MISSION We help entrepreneurs BUILD high-growth, innovative, scalable businesses. VISION Where entrepreneurs create real businesses. Who We Are venturelab exists to support innovative entrepreneurs building scalable tech businesses. With tailored programming focused on Capital, Talent, Technology, venturelab is advancing York Region s innovation economy on a local, national and global scale. Acting as Creative Directors for the IBM Innovation Space Markham Convergence Centre inside the IBM Canada Headquarters, venturelab manages 50,000 square feet, housing over 35 tech companies and 250 tenants.
TABLE OF CONTENTS LETTER FROM PRESIDENT AND BOARD CHAIR PROGRAMS AND IMPACT VELOCITY OF CAPITAL BUILDING INNOVATION CLUSTERS SCALING GLOBALLY 3 PARTNERS TEAM/ BOARD LOOKING FORWARD
4 LETTER FROM PRESIDENT & CEO AND BOARD CHAIR Behind any successful organization are multiple elements that, when combined, become better, stronger, and more inspirational. At venturelab, we call this our recipe, and each year we adapt it to better serve our clients, partners, and ecosystem. The late Dave Nichol, Loblaws famed president and pitchman, never accepted when baker after baker told him that the ratio of cookie dough to chocolate chips could not be changed. He worked tirelessly, broke rules, and ultimately, with his team of bakers, developed a new recipe for making the world s best store bought chocolate chip cookie! So, here is the recipe for venturelab this past year: 1. One part never accepting it couldn t be done venturelab sits in York Region, the nation s largest ICT cluster, 65,000 employees and 4,300 global multi-national brands, this region deserves to have the best tech accelerator in the province! 2. One part tenacity National average for successfully raising capital in Canada for a tech business is 4%; venturelab clients is 45%! 3. One part tireless work ethic venturelab registered over 400 new clients, delivered over 3,200 mentorship hours to those clients and over 65 clients have raised $65M! 4. One part the right team venturelab boasts the most dedicated, accomplished, entrepreneurial group of disruptors in the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs. Our team is cool and very special!
In 2017, venturelab became part of a global first with IBM Canada and through teamwork, tenacity, work ethic and a passion to never accept that it couldn t be done we have built a first of its kind technology accelerator here in Markham and part of York Region a special place for entrepreneurs - by entrepreneurs! The IBM Innovation Space Markham Convergence Centre is home to over 240 tenants, 22 scale up companies, and more than a dozen community organizations who all care deeply about the success of the companies that choose our space to connect, scale and grow their businesses. Thank you to the anchor tenants in our space: Markham Board of Trade, York University, Seneca College, Markham Small Business Centre, Tech Connex, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and York Angel Investors. These organizations, and many others in our ecosystem, have all contributed to our space, the experience we provide entrepreneurs and yes, that special and extremely rare recipe for why they keep coming back and why venturelab has grown in 2017 and will continue to grow in 2018. We are proud of our work, our team, our stakeholders, our Board of Directors and most importantly, the dedicated and inspirational entrepreneurs that we serve each and every day. A sincere thank you to you all and thanks for another GREAT year! Karna Gupta Chair of the Board Jeremy Laurin President and Chief Executive Officer
6 PROGRAMS& IMPACT
CLIENT FUNNEL & NUMBERS INDUSTRY 303 57 18 23 Digital Media and ICT Life Sciences and Advanced Health Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Energy and Environment REGION GREATER TORONTO AREA 207 (52%) YORK REGION 128 (32%) CITY OF BARRIE 9 (2%) SIMCOE COUNTY 10 (2%) MUSKOKA DISTRICT 1 (0%) OTHER 47 (12%)
IBM INNOVATION INCUBATOR (I3) PROGRAM As one of five provincial hubs, venturelab s I3 program has engaged more than 40 companies on a cohort-basis since March 2017. Customer Demonstration Fund Soft-Landing L ng Funding $50K $15K 4 of 4 Places Filled 92 Companies in Pipeline 40 Digital it l Media &ICT& 52 Soft-Landing 52 Life Sciences S i Customer Demonstration Fund Up to $50,000 matching for collaborative projects between SMEs & MNEs. Five venturelab companies received the CDF. I3 Soft Landing venturelab companies were allocated four spots in 2017, representing close to 60% of all winners across five hubs and exceeding venturelab s specific hub targets by 50%.
