The Government of Canada is investing $47 million into a MedTeq and Age-Well initiative meant to help develop technologies designed to help seniors and their caregivers.
The funding was made through the Strategic Innovation Fund. It will be allocated towards envisAGE Network’s goal to launch up to 100 projects to scale up and commercialize technologies developed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
MedTeq’s vision for the envisAGE Network is to help transform people’s way of aging.
MedTeq established the envisAGE Network with Age-Well to fund projects focusing on seniors’ autonomy, cognitive health, healthy lifestyles, and connectivity. Technological innovations include digital health technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) enabling remote patient monitoring, data analysis, and connections to healthcare providers through telehealth and virtual medicine.
The envisAGE Network receives financial support from over 90 organizations across six projects, and has secured about $85 million in collective pledges. It aims to increase its membership to more than 400 organizations over the next six years. In addition to supporting SMEs, envisAGE aims to create 500 new jobs and secure new investments in companies in the field.
Age-Well is a not-for-profit, pan-Canadian network dedicated to the development of technologies, services, policies, and practices for healthy aging.
MedTeq, which is anchored in Montreal, was launched in 2013 with the mandate to accelerate the development of Canadian healthcare technologies. It invests between $50,000 to $1 million into companies in their seed and Series A-stages.
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MedTeq CEO Diane Côté said that in partnership with Age-Well, MedTeq’s vision for the envisAGE Network is to help transform people’s way of aging and become a “source of economic and social benefits of international significance.”
“We understand the relevance and pressing need to support the adoption of high-impact solutions in improving the quality of life of older adults through the innovations of 100 SMEs bound for international markets,” Côté said.
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