500 Startups has announced the 44 companies accepted into Batch 20 of its seed program, which includes five Canadian companies.
According to TechCrunch, the majority of companies in this batch are focused on FinTech, digital health, and tackling inefficiencies within the government.
500 Startups has been increasingly focused on the Canadian ecosystem, including the opening of 500 Canada, which recently announced that it closed $15 million of its $30 million fund focused on early-stage Canadian startups. It’s also established startup incubator 500 Labs, which supports companies based in Waterloo and Toronto.
According to 500 Startups, most companies selected in Batch 20 have a functional product; the seed program will now take these companies to the next level by giving them access to 500 Startups’ Silicon Valley network and offer support with their funding strategies. Specifically, companies will also be able to attend Marketing Hell Week, the second B2B sales summit, and a new two-day intensive fundraising boot camp.
In its last batch, five Canadian companies were among those in the 500 Seed Program batch 20, formerly known as an accelerator.
The five Canadian companies include:
- Obie (Hamilton, ON) – A slack bot for accessing team data.
- Optimity (Toronto, ON) – Works to Reduce preventable drug claims costs for employers through a digital health coaching program.
- Preteckt – A hardware and software solution that uses machine learning to predict vehicle breakdowns before they cost you money.
- Shoelace (Toronto, ON) – An AI assistant that helps ecommerce merchants launch retargeting campaigns on social media.
- Urbanlogic (Surrey, BC) – Applies machine-learning analytics to make city planning faster, cheaper and more accurate.
- EquitySim (Vancouver, BC) – Trains students to trade in financial markets, and uses machine learning to connect them with employers.
- WellTrack (Fredericton, NB) – On-demand online therapy for stress, anxiety, and depression to open up access to mental health care.