Backgrounder: Halifax-based startups poised for growth

October 11, 2024 · Halifax, Nova Scotia · Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)

Startups play an important role in driving innovation, creating jobs and fostering economic growth and prosperity across Atlantic Canada. The Government of Canada recognizes this potential and is investing $4,011,188 to help 10 companies led by diverse innovators seize new growth opportunities. Companies in tech and life sciences will streamline, scale-up, expand, and access new markets through the investments.

Nine of the projects received repayable funding through ACOA’s Regional Economic Growth through Innovation (REGI) program and one received non-repayable funding through the REGI Strategic Growth Initiative (SGI) stream.

Firms receiving repayable REGI contributions are:

Milk Moovement Inc. is a technology company, founded in 2018, that provides real-time digital information to all levels of the dairy supply chain through its cloud-based software. The company developed a solution for the dairy industry that tracks all milk shipments from producers to processing plants and delivers real-time data to producers, processors, transporters, labs and dairy cooperatives so they can make informed choices about their businesses as quickly as possible.

Milk Moovement received $1,466,438 to help them increase automation and implement process improvements to significantly reduce its client onboarding time, continue its rapid growth and provide value to the dairy industry in North America. Milk Moovement has a global presence in Canada, the US and Australia. The improvement will result in additional clients being onboarded by addressing a cumbersome requirement-gathering process, clarifying go-live milestones and streamlining data intake and verification processes. Employees will have more time to focus their efforts on improving systems and research and development, better positioning the company for continued growth.

MIMOSA Diagnostics Inc. a medical technology company, has developed a groundbreaking handheld tissue imaging device capable of detecting skin injuries before they are visible to the naked eye. This novel tool has the potential to significantly reduce the risk of wounds, infections, amputations, and even death in patients. 

MIMOSA received $500,000 to expand its team and commercialize the US market, marking a significant step towards elevating the standard of care for tissue injury assessment and prevention.

UpBeing Inc. is a behavioural health data analytics and technology company. Its main product is a wellbeing tracking and insights application that helps individuals improve their health and wellbeing through research-backed, AI-driven guidance and through users’ existing social support and communities.

UpBeing received $494,000 to accelerate the development and commercialization of the Social Features component of the company’s consumer app. Social Features will offer users a deeper daily understanding of themselves by helping them understand how their loved ones and communities affect their wellbeing. By enhancing their wellbeing tracking and insights platform with social features, UpBeing is helping to combat loneliness and improve health outcomes.

Peer Ledger Inc. has developed Digital Product Passport software which enables circular economies. Businesses can track and trace their supply chains and make transparent key attributes of their commercial products. Citizens, businesses, and governments can access different data views such as elements of the material, chemical composition, and recyclability of products in commerce, the provenance and journey of the product materials, and the products’ carbon and circular footprints. Using a single 2D QR code, businesses can provide updateable digital labels and communicate to customers, refurbishers, recyclers, and other stakeholders throughout the lifetime of the product. The software helps clients make more informed decisions about their product purchases, and conduct business and lives more sustainably.

Peer Ledger received $450,000 to execute a growth strategy, expanding its teams with dedicated positions to develop and execute on partnerships and engagement. The company will attract and retain new clients and develop new channels to increase market share.

Swiftsure Innovations Inc.’s CEO is a critical care nurse who developed a tool to simultaneously flush and suction the mouth, enabling an essential last step in oral care for patients on life support. The Halifax company’s disposable design enables nurses to elevate oral care for the most vulnerable patients by rinsing organic debris from the oral cavity, which wasn’t possible with previous tools.

Swiftsure received $324,750 to help launch its medical oral care device, coined SwishKit, into the United States. Swiftsure will use the investment to develop clinical literature, produce inventory for pilots with early adopters, and build high-performance teams.

Easy Platter (Krava Inc.) helps chefs operate efficiently, making healthy eating accessible for families. After a customer books a chef, sets the number of meals, and specifies their nutrition goals, the chef arrives to cook, stock meals, and clean up. This project will accelerate the company's growth by expanding its customer base across Canada through a multi-layered marketing plan.

Easy Platter received $210,000 to assist with the company’s product development and business development teams. This will enable Easy Platter to serve families across Canada, offering the convenience of booking a personal chef to make healthy-weekly meals through a self-serve managed marketplace platform.

Rafflebox Technologies Inc. is an online platform that enables charitable groups to run and manage online raffles and lotteries for fundraising. With offices in Halifax and Calgary, the company currently has more than 30 new sign-ups per day through their website meeting and call tool, which is helping the company meet client targets, and accelerate marketing to expand into the United States.

Rafflebox Technologies received $200,000 to scale-up marketing and sales activities to reach export markets. To achieve this goal, the company will switch from an internal email marketing system to a Customer Data Platform, which will allow the business to provide a personalized consumer experience and convert more contacts into sales. The company will also undertake a deliverability audit to understand what currently happens when it sends emails to customers. This audit will generate recommendations to help the company improve user experiences.

Talkatoo Inc. is a startup technology company that builds AI productivity software for veterinarians. Talkatoo helps its customers save time on medical records and documentation. It offers AI generated medical records, an AI assistant and desktop dictation.

Talkatoo received $166,000 to assist the company with software development, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Thiswill help the company expand its software capability by improving the accuracy and usability of their time saving AI veterinary tools, allowing them totap into new markets, while maintaining a competitive advantage.

SUMS Capital (Startup Metrics Inc.) is working to galvanize the private investor community, leading to more investment in early-stage companies through better investor relations.

SUMS Capital received $150,000 to assist them with launching its software based investment platform. The company will also implement a marketing plan to assist with its commercialization and an expansion of its customer base. 

The company receiving a non-repayable SGI contribution is:

Shoelace Learning (Eyeread Inc.) has created an online learning platform that teaches and assesses students through digital games. The product supports teachers and students with a goal of increasing literacy rates in countries around the world.

Eyeread received $50,000 to engage expertise to expand its reach to more schools in the United States. 

Related products

News release: Halifax-based startups poised for growth