CoLab Software, based in St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, has become the first Atlantic Canada startup to be accepted into Y Combinator’s accelerator program.
The company stated that the acceptance into the US-based seed accelerator program comes at a key time for the startup and will help it connect with global investors and customers alike.
“Y Combinator is going to accelerate our growth and pair us with some of the…most successful entrepreneurs in the world.”
“Our mission is to empower engineering teams to build the future faster. Y Combinator is going to accelerate our growth and pair us with some of the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs in the world,” said Adam Keating, CEO and co-founder of CoLab. “We are excited to leverage Y Combinator to provide our customers with industry leading products while expanding our team and customer base.”
CoLab was founded in 2017, having created a cloud-based mechanical issue tracking and design management platform. It allows design teams to view 3D files, gather feedback from “stakeholders”, track issues, and manage projects in a shared cloud environment. The platform was designed specifically for mechanical systems and product design, with the goal of reducing the amount of time wasted on poor communication during the design lifecycle by 20 percent.
It noted that along with greater access to global investors, mentors, and customer, working within Y Combinator will also help the company raise seed financing. CoLab raised $600,000 in pre-seed funding in June 2018, from Panache Ventures, Pelorus Venture, and Killick Capital. With that funding, and CoLab’s participation in Propel ICT’s Launch and Build accelerator program, the startup stated its plans at the time to grow the size of its team and launch a full-scale solution.
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CoLab increased the size of its company after its June funding round from nine to 14 employees. And since being accepted to the Y Combinator program in April, CoLab has also announced plans further grow its company, hoping to double in size by the end of the year, to help meet, what CoLab called, a growing customer demand. It noted that since its pre-seed funding round, it has been working with some of the largest automotive and industrial companies in the world.
CoLab also plans to onboard a number of “industry leaders” onto its platform over the next six months. As it expands it is looking to fill positions in software development, quality assurance, IT/security, engineering, digital marketing, sales, and customer success.
Image courtesy CoLab Software