VENTURE SERVICES Nine companies joined our new Venture Services program in 2017. The program is designed for innovative tech entrepreneurs that are ready to scale, with the ambition to grow to $25 million in revenue in five years. COMPANIES
WORKSHOPS EVENTS ATTENDEES CLINICS 1-ON-1 CLINICS ATTENDED MENTOR HOURS TOTAL 3762
ACADEMIC PARTNERS York University Seneca Delivered AccelerateUP workshop to 20 companies. 2 became venturelab clients Highlights: KPI Ninja, Lyofresh Technologies and Senior Care Connect were each awarded $5,000 for the Aird & Berlis StartupSource Market Entry Award Delivered workshops at Innovation Strand and Summer Institute to 3 cohorts, 216 participants. 3 became venturelab clients Highlights: Ripple Farms was awarded $5,000 for the William G.Davis Innovation Award Ripple Farms won second place prize for the William G. Davis Innovation Award in November 2017, receiving $5,000. The fund supports innovative thinking and initiatives from aspiring visionaries, artists, humanitarians or entrepreneurs who want to leverage their college education to start something amazing. Delivered BUILD program to 3 cohorts, totaling 92 participants. 20 referrals to venturelab clients
12 VELOCITY OF CAPITAL
CAPITAL INVESTMENT PROGRAM $67,940,825 Raised since 2011 102 venturelab companies participated 67 venturelab companies successful In 2017 venturelab companies raised $7,000,000 in private investments through the Capital Investment Program $14.8M amount secured in 2017 for health innovation companies Health Public 60% Private 40%
14 BUILDING INNOVATION CLUSTERS
IBM INNOVATION SPACE - MARKHAM CONVERGENCE CENTRE 2 49% ICT 32% Life Sciences 10% Advanced Manufacturing 6% FinTech 3% Clean Tech Business Stage 16 13 3 venturelab Markham Board of Trade Markham Small Business Centre Seneca York University 7 Core Tenants 250+ People Employed 34 Tech Companies NRC-IRAP Ontario Centres of Excellence
Health Ecosphere: Innovation Pipeline venturelab and Southlake Regional Health Centre are working together to commercialize 15 health technologies by December 2018. At the end of 2017, the project has achieved: 19 projects onboard 25 potential projects 6projects in active pipeline 13/19 projects sourced by venturelab network, valued at $1.2 million HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES FUNDING $2,579,293 awarded to venturelab companies 24% of total HTF funding awarded to $497,620 $424,638 $469,001 $500,000 $100,000 $94,836 $493,000 MedChart ForaHealthyMe Eve Medical Homecare Intel Inc. NextUp Care WinterLight Labs BrainFX 7 venturelab companies $2.6M venturelab companies $10.8M HTF total
YORK REGION S TECH CLUSTER 65,000 tech jobs YORK REGION TALENT PIPELINE 4327 technology firms GLOBAL TECH COMPANIES 400+ YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS 34* Canada s Largest Enterprise Tech Cluster Highest Concentration of Tech Workforce in Toronto-Waterloo Corridor *venturelab Supported Companies
18 HELPING COMPANIES SCALE GLOBALLY
SUCCESS STORIES Soft Landing Three venturelab companies, AlayaCare, Adrenalease, and Dapasoft were each recipients of the CDMN Soft Landing program in 2017. infield Solutions took part in CDMN s Get There program, securing international customers and partnerships. Four venturelab companies, Ripple Farms, Common Sense Divorce, ACTO and Peytec, were awarded places in the I3 Soft-Landing program, representing close to 60% of all winners. Top 25 Four venturelab companies, Colleaga, Dash MD, Dot Health and Hyperion Sensors were listed on the Branham Group s Top 25 Canadian Up and Coming ICT Companies in 2017. Each company was selected based on creativity and innovation whether in a new technology area or through optimizing existing technology in an innovative manner. Ameren Accelerator Hyperion Sensors was selected as one of seven startups to take part in Ameren Accelerator s new energy business accelerator. The Ameren Accelerator is based out of the University of Missouri and focuses on power and energy. Hyperion Sensors participated in the 12-week program in the Summer 2017, also receiving $100,000 in seed funding.
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OUR PARTNERS Academic Partners Innovation Partners Community Partners Government Partners
22 OUR TEAM OUR BOARD
23 The Future is Bright Change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. - Barack Obama This region, this local community, this team it is extraordinary. venturelab is the engine of this regional innovation ecosystem. York Region represents one of the largest technology clusters in Canada, and as part of the GTA innovation corridor, we are part of one of North America s largest tech ecosystems. Enterprise Drive in Markham Centre is Canada s first purpose-built community-led enterprise tech cluster. We serve a community of 1.8 million Ontarians that is 5% of all Canadians and 13% of all Ontarians with one of the most highly educated and inclusive communities and a talent pool that is second to none. The local talent is the reason that over 400 global enterprises have established major R&D, manufacturing and business operations here for more than four decades, and have created a community of experienced innovators and entrepreneurs who take that global multinational experience to build companies like ATI (AMD), Pond Technologies and Nulogy. York Region plays an essential role in Ontario s and Canada s economic growth, job creation and prosperity. We are the enterprise tech cluster at the convergence of hardware and software, and we complement the innovation clusters in Toronto, Waterloo and Ottawa. We are at the beginning of a journey that will define how this community grows and scales, and how it will create a new wave of talent for decades to come and determine Canada s future in the global context. We are part of a global innovation community, not a GTA- or Ontario-centric corridor. The work we do, the value we create, impacts all Canadians, and we deliver impact at a local, regional, provincial and national scale. We hope you ll join us in this exciting next chapter of our journey in shaping the future for Canada.
Find us at: IBM Innovation Space Markham Convergence Centre 3600 Steeles Ave. E. Markham, ON L3R 9Z7 905.248.2727 www.venturelab.ca hello@venturelab.ca @venturelabca