Edmonton Unlimited has unveiled its annual list of 10 companies to watch ahead of this year’s Startup Week.
The 10 companies, which will be showcased at Edmonton Startup Week’s Launch Party this October, were chosen from a cohort of 59 applicants. Organizers say that breadth of field signals a growing “depth and momentum” in the Edmonton tech and startup scene.
Running since 2010, Launch Party watch list alumni include Edmonton anchor company Jobber, as well as Run With It Synthetics, FireSafe AI, and dozens of others.
To make the selection, the innovation agency contracted the help of three business and investment leaders, including Ashif Mawji of ScaleGood Fund, Yasmine Al-Hussein of Yaletown Partners, and Aroon Sequeira, the founder of Valuepath Partners.
Honourees were judged across five metrics: team and execution, traction and validation, market and opportunity, innovation and differentiation, and Launch Party fit.
“The overall goal was to identify companies that are not simply promising ideas, but are demonstrating the capability, validation, and opportunity to build and grow from Edmonton,” said Stephanie Gillis-Paulgaard, the vice-president of brand and strategic partnerships at Edmonton Unlimited.
Included in this year’s list are:
- Aqtiva is an Agtech company using plasma-activated water technology to supplant traditional fertilizers with an eco-friendly solution to enhance plant health and improve soil quality. Aqtiva was named New Startup of the Year at the YEG Startup Community Awards.
- Zylotex is turning Alberta-grown hemp into sustainably developed cotton-replacement fibres, offering biodegradable, microplastic-free alternatives to synthetic fabrics or cotton as well as use in industrial or medical settings.
- Pulmvita is improving oxygen delivery for patients with lung diseases like COPD by creating a new design of nasal breathing tube. The device improves breath detection, and has outperformed status-quo oxygen delivery devices in volunteer trials, according to Pulmvita. The company won the first prize spot at Startup TNT’s summit last year.
- RNARevive is a biotech company developing RNA therapeutics that enable “long-lasting biologic drug production.” The company’s platform delivers temporary RNA instructions to a patient’s cells, causing them to produce long-lasting medicine from a single dose.
- TaxFormify provides AI-driven management software for accountants and CPAs, automating administrative tasks, categorization, and streamlining tax workflows.
- Osprey Systems is a defence tech startup using AI to boost the performance of drones and autonomous vehicles in harsh environments like the Arctic or where satellite or cloud connectivity is unavailable. The company is seeking partnerships in the Canadian defence industry.
- Proholistic Discovery is a biotech and drug discovery company using AI-driven systems to guide drug discovery and boost clinical success rates. It claims its platform can lower cost and minimize risk and trial failure rates.
- InovativAI is developing an AI “concierge” service for airplanes to improve accessibility for passengers. Its Nexora platform includes, live multilingual translation of over 100 languages that can be delivered as a software overlay to in-flight entertainment systems with no hardware changes.
- Dualchemy builds AI-powered hiring and acquisition tools. It claims to replace “black-box” filtering and algorithms with a real-time preference engine, scaling and streamlining decision-making for recruiters.
- 7 Summit Snacks is a food-tech company making superfood chocolate bars that leverage nutritional science to increase endurance for athletes.
Edmonton Startup Week is an annual celebration of Edmonton’s startup community featuring panels, mentorship opportunities, and networking events. It runs from Oct. 5 to 9.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy of Edmonton Unlimited.