Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Cities

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Sustainability

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

With new installations at Casa Loma and U of T Scarborough, Lyrata is supplying freshly grown produce to local caterers and restaurants

A startup co-founded by a �ؿ�ζSM graduate student has its roots in an experience that is all too common for many of us.

He kept forgetting to water his plants.

“I was working in a plant immunity biology lab, so if I didn’t water them, I’d have no plants to do experiments with,” says Adnan Sharif, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

He says his solution was inspired by his father.

“My dad is a mechanical engineering professor at a university in Japan, and he knows a lot about manufacturing materials with porous, three-dimensional structures,” he says. “That’s how I got the idea to make my own 3D-printed soil construct, which could retain water for a week or more.

“That way, I wouldn’t have to go into the lab and water the plants so often.”

The innovation – which Sharif came up as an undergraduate working in the lab of Keiko Yoshioka, a professor in the department of cell and systems biology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science – is one of several that now underpins Lyrata, a startup that grows fresh produce for caterers and high-end restaurants across the Greater Toronto Area.

The company, which got its start in a greenhouse on U of T’s St. George campus, has recently expanded with operations at U of T Scarborough and Casa Loma, a museum, event space and historic site in midtown Toronto.

Growing plants without soil, known as hydroponics, is a technique commonly used in greenhouses worldwide. But Sharif and his team see an opportunity to make the industry more sustainable, starting with the soil replacement that the plants grow in.

“The product that almost everyone uses today is basically the same as house insulation,” Sharif says. “It’s made from rocks that are mined in remote places and shipped hundreds of kilometres to a production facility, where they are heated to thousands of degrees in a giant furnace to make a porous, chemically inert material. This material then needs to be shipped again to where it’s needed, and when you’re finished, you throw it in the garbage.”

By contrast, Lyrata’s SmartSoil is 3D-printed using biopolymers such as polylactic acid, which is derived from corn. These materials can be locally sourced and require much lower temperatures to melt and form into porous structures.

When the growing cycle is complete, the product goes through a low-heat proprietary cleaning process and can be used again. Sharif says that SmartSoil has a total lifespan of about two years, after which it can be composted along with crop residue. Together, these changes greatly lower the carbon footprint of indoor farming.

In 2020, Sharif and his co-founders brought his idea to The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, U of T Engineering’s startup incubator and one of several entrepreneurship hubs across U of T’s three campuses. Through the Hatchery’s Nest process, they were connected with business mentors, including alumnus Xavier Tang, a consultant and venture capitalist who still advises the company today.

Over the next few years, the team evolved, with some original members leaving and others joining. They include Leo Hua, who has been pivotal to speeding the development of 3D printable soil. The concept evolved, too, as the team realized that producing food was a better business for Lyrata than rather than selling their growth medium to other farmers.

The Hatchery team – in particular, Executive Director Joseph Orozco, Go-To-Market Lead Erika J. Murray and a team of work-study students, mentors and legal externs – helped Lyrata develop their technology and business. In 2022, the Hatchery provided $155,000 in seed funding, enabling the founders to be employed by their company and further supporting business development. The funding also enabled the company to rent greenhouse space on campus, where they began growing lettuce to provide to Spaces and Experiences at U of T.

Lyrata also developed something new: a modular unit that works exclusively with their SmartSoil and contains everything required to produce a variety of indoor crops – from lights and growth medium to irrigation systems.

“None of these technological and business developments would have taken place without the generous support of the over 50 Hatchery mentors, work-study students, and legal externs who contributed to our success,” says Sharif.

“Our current concept is what we call farming-as-a-service,” Hua adds. “The SmartGrow unit we developed is small enough to fit into a standard parking spot. Our clients sign a contract with us to place a unit on their site and we take care of everything from planting to harvesting.

“For a flat fee, they get a self-contained farm that provides a reliable quantity of their desired crop over a set period of time.”

In addition to providing a locally sourced, sustainable product, Sharif says the approach can also help mitigate fluctuations in the price of wholesale produce.

“In Canada, most of our lettuce comes from California, which has been dealing with drought and many other issues,” says Sharif. “Supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 were also a big challenge for restaurants, which have very thin margins to begin with. At one point, the price of lettuce increased by a factor of six, so you can imagine the effect that would have.”

So far, Lyrata has produced more than 15 different types of crops, including basil, parsley and mizuna, also known as Japanese mustard greens.

Support from the U of T Engineering community has been key to Lyrata’s success.

For example, it was a U of T Engineering alumni connection that recently led to Lyrata launching an installation at the historic Casa Loma museum and landmark in Toronto.

“Lyrata’s competitive edge is that they provide an on-site, full service and they do not take up very much space,” says Nikol Watlikiewicz, Casa Loma’s horticulture and grounds manager. “In a small corner of our potting shed, we were able to build two grow units that provide a good yield weekly, without having to train our staff on the complicated system.

“Growing indoors gives us the stability and control that traditional agriculture does not. It’s an excellent example of how engineers can help solve the global food crisis with innovative thinking.”

In August, Lyrata launched another growing unit at U of T Scarborough, located within the Harmony Commons Dining Hall.

The priority for the next few years is growing Lyrata’s crop offerings and client base with ongoing support from The Hatchery. The incubator has facilitated graduate student placements through Mitacs, with matching funds. It also backed a recent $167,500 project with the Ontario and Canadian governments through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership program to further advance the yield and efficiency of the SmartSoil system.

“The fact we’ve been able to come this far in such a short time is in large part due to the help we’ve had from U of T Engineering, and especially the Entrepreneurship Hatchery,” says Sharif.

