At Waterloo’s Communitech Hub Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the 15 accelerator or incubator programs that have reached the due diligence stage of receiving funding through the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program (CAIP). Most interestingly might have been that two of the more “traditional” startup accelerators received the nod- and they did it together.
The feds established CAIP in 2013 to help accelerators and incubators deliver their services to promising Canadian startups. CAIP is delivered on behalf of the Government by the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), which evaluated all proposals based on strict eligibility and selection criteria.
NRC-IRAP is now conducting due diligence to establish contribution agreements with the selected organizations. This doesn’t mean they’ve received any money just yet, but its a sure step in the right directions.
Here’s the 15 organizations that were selected:
- GrowLab Ventures in collaboration with Extreme Startups
- Invest Ottawa, in collaboration with Wesley Clover, PARTEQ Innovations and InnovationPark at Queen’s University
- Manitoba Technology Accelerator (MTA)
- Prince Edward Island BioAlliance Inc.
- Propel ICT
- Ryerson University, in collaboration with Simon Fraser University and University of Ontario Institute of Technology
- The Next 36
- University of Alberta, in collaboration with TEC Edmonton and Innovate Calgary
- Wavefront Wireless Commercialization Centre Society
- BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA)
- Bioenterprise Corporation
- Centre d’entreprises et d’innovation de Montréal (CEIM)
- Centre for Drug Research & Development (CDRD), in collaboration with CDRD Venture Inc.
- Communitech Corporation, in collaboration with University of Waterloo Velocity, Laurier LaunchPad and the Waterloo Accelerator Centre
- Corporation Inno-Centre du Québec
For GrowLab and Extreme Startups, partnering up on an application seemed to work out well for them. It’s safe to assume that other more grounded accelerators in Canada like FounderFuel applied for the coveted funding, but didn’t receive it.
We’ve featured several of these programs this year in The Accelerator Series.
“Together, with GrowLab, we have one of the best track records in North America for helping startups get follow-on institutional capital and can now further expand services to our respective portfolio companies that are headquartered in Canada with the ambition to win in global markets,” said Extreme Startups’ Marcus Daniels. Combined, over 85 percent of GrowLab and Extreme Startups grads have received follow-on institutional capital. The plan to co-host showcases across the country “will accelerate the attention that these great Canadian startups deserve,” according to GrowLab and Extreme.
Meanwhile Prime Minster Harper said that it’s “critical for Canada’s small- and medium-sized businesses to harness innovation and get their ideas to the marketplace so that they can grow, create jobs and contribute to the economy.”
“Accelerators and incubators have the experience, tools and know-how to help get small Canadian start-up businesses up and running. Our Government is pleased to be supporting private sector-led initiatives that further strengthen our venture capital market,” added the Prime Minister.
CAIP will provide the funds over a five-year period in the form of non-repayable contributions, the maximum of which “are up to $5 million per year for each selected outstanding organization.”
Meanwhile the recipients will have to show “matching contributions” on at least a 1:1 basis during the period of the funding.