Support for Startup Canada Communities leads to coding education in Smithers, B.C and industry-specific events in Halifax, N.S.
Toronto, O.N. December 14, 2015 | Two Startup Canada Communities have been awarded with the second round of investment from the Startup Canada Community Investment Fund, Startup Canada announced today. The Fund launched in Spring 2015 and invests in high-impact, entrepreneur-driven initiatives that connect and strengthen local startup communities across Canada.
The fall 2015 Startup Canada Community Investment Fund recipients are:
- Startup Halifax, to run a series of industry-specific pitching and networking events that encourage local businesses to be early adopters, supporters and advisors to early-stage entrepreneurs.
- Startup Smithers, to run a series of events to introduce community members to coding and simple app building tools.
“Each region of Canada has unique economic, environmental, and cultural traits that can be leveraged to make it a launch pad for high impact startups and a landing pad for investment,” said Victoria Lennox, CEO of Startup Canada. “With investment from the Startup Canada Community Investment Fund, Smithers and Halifax are optimizing strengths and filling gaps to build a cohesive, active startup ecosystem that makes their communities great places to start, scale and anchor companies.”
“Startup Halifax conducted a major survey of entrepreneurs in the region to determine what they felt they needed most in terms of support and this grant will permit us to address their number one priority, which will stimulate the growth of the startup ecosystem in Nova Scotia,” said John Hamblin, Community Lead at Startup Halifax.
“We are very thankful to Startup Canada and the sponsors that made this possible,” says Allan Stroet, Community Lead at Startup Smithers. “We are looking forward to growing the level of app and coding knowledge in Smithers. This event would not be possible without the support of such inclusive, supportive, entrepreneurs in our community and across the country.”
This is the second cohort of projects supported through the Startup Canada Community Investment Fund. In Spring 2015, Startup Sault, Startup Nanaimo, Startup Prince George, Startup Fredericton, and Startup Charlottetown were awarded funds to undertake an entrepreneur ecosystem mapping project, run an entrepreneur un-conference, establish an entrepreneur scholarship and raise awareness of local coworking space, respectively.
Funding is awarded to Startup Canada Community projects based on the ability of each project to fuel an environment and culture for entrepreneurial growth and success, and foster new opportunities and greater connectivity of entrepreneurs to support, investment, customers and supply chains.
The fall 2015 recipients were announced at Startup Canada’s 2015 #EveryEntrepreneur Tour Finale in Toronto. The national, non-profit organization travelled the country this fall to provide new opportunities to thousands of Canadian entrepreneurs as they start and grow their companies and to provide a platform for entrepreneurs to voice needs and calls-to-action to better the environment for entrepreneur-run businesses.
The Startup Canada Community Investment Fund is one of five Startup Canada Investment Funds. At the #EveryEntrepreneur Tour finale, the organization also announced recipients of the Startup Canada Startup Space Fund, the TruShield Insurance Retail Startup Fund, and the Startup Canada Women Entrepreneurship Fund.
The Startup Canada Community Investment Fund is supported by Intuit QuickBooks, TruShield Insurance, UPS and TELUS, industry leaders committed to strengthening the national entrepreneurship ecosystem in Canada through grassroots startup communities.
For more information, please contact:
Kathryn Forrest
Communications & Marketing Manager, Startup Canada
1-844-782-7801 ext. 106
About Startup Canada
Startup Canada is a grassroots network of more than 125,000 entrepreneurs and more than 500 like-minded organizations that support entrepreneurs and small businesses as the voice of Canada’s startup community. Learn more at startupcan.ca.