“Whether it was getting seed funding, finding mentors, hiring work-study students or making important connections through their alumni network, we wouldn’t be here without their support.”

Eva Lau, co founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, says universities key to Toronto's growth in tech

bresgead — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 20:04:34 +0000

Eva Lau, co founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, says universities key to Toronto's growth in tech

bresgead Mon, 06/26/2023 - 16:04

Cutline

Eva Lau, pictured here speaking U of T's at True Blue Impact Day, will speak about the importance of diversity in entrepreneurial mentorship at a special session on June 28 (photo by Polina Teif)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Diversity

Subheadline

U of T alumna is among the members of the U of T community speaking at this year's Collision conference

As one of the entrepreneurs on the front lines of Toronto’s rise as a modern tech hub, Eva Lau says the �ؿ�ζSM will play a critical role in keeping the city on the cutting edge by fostering the next generation of innovators.

“I’ve been in this ecosystem long enough to see how it has matured,” says Lau, managing director and co-founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, which invests in early-stage tech companies and has backed successes such as SkipTheDishes, Sheertex and U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci.

“And I have to give credit to the universities.”

An alumna of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Lau is among the U of T founders, alumni and faculty expected to speak at the Collision conference from June 26 to 29 – a list that includes University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, known as “the Godfather of AI,” who has garnered global attention for sounding the alarm about the existential risks of the technology he helped developed.

At a special session on June 28, Lau – who was formerly the head of community at online storytelling platform Wattpad – will talk about the positive impact that diverse mentors can have on founders as they go through the accelerator and incubator experience.

She recently spoke to U of T News about the benefits of diverse mentorship and how U of T’s emphasis on entrepreneurship has bolstered Toronto’s startup scene.

How does having diverse mentors help founders and startups grow?

Mentorship is something that a lot of founders may take for granted. They’ll say, “I need someone who understands this space.” If they’re building financial products, they’ll look for someone in the financial sector, for example.

But if we continue to iterate in a domain, we will always get incremental improvements of existing products. Disruption actually happens when people put their minds together and think outside the box. You need to surround yourself with people who think differently from you, who bring different perspectives.

Mentorship is more than getting advice about how to follow other people’s paths to success. It’s about building your own DNA, looking at things from a 360-degree perspective and making use of the advice around you so that you can chart your own path to build a product that works for everyone.

How did your education at U of T Engineering help you as an entrepreneur?

When I was at U of T, I studied industrial engineering. One of the subjects that intrigued me most was human factors – the product-human interface, designing products that suit human needs.

Addressing human issues is what innovation should be all about. When you design a product, you need to understand how humans will interact with it, because that’s what’s going to drive user adoption.

That was a real eye-opener for me. It’s not enough to create something that solves a problem for people. You have to think about how people are going to use your product to solve that problem. I’m not only the creator; I’m creating a solution for an actual person.

How have you seen Toronto’s startup scene evolve and where do you see it heading?

I’ve been in this ecosystem long enough to see how it has matured. And I have to give credit to the universities. Back when I was at U of T, entrepreneurship was barely mentioned. Nowadays, entrepreneurship is a building block of education.

At U of T, there’s the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery at U of T Engineering and so many other incubators and accelerators.

That seed of entrepreneurship gets planted very early on, right after high school. And in the past couple of decades, we’ve seen more and more tech companies founded in Canada – Shopify, Wattpad, Wealthsimple and many others. That’s inspiring a lot more young people to follow suit.

We’re also seeing more budding entrepreneurs get first-hand experience working at companies as part of their education. For example, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has the Professional Experience Year Co-op Program, where students can earn up to 20 months of work experience before they graduate. That’s a game-changer.

That’s why we’re seeing the maturity of the startup ecosystem. Our young generation is no longer limited to learning from textbooks, professors and parents. They can get a diversity of mentorship during their formative years.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs at U of T, particularly women or people from diverse backgrounds?

Absolutely reach out to our amazing alumni network. And don’t limit yourself to alumni from your faculty. Reach out to alumni from the engineering school, or perhaps in philosophy, or physics, or history or business. Bring in different experiences to create your own recipe for success.

What will you be keeping an eye out for at the Collision?

I am so keen to listen to Geoffrey Hinton and other U of T co-founders talk about trends in artificial intelligence. I’m absolutely a believer that AI is going to bring so much more productivity improvement – or even disruption – to our ecosystem.

Certainly, there are concerns around AI. But the history of technology shows that innovation always creates some friction in the beginning, but the long-term gains are beneficial to everyone.

I want to hear from the people who are at the forefront of AI, and as importantly, see how their messages are received. How is the crowd reacting to what these influencers are saying? Because that’s a good temperature check.

U of T startup Genecis scales up effort to commercialize ‘the holy grail of plastic replacement’

bresgead — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 16:38:10 +0000

U of T startup Genecis scales up effort to commercialize ‘the holy grail of plastic replacement’

bresgead Mon, 03/06/2023 - 11:38

Cutline

Genecis Bioindustries uses highly engineered bacteria to turn food waste into biodegradable natural polymers that can be used to make a range of environmentally friendly products – from T-shirts to flip flops (photo by Matt Volpe)

Adina Bresge

Topic

Entrepreneurship Week

The Hub

Sustainability

U of T Scarborough

Remember those carrot peels you threw in the compost? If Genecis Bioindustries has its way, you could soon be wearing them.

