Three Toronto high-tech companies receive seed funding through Ontario's
Investment Accelerator Fund

$1.5 million investment to support Geminare Inc., MedCurrent Technologies and Receptor Therapeutics

TORONTO, Aug. 18 /CNW/ - A locally administered treatment for ovarian cancer. Software that helps doctors chose the appropriate medical imaging tests. A continuity computing service that keeps businesses running in the face of system failure.

These technological innovations come from three Toronto-based high-tech companies - Geminare, MedCurrent Technologies and Receptor Therapeutics - that have each received a $500,000 investment from the Province of Ontario's Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), a seed fund that helps emerging Ontario technology companies bring innovative products and services to market. The funding announcement was made today at MaRS by Glen Murray, MPP, Toronto Centre.

The investments, generally made in the form of a convertible debenture or as an equity investment, will help the companies develop their technologies and attract additional investment - while creating jobs and building industries in Ontario. Together, the companies expect to create 65 jobs over the next three years.

For Geminare, the investment is key to developing its partner network worldwide. "Geminare's products are delivered through a network of channel partners to the SME market worldwide," said Joshua Geist, CEO & Founder, Geminare Inc. "With the help of the IAF investment, Geminare has been able to accelerate its partner program and continue building game-changing Cloud technologies to meet the growing demand for simple and affordable alternatives to traditional in-house business continuity and disaster recovery solution models."

And for MedCurrent, it's about growth. "For a small company like ours with a dream of enhancing the health care of the people of Ontario, the funds have been crucial in transitioning our company from a start-up to an active enterprise," said Stephen Herman, President, MedCurrent Technologies.

"In the most challenging financing environment in 20 years, the IAF investment has enabled us to continue to execute on our business plan," said Joseph Elliot, President & CEO, Receptor Therapeutics, also a tenant company in the MaRS Incubator. "This will, hopefully, propel Receptor to the next level of value creation and bring new and better cancer therapies to market."

"The IAF is proud to have supported these early-stage companies that have truly innovative technology and are capable of building businesses with sustainable competitive advantage," said Barry Gekiere, IAF Managing Director. "The IAF not only provides capital, but we support our companies with access to a network of sector and market connections and other funding sources. By partnering with these companies, the IAF is helping to create high-value jobs that contribute to Ontario's Innovation Agenda."

About the Investment Accelerator Fund

The Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) provides up to $500k in seed funding to qualified emerging companies in Ontario. As a critical component of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), the IAF supports the launch and development of innovative companies in Ontario's priority sectors of advanced materials and manufacturing, information technology, cleantech and life sciences. The IAF is funded by the Government of Ontario and delivered by MaRS.

About MaRS

MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) is a large scale, mission driven innovation centre located in Toronto and networked across Ontario, focused on building Canada's next generation of technology companies. MaRS works closely with entrepreneurs to grow and scale their ventures into global market leaders in life sciences and health care, information, communications and entertainment technologies, clean tech, advanced materials and engineering, as well as innovative social purpose businesses.

About Geminare Inc. (www.geminare.com)

Since 2004, Geminare has focused on providing small and medium-size enterprises with reliable and affordable infrastructure solutions for business continuity in the event of a system failure. With the emergence of Cloud computing as a viable business option in 2009, Geminare created their "Cloud Recovery as a Service" model and offering. "Cloud Recovery as a Service" is comprised of three products - Cloud Recovery, iCloud Recovery and Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0. These products offer businesses failsafe service continuity in the event of a server failure through automatic failover and the redirection of clients to a real-time, replicated server environment in the Cloud.

About MedCurrent Technologies (www.medcurrent.com)

Founded in 2003, MedCurrent serves the North American healthcare market through the provision of an internet-based application called "OrderRight". This tool improves workflow and decision support for physicians requesting studies and procedures from radiologists and improves upon traditional paper-based requests. MedCurrent's technology solution is designed to address rising healthcare costs and wait times associated with inaccurate requests and procedures, reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies and leverage physicians' clinical knowledge.

About Receptor Therapeutics (www.receptor.ca)

Receptor Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on in-licensing and developing anti-cancer therapies. Currently the company is completing two development programs, a proprietary oral high dose Vitamin D for cancer treatment and a proprietary and patented drug for ovarian cancer (PoLi-PTX), through preclinical and early clinical trial. By using approved drugs or therapeutic compounds with substantial evidence, Receptor Therapeutics' oncology programs target areas of unmet medical need in a unique way designed to improve clinical outcomes and reduce development risk.

For further information: Linda Quattrin, MaRS, Director, Communications, [phone], [email protected]