Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) announced the third phase of the Ocean Startup Project, alongside $8 million in backing, at Startupfest last week.
The Ocean Startup Project has supported more than 155 companies and distributed $3.2 million in funds to date.
First established in 2020 by OSC as a collaboration among Atlantic Canadian incubators and accelerators, the Ocean Startup Project aims to cultivate and support ocean technology startups and increase the industrial use of marine technologies. Now pan-Canadian in focus, the project’s third phase is backed with $5 million from the OSC, $2 million in funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), and $450,000 from Vancouver-based research and training organization Mitacs, with the remaining funding coming from industry partners.
The Ocean Startup Project says it works with entrepreneurs from industry and academia to identify ideas and companies with the potential to address challenges facing the ocean sector. Once identified, the Ocean Startup Project provides those companies with acceleration and incubation programs to help them scale and grow.
RELATED: Ocean Supercluster announces $20 Million Investment in nine new AI-powered ocean projects
Phase three of the Ocean Startup Project is led by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation alongside partners including Technopole Maritime du Quebec, Invest Nova Scotia, Newfoundland’s Genesis Centre, PEI BioAlliance, Springboard Atlantic, the Creative Destruction Lab out of Dalhousie University, and British Columbia’s Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies.
OSC said Ocean Startup Project has supported more than 155 companies and distributed $3.2 million in funds to date. OSC has also established an economic goal to grow Canada’s ocean economy by a factor of five–to $220 billion–through its Ambition 2035 initiative. The innovation cluster said the goal was established at a meeting with more than 200 leaders in Canada’s ocean economy in May. Ambition 2035 says that achieving its goals will involve advocacy for regulatory and policy framework, inclusive talent development, data standards to support information sharing, and strengthened international relationships.
The Ocean Startup Project tapped Paula Mendonça to be its executive director in April. Mendonça led the creation of the Lab2Market Oceans / Validate program, which the Ocean Startup Project had relied on to help graduate students and researchers in Canadian universities transition their ocean-related research into marketable products.
Feature image courtesy Ocean Startup Project via LinkedIn.