The clean-tech company is using highly engineered bacteria to turn food waste into biodegradable natural polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates – or PHAs – that can be used to make products ranging from soft T-shirt fibres to squishy flip-flop soles.

With more than $20 million in funding raised, Genecis plans to become the first company to commercialize the food-waste-to-PHA production process, which it says would allow it to compete with synthetic plastics in both performance and cost – all without taking a toll on the environment.

“We’re moving very quickly,” says Director of Fermentation Andrew Chiappetta, one of several �ؿ�ζSM alumni who work at the company.

“The plan is to be at full commercial scale in the next few years.”

At a research facility in downtown Toronto, fermenters churn a cream-coloured brew where the microbial magic happens. First, the bacteria consume the carbon in organic matter and convert it into building blocks called monomers. This intermediate is then fed to another set of bacteria, which are deprived of specific nutrients to spur the production of PHA, which is stored in the cells as an energy source. Then, the PHA is extracted from the cells, collected, purified and processed into different formulations.

Genecis got its start in a �ؿ�ζSM Scarborough lab when founder and CEO Luna Yu – who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree at U of T in four years – and her collaborators demonstrated their nascent technology using rice cookers. The startup went on to receive early support from U of T Scarborough’s the Hub, the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab and the Hatchery at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

U of T also provided Genecis with space for its lab researchers to refine their approach.

“The �ؿ�ζSM has supported Genecis in many different stages of our development,” says Chiappetta, noting the company now has more than 40 employees.

“The education alone at U of T is great, and students can also take advantage of all the resources and programs that they have available for entrepreneurs.”

Genecis founder and CEO Luna Yu and her team originally demonstrated their technology in a U of T Scarborough lab (photo by Don Campbell)

With the support of Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, government funds and venture capital financing, Genecis has since expanded its operations to two full research labs, as well as a pilot facility in Scarborough.

The company has also partnered with London, Ont.-based StormFisher Biogas to demonstrate the potential of its technology at scale.

Chiappetta, who graduated from U of T’s master of biotechnology program, says Genecis can fine-tune its PHAs to take on a wide range of properties – from soft and flexible, to hard and rigid.

He says this versatility could make PHAs “the holy grail of plastic replacement” in categories including packaging, medical tools, car parts, textiles and other commercial products.

While synthetic plastics can take centuries to degrade and pollute waterways with microplastics, PHA products that wind up in the landfill can safely degrade both on land and in water.

And when properly discarded, these bioplastics can be composted and upcycled into something new, Chiappetta says.

“This creates a circular end-of-life,” he says. “Our polymers, no matter where they end up, can be composted and fed back into the front-end of the process.”

Addressing two global challenges – food waste and plastic pollution – might seem like a daunting proposition, but Chiappetta urged community members taking part in U of T’s Entrepreneurship Week to aim high and not get discouraged.

“The big thing is to be curious, work hard and if things don’t work – keep trying,” he says.

“Oftentimes, things don’t work out the first time, and I think you learn most from the failures as opposed to the successes.”

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship Week

U of T among top five university business incubators in the world: UBI Global

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 16:20:53 +0000

U of T among top five university business incubators in the world: UBI Global

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 02/06/2023 - 11:20

Cutline

The BRIDGE at U of T Scarborough is one of several entrepreneurship and innovation hubs on U of T's three campuses (photo by Matthew Dochstader)

Topic

Global

The �ؿ�ζSM has been recognized as one of the top five university business incubators in the world by UBI Global in its latest world benchmark study.

In its 2021-2022 study, UBI Global – a Swedish-based innovation intelligence company with more than 1,000 member organizations – assessed 1895 organizations from 90 countries.

The top organizations were benchmarked across 21 key performance indicators against their global peers based on the value they provide to their innovation ecosystems and client startups.

“The UBI ranking is a reinforcement of all the great work that so many U of T students, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs have been doing,” says Jon French, director of �ؿ�ζSM Entrepreneurship, the umbrella organization for the incubators, accelerators and entrepreneurship programs across U of T’s three campuses. “It’s a recognition of how we fare against the best in the world.”

The ranking is particularly notable, French adds, since UBI is one of the only organizations examining both economic and social impact in its global assessment of the post-secondary entrepreneurship space.

“The approach that UBI takes is quite holistic – they measure hard metrics, including funding raised and jobs created, but they also take a look at criteria such as where the mentor network is coming from and how engaged the university’s alumni are,” French says, noting that U of T scored high on all such indicators in the UBI report and takes pride in supporting innovators at all stages of their journey – everyone from idea-stage student entrepreneurs to faculty members and PhD researchers seeking to commercialize their work.

Over the past decade, U of T entrepreneurs have created more than 600 venture-backed companies and secured more than $2.5 billion in investment. U of T Entrepreneurship, for its part, supports current and aspiring entrepreneurs by providing: co-working, meeting and event spaces; mentorship and advisory supports; pitch competitions and prizes; and access to investor networks to secure funding.

U of T’s network of campus acccelerators and incubators in the Greater Toronto Area are currently supporting more than 500 teams working on potential startups.

“It is important that our entrepreneurs have a sense of community – they are surrounded by like-minded people who are excited about innovation and turning ideas and opportunities into companies,” French says. “Across the 10-plus campus accelerators on our three campuses, we currently have over 500 teams that are working on projects that could become companies.”

UBI’s world benchmark study is a third-party assessment, based on a comprehensive survey, that analyzes the impact and performance of business incubators and accelerators from four sectors: university, public, private and corporate. Its framework for analysis was developed in collaboration with an advisory board comprising innovation thought leaders and industry experts.

