For the third year, technology publication
Techvibes is giving out awards to acknowledge the country's top new ventures and enterprises. The finalists for the 2013 Canadian Startup Awards were recently announced, and now it's up to you: the winners will be selected by the public, via an online vote. You can
cast your ballot until midnight on January 19; the winners will be announced on January 20.
As usual, Toronto is well-represented among the finalists. Among the local ventures vying for awards are:
- InteraXon: a technology company that creates products based on tools that read a person's brainwaves.
- Music-messaging platform Rithm
- Business-to-business marketing company Influitive, which closed a major round of funding this time last year
All of those were nominated for the most prominent award: overall startup of the year. Toronto's well-represented in other categories. Two local startups are also nominated for accelerator graduate of the year.
Bionym, which came through
Creative Destruction Lab and
The Next 36, provides unique user identification tools based on a person's signature heartbeat. And
ShopLocket, which graduated from
Extreme Startups, provides easy-to-use tools to help retailers set up online stores.
Techvibes received over 2,500 nominations; editors whittled down to the list of finalists with public input as well. Launched in conjunction with KPMG, the Canadian Startup Awards are given out in six categories. Last year nearly 18,000 votes were cast. Wattpad won for best overall startup in 2011, and Indochino in 2012.
Writer: Hamutal Dotan