The Veloity Foundry, a new incubator created by the University of Waterloo’s Velocity Garage, is officially open. This 11,000 co-working square space specifically supports hardware, materials and life sciences startups and provides mentorship and programming that will assist them to produce the next big thing.
According to Velocity, “Members are encouraged to use the space to solve problems collaboratively, share ideas, contribute to the startup community by mentoring others, and launch their startups.”
There are five key attributes for startups to score a spot within Velocity Foundry: They must have a team with one co-founder who is a current uWaterloo student or alumni and should have 10 people or less; Revenues must be less than $250,000 per year; Must be able to contribute to build the startup ecosystem; Able to monitor progress and meet regularly with the Velocity team; And a business concept with a potential target market in mind.
“The Velocity Foundry was created to provide space for the increasing number of hardware, material and life sciences companies being created by University of Waterloo students,” said Mike Kirkup, director of Velocity. “It provides a great landing space for companies from our Velocity Science program and we are delighted to provide the equipment and facilities to support the specific needs of these companies.”
There are already 20 startups in the the Velocity Foundry, including Ubiq, Boogaloo Bunks, Medella Health, ShockLock, and MBLOK. These companies all have unique offerings and aiming to be the next success to come out of the K-W area, like Kik, Pebble and Thalmic Labs.
