Media Advisory - Inaugural Spotlight Awards in Support of The Next 36

TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2015 /CNW/ - The who's who of Canada's tech community will be in Toronto on September 17 to recognize eight extraordinary companies who achieved significant milestones over the past year.  All proceeds from the awards will be donated to The Next 36, a national non-profit charity that provides mentorship, seed capital and founder development to Canada's most exceptional young entrepreneurs.

WHAT: Inaugural Spotlight Awards (http://www.spotlightawards.ca/)

DATE: Thursday, September 17, 2015
TIME: 7-11PM
LOCATION: Residence of Razor and Kari Suleman 
25 Stafford Street 
Toronto, Ontario

The recipients of the 2015 Spotlight Awards are:

Centurions ($100M+ exits)

• Achievers
• Chango
• Plenty Of Fish
• Recon Instruments
• Stingray Music
• Verticalscope

Unicorns ($1B+ valuations and exits)

• Shopify
• Slack

The Co-Chairs of the awards include:

• John Albright, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Relay Ventures
• Jordan Banks, Global Head of Vertical Strategy at Facebook
• Scott Bonham, Co-founder of GVC Capital
• Pat Grady, Partner at Sequoia Capital
• Anthony Lacavera, Founder, Chairman and CEO at Globalive Holdings
• David Ossip, CEO and Chairman at Ceridian
• John Ruffolo, CEO at OMERS Ventures
• Reza Satchu, Managing Partner at Alignvest Capital Management
• Angela Strange, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz

About The Next 36
The Next 36 addresses Canada's deficit of high impact entrepreneurship by providing world-class founder development, business mentorship and venture building programs to promising young entrepreneurs. It was founded by a small group of business leaders and academics and is championed by Founding Patrons W. Galen Weston, Paul Desmarais, Sr. and Jimmy Pattison. We believe that by fast-tracking the development of Canada's most talented young innovators, we will help create industry-changing businesses and grow Canada's long-term prosperity.  The Next Founders is the second program from The Next 36 and is designed for young founders of high growth start-ups looking to scale quickly.  The Next 36 is supported through strong national partnerships with EY, MaRS, MasterCard, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and TD Bank Group.  

SOURCE The Next 36

Sarah Legault, National Director, Development, The Next 36, [email protected], 647-259-8943 ext. 107, www.thenext36.ca