Other Canadian universities also ranked highly in their categories in the UBI report, including incubators from McGill University, York University, Memorial University and École de technologie supérieure.

Many of the U of T-backed success stories flagged for the UBI survey stemmed from the university’s strength in leading-edge research fields such as quantum computing, biotech, clean tech, advanced manufacturing and machine learning. In particular, French points to the recent announcement of $40 million in federal funding for U of T startup Xanadu Quantum Technologies – an alumnus of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at the Rotman School of Management that was founded by former U of T post-doctoral physics researcher Christian Weedbrook – and the more than 150 ventures supported annually by the Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

French noted that U of T’s commitment to entrepreneurship is longstanding, with several incubators and accelerators recently celebrating their 10-year anniversaries. They include CDL, The Hatchery at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the UTEST accelerator.

“And now when we look at the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus close to opening on the St. George campus, that’s again an example of U of T doubling down on how important innovation and entrepreneurship are to the university,” he says.

U of T’s world-leading innovation network – which includes U of T Scarborough’s The Hub and The BRIDGE, as well as U of T Mississauga’s ICUBE – will be showcased during Entrepreneurship Week from March 6 to 9, featuring more than 15 free in-person, hybrid and virtual public events to teach, inspire and celebrate entrepreneurship on campus.

One flagship event returning in-person for the first time in three years is the True Blue Expo on March 9, where more than 40 U of T startups, accelerators and community partners will be sharing information on their products and services.

“We’ll be highlighting groundbreaking companies during Entrepreneurship Week, including those led by women founders and startups connected to our Black Founders Network,” French says. “All three campuses are represented – it’s really a snapshot of what makes U of T entrepreneurship so special.”

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci ‘changing the tech world’: The Globe and Mail

lanthierj — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 18:02:20 +0000

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci ‘changing the tech world’: The Globe and Mail

lanthierj Mon, 12/19/2022 - 13:02

Cutline

Benchsci's co-founders (left to right), Elvis Wianda, Tom Leung and Liran Belenzon (Amara Studios/BenchSci)

Topic

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Rotman School of Management

Startup

BenchSci, a �ؿ�ζSM startup that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the process of drug development, is “changing the tech world” according to Report on Business Magazine.

Founded in 2015 by Liran Belenzon, who studied business at the Rotman School of Management, Thomas Leung, who was working on his PhD at U of T in epigenetics, and Elvis Wianda, the startup received early support from the Creative Destruction Lab, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i). Today, it has raised nearly $100 million from investors and employs 400 people.

BenchSci’s platform can filter through more than 14 million scientific papers and 64 million products, allowing scientists to assembling a “knowledge graph of who’s done what and with what level of success,” the magazine says – and now helps some 50,000 researchers worldwide.

“While the pharmaceutical companies pay to use the software,” Belenzon tells the magazine, “scientists and students use the platform for free.”

Four startups to watch from U of T Engineering’s Hatchery Demo Day 2022

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 13:28:34 +0000

Four startups to watch from U of T Engineering’s Hatchery Demo Day 2022

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 10/05/2022 - 09:28

Cutline

Members of the four teams selected to move to the "Go-to-Market" stage at Hatchery’s Demo Day 2022 (photo by Aaron Demeter)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Blockchain

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

University Health Network

From brain data software that simplifies neuroscience research to wearable technology that will protect older adults from fall-induced injuries, four student-led startups at the �ؿ�ζSM are moving closer to commercial viability.

The four teams participated in the Entrepreneurship Hatchery’s recent Demo Day hybrid event – which was streamed live from the Stewart L. Blusson Visualization Facility in the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship – and were selected to move to the accelerator’s “Go-to-Market” stage. The stage provides startups with a robust advisory board, the opportunity to hire their first employees from the university’s student-talent pool, access to professional services and legal support, and a path to seed funding and follow-up investment.

In total, 11 entrepreneurial teams presented their business plans at the event via recorded videos, attracting more than 1,100 visitors from around the world. Marking the culmination of a competitive four-month program that provides opportunities for startups to define their purpose, the event was also used to launch the Hatchery’s new Build a Team tool, which matches individuals and startups based on skills and interests.

“During the past decade we’ve had the chance to create a laboratory to educate entrepreneurs and inspire them to think big,” says Joseph Orozco, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, which is based at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Along with U of T Engineering, we are committed to providing the resources and support that founders need to build their startups.”

Here are the four selected teams:

FallBye – Wearable technology to prevent falls in the aging community

FallBye offers undergarments that cluster millimetres-thick foam cells around sensitive areas of the body to lessen impact after detecting a fall (photo courtesy of FallBye)

Falls are the most common cause of injury among older adults in Canada, threatening not only their health but independence. FallBye aims to mitigate fall-impact injuries through smart clothing that can help protect the dignity of older adults, while promising comfort.

“Our actions are inspired from personal losses, and we are centred around satisfying this population to the best of our abilities via the technological medium,” says Amirreza Aazam, a second-year student in electrical and computer engineering.

“We are attempting to reduce the rising fall injury rate and the resulting deaths among the elderly population,” adds Vishweswar Eswaran, who is also in the second year of the program. “To that end, we are offering undergarments that detect the type of fall and cluster millimetres-thick foam cells around sensitive areas of the body vulnerable to impact.”

Unlike inflatable vests, which are currently available in the market, FallBye offers consumers an alternative that is concealable and offers protection to areas of the body beyond the hips. FallBye plans to test more market hypotheses and set up a closed-loop feedback system that involves end users and customers in their prototyping process.

