, A.U.G. Signals

Since its opening as a sustainability showcase in 2009, the the 12-acre Evergreen Brickworks has gone from being an abandoned industrial area to becoming one of Toronto's most treasured sites and, according to National Geographic magazine, one of the world's top 10 ecotourism attractions (drawing about 400,000 visitors a year). Last week the facility embarked on the next step in its progress when it drew a $4.75 million investment from the provincial government to embark on a new Sustainable Cities Network initiative.

Evergreen Executive Director Geoff Cape says that the project, which will draw private funding for a total budget of about $15 million, will tie together the parallel agendas of the Brickworks. "We've always thought we needed to be a critical venue for Toronto to explore big ideas for the future of our city and also to be an international venue for showcasing best practices and innovations for green cities around the globe," he says.

The new project will work to further those two missions by being a testing and demonstration ground for a host of new green technologies over the next five years, while also hosting "thought leaders" for conferences and workshops, and will host the 2010 Transportation Expo.

Cape says the project will create a good number of jobs directly, but will have an even bigger impact for the region. "For the regional economy, the development of the sustainable green economy will create tens of thousands of jobs, at least."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Geoff Cape, Executive Director, Evergreen Brickworks

A contract awarded to AMP Solar LP, a joint partnership between Port Credit's AMP Solar Group and downtown Toronto firm Potentia Solar to provide rooftop solar installations on 450 Toronto schools is "history making," according to AMP Solar Group president Dave Rogers, who reports that his company is honoured to have received the award.

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) representatives, in a release announcing the project, agree, noting that at 66 megawatts, the size of this project makes it the largest rooftop educational solar project in Canada and leads the way for institutional North American projects to come. TDSB Director of Education Chris Spence calls the project "groundbreaking."

The project will retrofit school roofs that are due for repairs with solar panels that will in turn feed into the grid, their energy sold to the provincial electricity provider under the province's FIT program. The program costs the school board nothing, as it is financed through the sale of the energy produced.

Writer: Edward Keenan

Source: Steve Shaefer, AMP Solar Group

Kristy Wieber and Lisa Delorme were invited to a wedding about a year ago and faced a prospect familiar to many women: buying a designer dress for the event, "a dress I'm going to wear once and then it will sit in my closet making me feel guilty for years," says Wieber. The experience led the pair to think of solutions, culminating in the launch of Rent frock Repeat last week.

The innovative service offers a wide range of designer dresses, in sizes ranging from 0-14 or 16 in most cases, for rent. Wieber says the pair was inspired by a similar service they encountered in the US that did not ship to Canada.

The business just launched last week, so it is still early to measure success, but Wieber notes that before they officially launched they already has over 200 followers on each of Facebook and Twitter, and that since the launch, "Things are moving so quickly and growing so quickly, it's an absolute certainty we'll do some hiring soon." Wieber says the pair, currently working out of Delorme's Scarborough Bluffs-area home, are now identifying in which area of the business an additional employee would be most effective.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Kristy Wieber, co-founder, Rent frock Repeat

Three new Toronto anti-cancer research companies were launched last month with investments from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR). Frank Stonebanks, the organization's VP Commercialization said in an announcement that the new companies are among the "most promising new approaches" to the age-old fight against cancer.

TORCell Therapeutics, created by the University Health Network (UHN) and OICR, will focus on its first human clinical trials for a new treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.

DLVR Therapeutics, also a partnership between OICR and the UHN will take a potentially safer and more effective chemotherapy treatment developed by UHN doctor Gang Zheng and further develop the therapy.

Harmonic Medical, founded out of Sunnybrook Hospital, will perfect a prototype ultrasound therapy to destroy cancer cells and bring it to clinical trials.

"These three companies represent the best in Ontario innovation," provincial Innovation Minister Glen Murray said in a statement. Murray also said the investment in these companies will create "high-quality jobs" for researchers.

Writer: Edward Keenan

Source: Rhea Cohen, Director of Communications, OICR

Spenz, a downtown Toronto startup that has created a personal budgeting app for the iPhone and the web, officially launched late last month at the prestigious TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield event in New York City. After competing with almost 1,000 other companies to be included in the event, Spenz was the only Canadian company accepted.

