Bringing Innovation to Market
News Release
Government of Canada invests in two technology startups in Cape Breton
March 3, 2017 – New Waterford, NS – Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Development and commercialization of ‘lagless’ gaming as well as visual search and recognition technologies by two Cape Breton-based companies will help to strengthen the local information and communications technology (ICT) sector. Investments in the two projects will maintain 39 jobs and create up to 49 new highly-skilled, well-paying jobs locally.
The Honourable Mark Eyking, Member of Parliament for Sydney-Victoria, was in New Waterford this morning to announce $1.7M in funding for Slyce Canada Inc. and Ubique Networks Inc.
The announcement was made on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).
The Government of Canada is investing nearly $736,012 in Slyce Canada Inc., a visual search and recognition company. Slyce has developed visual search technology that can identify products based on a picture and allow the user to purchase the item on a mobile device. The company plans to expand its core technology to support rapidly evolving requirements for Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) clients.
The company is receiving a $500,000 conditionally repayable investment from ACOA through its Business Development Program (BDP), and up to $236,012 through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP).
Ubique Networks Inc. will also benefit from federal investments to assist with the commercialization of its Swarmio "lagless" gaming technology. This technology enhances the player experience in multiplayer online games by optimizing latency across networks.
The Government of Canada is providing almost $968,407, with a $468,750 conditionally repayable investment from ACOA’s BDP, and up to $499,657 through the NRC-IRAP. The project will focus on securing the inventory (nodes) to be placed in market as well as marketing and sales initiatives to further commercialize it in other jurisdictions.
Quotes
“The Government of Canada is committed to solution-driven companies that are contributing to the growth of well-paying jobs in a highly-skilled workforce. Canada’s success is rooted in talented people leading research and product development that enables us to compete with countries around the world. Cape Breton’s reputation as a burgeoning location for ICT is helping to create tomorrow’s middle class jobs today.”
- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for ACOA
“Innovation is critical to the long-term success of any organization—or any country. In order to maximize our economic opportunities, we must invest in smart, forward-thinking companies and organizations which understand that the greatest business growth comes from innovation, determination and collaboration.”
- The Honourable Mark Eyking, Member of Parliament for Sydney-Victoria
“Slyce’s decision to build our R&D center in Cape Breton has quickly proven to be one of the wisest choices we’ve made in our short history. We’ve been able to quickly accelerate the development of our technology, which now powers a camera-search mode in retailers such as Home Depot, Nordstrom, Best Buy, and Toys”R”Us. Thanks to the additional funding from ACOA and NRC-IRAP, we’ll be able to continue growing our automated computer vision and machine learning teams, so that we scale to support even larger clients and more image-search volume.”
- Ted Mann, CEO of Slyce Canada Inc.
“We are seeing significant interest and traction not just in Canada, but around the world for our technology platform, which provides the ultimate lagless gaming experience. With ACOA’s assistance, we will commercialize our products and services to clients worldwide.”
- Vijai Karthigesu, Founder and CEO of Ubique Networks Inc.
Associated Links
Contacts
Alex Smith
Director of Communications and Outreach
Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
Phone: 902-426-9417 / 902-830-3839 (cell)
E-mail: alex.smith@canada.ca
Ted Mann
Chief Executive Officer
Slyce Canada Inc.
Phone: 902-862-5400 x. 103
Email: ted@syce.it
Vijai Karthigesu
Founder and CEO
Ubique Networks Inc.
Phone: 416-907-0000
Email: vijai@ubiquenet.com
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