Elle, MD, Hiive, and LiORA among latest CIX Startup Awards winners

By February 10, 2026
Float Financial co-founder and CEO Rob Khazzam presenting at a past CIX Summit.
Annual awards recognize top emerging, early-stage, and growth-stage Canadian startups.

Elevate has announced the 14 winners of its 2026 CIX Startup Awards, which each year recognize some of Canada’s top emerging, early- and growth-stage tech startups.

Ninety-four investors from the CIX Selection Committee chose the winning companies from a pool of more than 370 applications.

This year’s recipients include Vancouver-based venture capital secondary marketplace Hiive, Calgary geothermal tech developer Eavor, Calgary- and Saskatoon-based soil remediation platform LioRA, Oakville aerial defence business Xubin Aerospace, Toronto-based sales automation company Loopio, MontrĂ©al cardiovascular ultrasound startup Sonaro, and Nova Scotia-based birth control-focused biotech firm Elle, MD Biotechnologies, among others.

Ninety-four investors from the CIX Selection Committee chose these companies from a pool of more than 370 applications. Winners were evaluated based on the strength of their business model, offering, innovation, market opportunity, team, and diversity, equity, and inclusion among their leadership.

Each winner will present on stage at Elevate’s CIX Summit on March 25 in Toronto, at the Design Exchange. More than 600 entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and investors are expected to come together for the event.

RELATED: Basetwo emerges from CIX Summit 2025 as Canada’s representative for the Startup World Cup

Like in 2025, this year’s CIX Startup Awards has three categories based on company maturity. “Emerging,” which was launched last year, is targeted at pre-seed and seed companies that are less than two years old with under $2 million CAD in annual revenue. Elle, MD, Sonaro, and Xubin were among the five recipients in this group.

“Early,” which is geared towards Series A and B startups launched two to five years ago with $2 million to $10 million in yearly sales, had five winners, including LiORA, Kitchener wearable dialysis machine maker Qidni Labs, and Toronto pharmacy software provider MedMe Health.

As for “Growth” companies (five-to-10-year-old businesses at the Series C stage or beyond with more than $10 million in annual revenue), the four recipients were Eavor, Hiive, Loopio, and Toronto-based business banking platform Venn.

According to Elevate, half of the 2026 CIX Startup Award winners are impact ventures–which are often defined as ventures designed to create positive social or environmental impacts–while three-quarters of all recipients have female founders or C-suite leaders. 

Past CIX award recipients include Clio, Float Financial, League, and Wealthsimple, among others.

You can find the full list of 2026 winners below.

Emerging startup recipients:

  • PRE Inc. (marketing tech) – Toronto, ON
  • Sonaro (healthtech) – MontrĂ©al, QC
  • Cashew Research (marketing tech) – Calgary, AB
  • Elle, MD Biotechnologies (healthtech) – New Minas, NS
  • Xubin Aerospace (defense tech) – Oakville, ON

Early startup recipients:

  • Qidni Labs (medtech) – Kitchener, ON
  • WeavAir (climate tech) – Toronto, ON
  • Pontosense (medtech) – Toronto, ON
  • MedMe Health (healthtech) – Toronto, ON
  • LiORA (climate tech) – Calgary, AB

Growth startup recipients:

  • Venn (FinTech) – Toronto, ON
  • Eavor Technologies (climate tech) – Calgary, AB
  • Loopio (sales automation) – Toronto, ON
  • Hiive (FinTech) – Vancouver, BC

Feature image courtesy Elevate.

0 replies on “Elle, MD, Hiive, and LiORA among latest CIX Startup Awards winners”