“We believe in our impact-centric mission and are ready to tackle upcoming challenges and work towards our vision,” says Aazam.

MoveMatch – Using advanced motion analysis for at-home physiotherapy

The MoveMatch platform uses AI-powered advanced motion analysis and comparison to give patients professional level physiotherapy coaching (photo courtesy of MoveMatch)

MoveMatch gives physiotherapy patients professional-level coaching away from a clinical environment by guiding users through recorded exercises and offering real-time corrective feedback.

The platform achieves advanced motion analysis and comparison without the use of bulky and expensive hardware. A single camera and the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm automates the manual work of doing motion analysis.

“We are now transitioning from a small core team of founders to a group with diverse expertise, which brings with it a difficult period in the next couple of months as we settle into a new rhythm and focus more on management instead of development,” says Aidan Dempster, a third-year engineering science student. “We believe we are up to the challenge and look forward to exceeding the Hatchery’s expectations.”

“In the next few months, we plan to build out the prototype so that we can demonstrate the full functionality of our concept,” adds Mustafa Khan, who is also in his third year of the program. “We also plan to take our proprietary algorithm from its rudimentary form to a feature-complete version that will amaze our beta testers.”

In addition to Dempster and Khan, the MoveMatch team includes Ankit Batra, a third-year mechatronics engineering student at the University of Waterloo.

“The most memorable part of my Hatchery experience was conversing with our advisory board every week,” says Batra.

“We are very excited to be paving the steps for the future of at-home therapy and helping people with safe and quick recoveries.”

Cove Neurosciences Inc. – Bridging the gap between data engineering and neuroscience

Cove Neuroscience Inc. offers a software platform that can process and transform brain data to enhance interpretability and useability (photo: temet/iStock)

Brain data generated from neuroscience research projects is inherently complex. It can be very costly and time-consuming for companies to employ data engineering teams to process and interpret data from MRIs and EEGs at scale.

In response to these challenges, Cove Neurosciences Inc. has designed an easy-to-implement software platform that combines advanced neuroscience tools and machine learning technology to process and transform brain data, enhancing its interpretability and useability.

“Other software companies in the brain-data space are either targeted directly to consumers or patients, or they are focused on applying brain data to optimize neurosurgical pipelines,” says Nardin Samuel, a resident physician at University Health Network and alumna of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“Our company is well-poised to be a premiere leader in the neuroscience software space and we are confident that the Hatchery can provide the support and resources needed to achieve this goal.”

The company, which includes Irene Harmsen of University Health Network, is thrilled to see their platform progress to the Go-To-Market stage where they can grow their team and seek seed funding.

“Demo Day was very memorable – having the opportunity to showcase our company’s progress to date and sharing it with the Hatchery community was an amazing experience,” Samuel says.

L33T – Bringing bond issuance into the 21st Century using blockchain technology

L33T’s platform for bond issuance uses digital bonds executed on the blockchain (photo courtesy of L33T)

The Canadian corporate bond market is a place where large companies in need of capital borrow money by issuing debt securities that are then sold to investors. But despite the market’s large size when compared to stock markets, it has not fully embraced the digital revolution and continues to use legacy processes and systems.

L33T has created a platform for bond issuance that uses smart bonds, or digital bonds executed on the blockchain using smart contracts.

“Making it to the Go-to-Market stage certainly has its perks, such as additional funding and professional support, but it also comes with greater expectations,” says the Rotman School of Management’s Talal Alam-Eddine, who is L33T’s founder and CEO.

“We were also fortunate to have fantastic mentors and advisors throughout our Hatchery experiences – from Pitch-a-thon to NEST – with a truly global coverage from Singapore to Dubai.”

“We believe that through a combination of our market targeting, strategic partnership and technology decisions, we can be the first mover in our chosen market.”

While there are a few other players in the asset tokenization space – where existing assets are transformed into a digital form that resides on the blockchain – none of them are focused on the Canadian bond market, which is L33T’s niche. 

“Our technical architecture is focused on delivering a solution that optimizes our customers’ experience,” says Mishaal Kandapath, a student in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and L33T’s co-founder. “One of our main priorities is to get a prototype up and running. This is critical for pitches with prospective customers and investors.” 

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2022: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 19:42:37 +0000

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2022: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 03/07/2022 - 14:42

Mariam Matti

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Entrepreneurship Week

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab

Entrepreneneurship

Faculty of Arts & Science

Hospital for Sick Children

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Clockwise from top left: Carolina Gorodetsky, Olugbenga Olubanjo, Helen Kontozopoulos, Katheron Intson, Liran Belenzon, Mina Mitry, Jeffrey Fasegha, Sarah Watling, Javier Romualdez and Aidan Gomez.

The �ؿ�ζSM is hub for startup activity – with more than 10 campus-linked accelerators and a community of entrepreneurs that has spawned over 600 companies and raised in excess of $2 billion over the past decade.

From AI-fueled drug discovery to low-cost space exploration and apps that connect Black hairstylists and barbers with clients, U of T founders are finding solutions to a wide array of challenges while creating jobs and strengthening the economy.

While some high-profile U of T startups are connected to faculty members – examples include Brendan Frey’s Deep Genomics, which uses machine learning to develop treatments for genetic diseases, and Waabi, a self-driving technology startup founded by machine learning expert Raquel Urtasun – many more are launched by students, recent grads and other members of the U of T Entrepreneurship community.

