When Kathleen Wynne's government
unveiled its first budget last year, one focus was on youth jobs initiatives: it included $295 million over two years to boost youth employment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Among the projects in that youth job strategy: a Youth Investment Accelerator Fund, which would give up to $250,000 each to tech-based companies whose founders are less than 30 years old.
This month, the Youth IAF announced the first four recipients of funding through the program—all of which are based in Toronto. Those recipients:
- PUSH, which is working on wearable devices that help athletes train more effectively by providing real-time feedback about their performance. PUSH is an alumni of MaRS.
- Rubikloud, a B2B tool which uses e-commerce data to yield insights into purchasing patterns, sales conversions, traffic changes, and more. Rubikloud also came up through MaRS.
- SoapBox, an employee engagement tool that was developed with the support of Ryerson's Digital Media Zone and whose clients now include RBC and and Indigo.
- Greengage, which comes out of Rotman's Creative Destruction Lab. Greengage focuses on helping organizations meet their sustainability goals by giving employees the tools to do things like monitor and reduce the environmental impact of their behaviours.
The Youth IAF's main goal is to accelerate commercialization of young tech-based companies, and in particular those "that have graduated from recognized accelerator programs within the province and Ontario Universities and colleges, or are enrolled with a Regional Innovation Centre under the ONE program."
Applications are available
online and accepted on a rolling basis.
Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Research and Innovation