Toronto and Waterloo Region orgs get $34 million in FedDev funding
Accelerator Centre, TIAP, OBIO, and University of Waterloo among supported organizations.
The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) had a busy week dispensing $34 million in federal funding to help create new tech and life sciences hubs and help scale startups in Waterloo Region and Toronto.
Earlier this week, Ruby Sahota, the minister responsible for FedDev Ontario, announced a commitment of $18 million to support two new innovation hubs, and support the growth of seven companies in Waterloo Region. Sahota committed another $16 million to the life sciences sector in the Toronto area, supporting two hubs and four companies.
In Waterloo Region, FedDev Ontario is investing $3.9 million in the Accelerator Centre to launch a new Sustainable Development cohort of its AC:Studio program, following a successful pilot. According to FedDev Ontario, the new AC:Studio program will provide around 45 startups with funding, mentorship, and operational support for their work on reducing carbon emissions. Applications for the program will open on April 30.
Another $5 million is going to the University of Waterloo to create the Consortium for Sustainable Scale-up in Metal Additive Manufacturing. The new hub aims to bring Canadian businesses together to grow Ontario’s advanced manufacturing sector and make it more sustainable by developing waste and CO2 reduction solutions.
Meanwhile, FedDev also dispersed $9 million to help seven Waterloo Region businesses scale up. Benefactors include vehicle windshield protection producer Alchemy, cargo drone company Avidrone, metal fabrication company Ball Service Group, artificial intelligence (AI) mapping platform GeoMate, materials producer Smarter Alloys, and AI property documentation platform Planitar.
FluidAI Medical received the largest commitment of the Waterloo companies, gaining $2 million to help scale the commercialization of its post-operative care devices and technology for global markets. FluidAI secured a $20-million CAD Series A round in October 2023.
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Of FedDev Ontario’s $16 million in life sciences funding, Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) received $3.5 million from to work with academic and research institutions to create, scale, and fund up to 50 life sciences ventures. Another $5 million went to the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO) to launch the Health Commercialization Access Program, which aims to support the growth of 100 Canadian biotechnology and health technology companies.
While these programs are separate, TIAP and OBIO have teamed up before, launching a healthtech funding stream to help companies with intellectual property management, company creation, and echnology de-risking in January 2024.
The remaining $7.5 million of FedDev funding was split between four scaling medical device companies in the Greater Toronto Area: McRae Imaging, Nanz Pharma, Synaptive Medical, and Traferox Technologies.
Last month, Toronto-based incubator DMZ received $3.5 million from FedDev Ontario to establish the Centre for Housing Innovation (CHI), a new hub that will provide a training program and a housing-focused accelerator.
Feature image courtesy Ruby Sahota via X.
