TORONTO, May 6, 2014 /CNW/ - A significant infusion of start-up energy has descended on Toronto for the summer. The Next 36, Canada's premiere accelerator of entrepreneurial talent has welcomed a record number of co-founders and ventures for the intense summer portion of its entrepreneurship institute. After working remotely for five months, the summer program officially launched on Monday with Prototype Day at Toronto's TMX Centre. The young founders of 31 ventures pitched their businesses to a select audience of mentors, peers and investors.
Supported by more than 200 Canadian business leaders - including W. Galen Weston, Jimmy Pattison and the late Paul Desmarais Sr. as founding patrons - The Next 36 aims to transform the country's most promising young people into high-impact entrepreneurs and nation builders. This summer also features the inaugural cohort of The Next Founders, a new program designed to deliver entrepreneurial education to young founders of rapidly growing technology companies.
Entrepreneurs in this year's cohort hail from universities across Canada and the United States. With the support of top-level mentors, world-class faculty and invaluable resources, each set of co-founders is tasked with building or growing a tech-focused company that can scale rapidly.
2014 ventures are creating solutions to major problems faced by industries including health care, energy, real estate, social networking and e-commerce. Notable pitches at Prototype Day included: GridCure- solving the smart-grid analytics issue, Onyx Motion - a smart watch for sports technique feedback, Brizi - building an aerial drone that audiences can interact with, Bombe - a cloud-based data processing platform for scientists, Fixo - a platform that streamlines communication between property managers and tenants, and Eve Medical - a medical device company focused on women's health.
"The Summer Institute provides a unique combination of theory and practice in the context of forming, financing, and growing a high technology venture", says Ajay Agrawal, academic director and co-founder, The Next 36. "Participants work closely with highly accomplished entrepreneurs, industry leaders, academics, and investors. Many alumni from prior cohorts describe the summer experience as transformational in terms of the expectations they set for themselves as individuals and what they seek to achieve with their future businesses."
The Next 36's entrepreneurship institute concludes with Venture Day on August 12th at MaRS Discovery District, where N36 startups will pitch for investment from some of Canada's top angel investors and venture capitalists.
Previous N36 alumni have founded Kira Talent, Seamless Mobile Health, and Thalmic Labs, who have raised over $15.5 million in funding.
For more information, please visit: www.thenextfounders.ca and www.thenext36.ca
SOURCE: The Next 36
Jon French
Director, Marketing & Events, The Next 36
647-259-8943 x101
[email protected]
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