With U of T’s virtual Entrepreneurship Week kicking off today, here are 10 exciting U of T startups to keep an eye on in 2022:

Cohere AI

Aidan Gomez

With human-machine interactions becoming increasingly common in modern society, Cohere is using AI-powered natural language processing to make it easier for people to talk to machines and vice versa.

The company, whose CEO Aidan Gomez is a protégé of deep learning pioneer and University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, has created a software platform that helps companies infuse natural language processing capabilities into their business offerings using tools like chatbots.

The company recently raised US$125-million in funding and is preparing to open an office in Silicon Valley.

“For the first time, we've brought to market an effective NLP solution that is practical, accessible, and safe,” Gomez said in a statement. “With the opening of our new Palo Alto office, we're continuing to scale in all directions, bringing aboard new talent and rapidly increasing our compute capacity to train our next generation large language models (LLMs).”

JALI Research

Sarah Watling

JALI Research also operates at the intersection of AI and language, but in a very different space: video games. The company’s hyper-realistic facial animation technology is a standout feature of one of the world’s best-selling video games in recent years: the dystopian action role-playing game Cyberpunk 2077.

Growing out of research in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and supported by the UTEST accelerator, JALI draws from AI and linguistics to develop tools that accurately map phenomes – the smallest isolatable elements of sound – to visemes, the corresponding mouth shapes we see on a person’s face as they make those sounds. This allows video game characters in Cyberpunk 2077 to look and sound hyper-realistic across different languages.

What’s more, JALI Research’s tools can be scaled up at a relatively low cost, making them financially viable even for smaller gaming studios.

CEO Sarah Watling credited U of T’s UTEST program with helping the company commercialize its research.

“The UTEST program is a great hybrid of courses – some of them through MaRS and others through partnerships with various mentors who support businesses in the startup life cycle, including IP law firms,” Watling told U of T News. “You get to work closely with the leadership of UTEST on various aspects, whether it’s thinking through your problem space or value proposition, or improving your pitch.”

Varient

Katheron Intson

The Varient team has built an online platform that can collect and aggregate de-identified data on treatment for people living with rare genetic diseases.

While the app has not yet launched, Varient was one of five winning teams at the U of T Entrepreneurship Hatchery’s pitch competition last year.

Founder Katheron Intson, who is completing her PhD in pharmacology and toxicology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, told U of T News that the pitch competition provided a valuable bridge between technology and business.

“I’ve been a scientist for my entire professional life, and the rest of my team are software developers,” she says. “The business aspect of starting a company was a real blind spot to us. The Hatchery provided us with guidelines that helped us redefine where we focused our energy and effort.”

ParkinSense

Carolina Gorodetsky

ParkinSense is another U of T startup that won in last year’s Hatchery competition.

Carolina Gorodetsky, a master’s student in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and pediatric neurologist and movement disorder specialist at the Hospital for Sick Children, and her team created a medical monitoring system that uses wearables to provide real-time data on the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

The goal is to expedite the treatment of Parkinson’s patients by enabling more effective interactions with physicians.

There’s also an app that can remind patients when it’s time to take their medication, as well as track the effectiveness of those medications over time.

Gorodetsky told U of T News that the seed funding will help with the company’s protype and volunteer testing plan. Her team includes: Akshata Puranik, a graduate from the U of T Institute for Aerospace Studies, and Christopher Lucasius, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering.

Reeddi

Olugbenga Olubanjo

When Olugbenga Olubanjo was a graduate student at U of T, he regularly got on the phone to speak with family and friends in his native Nigeria – only for calls to drop due to frequent power outages back home.

So, he decided to do something about it.

With the help of the Entrepreneurship Hatchery in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Olubanjo built up a startup, Reeddi, that’s dedicated to bringing clean and affordable electricity to energy-starved communities. Reeddi rents out portable and rechargeable batteries, powered by solar charging stations, to people in parts of the world that suffer from unreliable energy infrastructure. The batteries are rented at an affordable price, with customers incentivized to return them on time by earning credits toward future rentals.

Reeddi’s mission has garnered the company attention and numerous awards, ranging from financial support from the Lo Family Social Venture fund in 2020 to, more recently, being named one of the 15 finalists of the inaugural Earthshot Prize.

However, Olubanjo says his priority isn’t profit, but genuine social impact. “At the end of the day, it’s not only about making money. Anyone can make money, but it’s about the happiness that you give people,” he told U of T News.

Fyyne

Olugbenga Olubanjo

Fyyne, a startup that helps connect barbers and hairstylists who specialize in Black hair with potential clients, was one of the success stories of the RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship pitch competition held during last year’s Entrepreneurship Week – taking home the people’s choice award in the early-stage startup category.

The company has since gone from strength to strength, raising pre-seed funding from Canadian and American investors in October, and launching its platform in both countries in January, as reported by BetaKit.

The brainchild of U of T alumnus and former Rhodes Scholar Jeffrey Fasegha, Fyyne streamlines the process of booking hair services through an app that takes care of the entire process from finding hair artists to making reservations and payment.

Fasegha, the company’s CEO, co-founded the company with fellow U of T classmates Olubanjo – of Reeddi fame (see above) – and Al-Ameen Ogundiran.

StarSpec Technologies Inc.

Javier Romualdez

Javier Romualdez, StarSpec’s CEO and a former PhD student at U of T, wants to break down significant barriers to accessing space. That’s why he launched a satellite and space hardware company that aims to provide researchers and developers with cheap, highly functional gear.

