Nonprofit MTL NewTech has acquired the rights to Startup Open House from Elevate and will bring the event back to Montréal this spring.
This year’s one-day showcase is set for May 23. Participating startups—such as Clinia, AI Redefined, and Stay22—will invite the public into their office spaces and innovation hubs for a rare look at how startups operate in 2024. This year’s edition is being funded by the Québec Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy, though MTL NewTech declined to disclose how much the agency is providing.
“We are pleased to have contributed to this momentum that has allowed numerous companies to shine.”
“An initiative like Startup Open House really represents us to the core of everything we try to do,” said Simran Kanda, executive director at MTL NewTech. “Part of it is just being involved, present, and supporting the ecosystem and the community, but also to help inspire new generations of entrepreneurs.”
The purchase price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but according to MTL NewTech and Elevate, the deal grants Elevate the first opportunity to collaborate on any future edition of Startup Open House outside Québec.
Startup Open House, the largest tech community open house in Canada, was founded in 2013 by entrepreneurs and community members, including BusBud CEO LP Maurice and Gabriel Sundaram, COO of Mission. At its peak in 2018, the event ran in seven cities, including Montréal, Québec City, Toronto, and Vancouver.
In 2019, Toronto tech festival Elevate acquired the rights to Startup Open House. That fall, events ran in Montréal, Ottawa, and Waterloo. MTL NewTech ran the event in Québec, bringing together 9,668 attendees, according to the nonprofit. Over a third of these attendees were international.
But 2020’s edition never happened—nor did any for the three years following due to “pandemic-related troubles,” Kanda said. The 2024 Montréal edition will be the first event held in five years.
“Being founded in Montréal, the Startup Open House brand is extremely meaningful to Quebec’s startup ecosystem,” Lisa Zarzeczny, CEO and co-founder of Elevate, wrote in an email to BetaKit. “Given these roots, I think it’s the perfect place to re-launch the event. I look forward to seeing MTL NewTech play a pivotal role in the growth of this important program, and will look to support them however we can.”
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Elevate announced its acquisition of the CIX, an annual startup conference, in September, coinciding with the launch of a $2-million challenge targeted at improving youth mental health.
This year, the organizers plan on offering attendees specialized tracks on the open house circuit, centred around verticals such as FinTech and AI. Kanda says this is aimed at helping guests with specific interests get more out of the experience.
The organizers are aiming for 50 to 60 hosts and hope to welcome between 800 and 900 attendees to participating startup spaces. The weekend of May 23 also coincides with C2 Montreal, an international business conference that typically welcomes more than 5,000 participants.
Co-organizer TRACTR, a Montréal-based SaaS startup, is collaborating with MTL NewTech to promote the open house by building an online map guests can use to navigate between stops along the circuit. It also built and operates Open Startup, a similar open-house event held in France that hosted over 350 participating companies, according to Olivier Tarbès, TRACTR founder and CEO.
“We are pleased to have contributed to this momentum that has allowed numerous companies to shine and multiple networking opportunities for visitors as well as entrepreneurs,” Tarbès wrote in an email to BetaKit.
“We’re extremely excited to bring it back to the community and kind of bring it back with that community spirit,” Denis Luchyshyn, director of programming at MTL NewTech, said in an interview with BetaKit.
“We work with all sorts of organizations across Montréal who are stakeholders in making sure that we do a great job representing the ecosystem [and] the community. I’m really proud that we have the opportunity to be the ones to bring it back to Montreal.”
Feature image courtesy Startup Open House via Facebook.
