The 2015 Funding Roadshow starts on March 19th in Ottawa before venturing across Canada to ten cities. Organized by Fundica, the yearly event gives start-ups and small business the opportunity to pitch their company to a panel of respected individuals from the investment community — and potentially secure financing.
Each location will see 20 entrepreneurs pitch to the panel of 8 to 10 funders for five minutes, with an eight-minute Q&A session following. The judging panel will vote one winner from each participating city, who will receive six months of office space in the greater San Francisco area, round-trip airfare to San Fran, cloud hosting packages from CANARIE and SoftLayer, and one year of Intuit QuickBooks online.
“The Funding Roadshow is a tremendous opportunity for Canadian entrepreneurs, investors and funders,” said Sunil Sharma, Managing Partner, Extreme Venture Partners. “For 11 fortunate entrepreneurs across the country, participating in this initiative will be a game-changing moment. The Funding Roadshow has a unique ability to span the entire country and unite people with diverse areas of expertise and a shared passion for technology and innovation. I look forward to attending both the DMZ and MaRS stops.”
“We are very pleased to be organizing the Funding Roadshow this year with our presenting partner Intuit,” added Mike Lee, President, Fundica. “We are particularly pleased to be visiting Toronto twice in 2015 and making stops at both Ryerson DMZ and MaRS Discovery District. I would also like to thank the 58 collaborative, supporting, hosting and community partners across Canada who make the Funding Roadshow possible.”
Here are the 2015 Funding Roadshow locations:
• Ottawa, March 19
• Toronto, March 25
• Halifax, April 1
• Winnipeg, April 21
• Vancouver, April 29
• Victoria, May 1
• Calgary, May 5
• Edmonton, May 7
• Toronto, May 22
• Montreal, May 28
• Montreal, June 5
Fundica noted that the objective of the Funding Roadshow is “to better educate entrepreneurs and facilitate connections with private investors and public funders.”