“StarSpec is making space accessible through the availability of standardized sub-orbital technologies – satellites, hardware and software – that can allow researchers and technology developers to get access to space or near-space without the risk, cost and long development times associated with a typical space mission,” Romualdez told U of T News in June 2021.

StarSpec is already contributing to a 2025 NASA project by providing a balloon-based suborbital research vessel that will house and control the mission’s telescope. They’ve also been contracted to take part in several other NASA missions over the next few years.

The company’s ultimate goal is to create a world where space projects are no longer limited to governments, giant corporations or billionaires.

BenchSci

Liran Belenzon

BenchSci uses AI and machine learning to help scientists speed up the process of drug development and experimental design.

The company’s initial offering was a platform that helps scientists find and purchase antibodies for their experiments, but a recent injection of $63-million in Series C funding has the company poised to expand its services as it now looks to use AI to help scientists come up with hypotheses and make key experimental decisions. Its platform is already used by tens of thousands of scientists around the world, and clients include big-name pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sanofi.

Founded in 2015, BenchSci received support from the Creative Destruction Lab at U of T's Rotman School of Management, having previously worked with the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

In a 2019 interview with U of T News, CEO Liran Belenzon credited CDL in particular for giving the startup the tools “to connect business and technology and form a company around that.”

ODAIA

Helen Kontozopoulos

While BenchSci is engaged in using AI to help pharmaceutical companies create life-saving drugs, ODAIA is focused on helping the pharmaceutical sector use AI to boost their customer analytics, enrich commercial insights and drive informed sales prospecting.

Founded in 2018, ODAIA was spun out of research at U of T in collaboration with the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. The company’s software taps into existing data sources, including lab records, medical data and demographic information, and uses them to provide pharmaceutical firms with actionable insights that help them refine their sales efforts.

ODAIA was co-founded by Helen Kontozopoulos, an adjunct professor of computer science and co-founder of U of T’s DCSIL (Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab), who discussed her company’s journey at the Scaleup Showcase during the 2021 Entrepreneurship Week. ODAIA also counts several other current and former U of T researchers among its core team.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it raised $17.5-million in Series A funding.

Kepler Communications

Mina Mitry

One of a growing number of space technology companies to emerge from U of T in recent years, Kepler Communications is on a mission to build a satellite internet network in space.

Founded by alumni from U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, the company has brought in nearly US$100-million in total since its founding in 2015.

Kepler has 19 satellites operating in orbit to act as a testbed for its space-focused internet service, with a goal of putting more than 200 satellites into orbit and being fully operational by 2023.

CEO Mina Mitry, who has a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from U of T, told CNBC that the company is “focused on providing communications to space stations, to other satellites, to allow them to bring their information back down to Earth in real time.”

While the satellites are bult in the company’s Toronto headquarters, Mitry told CNBC that Kepler is planning to expand internationally, including the addition of a U.S. office.

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci raises $63 million in funding: The Globe and Mail, Betakit

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:05:23 +0000

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci raises $63 million in funding: The Globe and Mail, Betakit

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 01/24/2022 - 16:05

Cutline

Clockwise from top left: BenchSci co-founders and U of T alumni Liran Belenzon, Elvis Wianda, David Chen and Tom Leung (photo courtesy of BenchSci)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

BenchSci, a �ؿ�ζSM startup that uses machine learning to help scientists speed up the process of drug development, has raised $63 million from investors as it looks to expand its platform, The Globe and Mail and Betakit reported.

The latest round of funding was led by Montreal-based Inovia Capital and American private equity firm TCV alongside BenchSci’s previous investors, which include Google’s Gradient Ventures.

CEO Liran Belenzon told the Globe that the company will use the money to double its 200-strong workforce and expand beyond its initial focus – helping scientists find and purchase antibodies for preclinical biomedical research – to more broadly “leverage the history of science to make better decisions.” That includes using AI to help scientists craft hypotheses and experimental designs and make other key decisions in their experiments.

BenchSci's platform is used by 4,500 research institutions and 49,000 scientists around the world, according to Betakit, and its clients include several leading pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sanofi. Founded in 2015, BenchSci received support from the Creative Destruction Lab at U of T's Rotman School of Management, having previously worked with the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

Read the story in The Globe and Mail

Read the story on Betakit

Startup founders share journeys at Indo-Canadian Entrepreneurship Exchange event

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 16:02:13 +0000

Startup founders share journeys at Indo-Canadian Entrepreneurship Exchange event

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 10/27/2021 - 12:02

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Clockwise from top left: Saket Modi, CEO and co-founder Safe Security, Vishakha Singh, vice-president of WazirX, Manmeet Maggu, co-founder and CEO of Trexo Robotics and Ankit Mehta, CEO of ideaForge.

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

DCSIL

Global

Rotman School of Management

India

When Manmeet Maggu’s nephew Praneit was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, the then-engineering student set out to find a wearable robotics product that could help his nephew walk. After failing to find a solution on the market, he decided to build his own – and so Trexo Robotics was born.

“Watching Praneit walk is definitely the proudest moment in my life. It allowed us to realize – for him – experiences that would not have been possible otherwise,” said Maggu. “Our goal with this technology is to give every child who wants to walk the opportunity to walk.”

Maggu was one of four startup founders who discussed their entrepreneurial journeys at the ICEE Speaker Series last week. The event was organized by the Indo-Canadian Entrepreneurship Exchange (ICEE), a new program offered by U of T in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) and IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) incubator.

Moderated by Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship, the discussion also featured Ankit Mehta, CEO of India-based drone manufacturer ideaForge; Vishakha Singh, vice-president of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace WazirX; and Saket Modi, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity and data science startup Safe Security.

