InnoCité MTL, an accelerator focused on smart city startups, is merging with the Centech incubator.
Launched in 1996 by the École de Technologie Supérieure, Centech is dedicated to hardware and advanced technologies startups. The integration of InnoCité MTL and Centech is expected to help startups currently supported by InnoCité MTL to benefit from Centech’s support programs and services.
InnoCité MTL launched in 2015 as one of 70 projects in Montreal’s smart and digital action plan, backed by funding from the Québec government.
“InnoCité’s mission will remain the same,” explained Béatrice Couture, InnoCité MTL general manager. By becoming a smart city innovation cell, InnoCité will participate in the birth of new projects to respond to the specific needs of our partners and benefit from the collision resulting from the interactions between students, researchers and research Chair holders, and public- and private-sector players.”
Access to the Centech support programs will create an “innovation cell” for InnoCité MTL, as part of its open innovation cells for major companies. This will provide an opportunity for private and public partners of the InnoCité MTL accelerator to collaborate on innovation projects connected to smart cities.
Couture will participate in the implementation of Centech innovation cells, including the InnoCité cell.