The company was founded by Justin Hein and Pavel Choulguine in November 2010. They secured angel financing and moved into space at Ryerson's Digital Media Zone, and wound up growing their team to nine staff members in a little over six months.

According to Hein, "Spenz started off slow, with bumpy design, slow development and lost business guys. We were building a business model, coming up with feature sets and constantly changing what Spenz was." In a news release, he added that the Disrupt launch, "was grueling but ultimately rewarding that the judges view Spenz with the same enthusiasm as our investors and team do."

The company claims to offer many more features than standard budgeting applications, with an intuitive back-end that anticipates tags and inputs users will need. Most transactions reportedly take less than three seconds to enter, a major benefit in the market, and the program features a competitive game-like incentive system.

Next up, the company is pursuing another round of financing while it develops its application for the Blackberry, Android and other mobile platforms.

Writer: Edward Keenan

Source: Calvin Sribniak-Jones, Director of Marketing, Spenz

Anyone with a mobile device will know that Flash animation--such a wonderful tool on the desktop--doesn't translate all that well to mobile devices. That very problem inspired Chris Brady to found his startup Animated Media in late 2008. "He saw that Flash was a good tool to create content but not a good tool to run content on anything besides a desktop," says Lisa Brady, Director of Marketing (and, incidentally, Chris Brady's spouse). 

Brady and his team developed a technology that allows Flash to run on a less than 1 gHz machine, and to run in native applications for mobile phones including the famously Flash-free iPhone. The recent rapid acceptance of the company's product in Europe and around the world recently drew notice from the provincial government, who labelled Animated media an "Ontario Success Story."

The company has grown, Lisa Brady says, to six employees (they added one just this spring), and she says they're "always looking for other talent." She says that for now the company's focus is continuing to market the product and pick up more traction in an international ecoomic environment that has, over the past few years, seen R&D budgets shrink. "The prospects are really good, but the process takes time. We're just six people trying to get the message out there."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Lisa Brady, Director of Marketing, Animated Media

In September 2009, sports fan Jesse S. Moeinifar was listening to a radio talk show debate an essential boxing question: Mike Tyson or Muhammed Ali? "I tried calling in to share my opinion, and I was put on hold for 45 minutes, then nothing. I decided to put together a company that meets the challenge of communication between news organizations and their consumers."

The result, Viafoura, was incubated at MaRS and recently moved into Ryerson's DMZ. Moeinifar says the coding took some time to perfect,but his product--a user engagement platform that allows users to interact with content providers through video, text and video debate--has recently gained notice for its innovation. After launching at the prestigious DEMO conference in California, Viafoura gained notice in the New York Times, among other publications (you can see their launch presentation here).

"Before we even got off the stage, we had six emails from news organizations around the world interested in our product," Moeinifar says. And the momentum continues to grow. After adding a staffer this spring, the company (now three employees strong) recently won the Canada 3.0 pitch-off competition.

The next step? "It pretty much comes down to getting the product out there," Moeinifar says. "Having the product really speaks for itself."

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Jesse S. Moeinifar, Founder and CEO, Viafoura

Natalie MacLean has made a name for herself as Ontario's most-read wine web writer, publisher of an email newsletter with 120,000 subscribers and editor of the wine hub NatDecants. Recently she worked with the developers at Fluid Trends to create an innovative mobile application for buyers at the LCBO.

"It was both fun and painful developing this newfangled, label-scanning mobile app ... the fun part is being done," says MacLean by email. The application allows shoppers at Ontario liquor stores to snap a picture of the bar code on any label and get tasting notes and food pairing suggestions.

This label-scanning innovation builds on the success MacLean and Fluid had with their original Tips and Tastings app, highly rated by the New York Times (and, according to the creators, the best-selling wine app in Ontario). Sales, according to MacLean, have grown more than 200% over the past year. MacLean says that so-far feedback from wine lovers on the new label-scanning innovation has been good.

Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Natalie MacLean