ICEE will create opportunities for students, entrepreneurs and faculty in Toronto and Mumbai – and generate high-impact research and innovation to address a range of challenges, French said. He added plans include “a two-week innovation bootcamp where entrepreneurs from both Toronto and Mumbai are able to immerse themselves, integrate and be a part of the local ecosystems in each of these two great cities.”

Participants will be able to connect with “the investor community, the non-profit and foundations in each of these two communities – and also gain exposure to other startups, have working space and be able to experience what it’s like in the two countries – and learn from each other as well,” French said.

In his remarks, Maggu noted that U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem played a key role in helping Trexo Robotics take its early steps.

After building and testing an early prototype of a robotic exoskeleton with Praneit, Maggu and friend Rahul Udasi co-founded Trexo Robotics in 2016 while Maggu was doing his MBA at the �ؿ�ζSM’s Rotman School of Management and Udasi was completing his master’s degree in engineering at the �ؿ�ζSM.

The company graduated from the Creative Destruction Lab accelerator at Rotman, and also received support from the Entrepreneurship Hatchery at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL). Trexo Robotics then went through the accelerator programs of U.S.-based Techstars and Y Combinator.

Today, the company’s exoskeletons are being used in homes and hospitals around the world.

Manmeet Maggu’s nephew Praneit played a key role in the development of Trexo Robotics by testing early prototypes of the company’s child-sized robotic exoskeletons, which are now being used in homes and hospitals around the world.

Asked how startup founders should decide which accelerator programs to enrol in, Maggu said it’s difficult to go wrong with U of T’s programs.

“For programs that are part of a university – like CDL, the Hatchery, H2i and DCSIL – there’s generally a lot of upside and very little downside to participating in these programs,” Maggu said. “You’re really opened up to an amazing network of not just other founders, but mentors and advisers, as well as future investors.”

Among the questions Maggu said he had to confront early in Trexo Robotics’s journey was how to balance having a social impact with running a scalable, revenue-generating business.

“I like to think of it as: what is the way that maximizes the impact of your idea?” said Maggu. “Could we open-source all of our code and designs and put it on the web? Will that maximize impact? We soon realized that’s just not going to do anything at all.

“If you want to really maximize the reach of your product, you have to build a very successful business. You need to have IP; you need to able to raise capital from the best venture capitalists in the world; you need to scale it up; you need to have really good margins – so that you can grow the business and expand its reach all over the world.”

Mehta’s company ideaForge was incubated in IIT Bombay’s SINE program. He said his experience spearheading hardware projects on modest budgets while studying engineering set him up for a career in entrepreneurship.

“The first prototype that I built was from 1,500 rupees [around $25 CAD] that I borrowed from a project that my professor was running. From that point to then spending close to $10,000 of my institute’s money on my ideas – I felt that I was really privileged,” he said.

“I thought I should build on this privilege even though I knew that doing hardware in India was going to be extremely challenging. I felt that if not us – then who else?”

Today, ideaForge is India’s largest manufacturer of drones for defence, homeland security and industrial applications. It’s also the first home-grown company to develop Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drones in India.

Modi, whose cybersecurity firm Safe Security was also incubated in SINE, discussed how being backed by a world-renowned, higher education brand like IIT Bombay helped him secure the time and attention of potential clients and investors early in the company’s development.

Today, Safe Security counts the likes of Google, Facebook, British Telecom, Munich Re and KFC among its clients.

“There is a transfer of trust as a new startup because nobody knows about your brand, nobody knows who you are, nobody knows about what you’re trying to do,” Modi said. “But the moment you say ‘I’m incubated at IIT Bombay’ – it just means you’ll probably get that first meeting, which a lot of people are trying to get.”

That’s an advantage U of T entrepreneurs can relate to, French noted. “You still need to have the business and be able to walk the talk, but [you can] leverage the brand of our respective institutions.”

For Singh, who acted in and produced several films in India, the move to entrepreneurship was a journey of self-discovery.

“Over the last few years, I’ve realized that I have a huge appetite for risk,” said the vice-president of WazirX NFT Marketplace, a Bengaluru-based NFT platform for digital artists and creators.

Singh said entrepreneurship, much like show business, is about the hard work behind the scenes rather than the glamour on the surface.

“Being an entrepreneur is not about glamour, it’s not about being ‘cool’… it’s a thankless job until you make it. And when you make it, people generally tend to forget about the hard work that you’ve put in.”

As a young entrepreneur, Singh said she hopes to contribute to the evolution of startup workplace culture. “Earlier, startup culture was all about working 24-7, success at all costs, becoming a unicorn,” she said. “The pandemic has proved that none of it matters if we’re not healthy, if we’re not taking care of our mental health and if we’re not spending time with family.

“I think it’s time for founders like us to change startup culture and focus on ensuring a healthy work-life balance not just for ourselves, but for our team members as well.”

Five startups to watch from U of T Engineering’s 2021 virtual Demo Day event

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 21:10:06 +0000

Five startups to watch from U of T Engineering’s 2021 virtual Demo Day event

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 09/28/2021 - 17:10

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Nightingale.ai, an AI-enabled platform that enables physiotherapists and their patients to connect remotely, is one of five startups that won prizes at The Entrepreneurship Hatchery's annual Demo Day event (photo courtesy of Nightingale.ai)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Artificial Intelligence

Cities

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Geography and Planning

Hospital for Sick Children

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Mathematics

Rotman Commerce

Rotman School of Management