Black Founders Network

Alumni

Dentistry

Health Innovation Hub

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

HDAX Therapeutics is focused on developing treatments for peripheral nerve damage, which can result from chemotherapy or radiation

Pain, numbness, sore muscles and even paralysis. These are some of the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, an often-debilitating condition associated with chemotherapy, radiation and other cancer treatments.

Such peripheral nerve damage can be temporary, but for some, it never goes away.

“There’s often really nothing for these patients except just symptom management and putting fingers and toes in a bucket of ice,” says Nabanita Nawar, who holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the �ؿ�ζSM.

Nawar is the CEO and a co-founder of HDAX Therapeutics, a startup that grew out of technology developed in U of T Mississauga’s department of chemical and physical sciences. The company is currently working on treatments that focus on HDAC 6, a protein that has been implicated in cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders – including the peripheral nerve damage experienced by many cancer patients.

“We are essentially developing new medicine for diseases that have a transport problem in the body,” Nawar says, referring to the protein’s key role in multiple cellular processes.

HDAX’s patented mechanism targets HDAC 6 to return damaged neurons to health.

“Our target, HDAC6, plays a key role in regulating microtubule stability and thus, affects axonal transport,” explained Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul, who also earned a PhD at U of T and is now chief operations officer at HDAX. “In diseased states for indications that we are targeting, these axonal transports are impaired resulting in nerve degeneration, which results in symptoms in patients.”

By using a “two-site binding modality,” the startup’s technology essentially holds the target with two figurative hands instead of one – like many of its competitors – providing a tighter grip on the protein and a key competitive advantage.

The treatment, still in pre-clinical testing, would be delivered in the form of an oral pill.

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

The HDAX team also plans to apply the startup’s technology to target transport mechanisms in cardio-metabolic diseases, including heart failure.

Manaswiyoungkul met Nawar in the lab when they were pursing doctoral studies. She says Nawar, who was on the medicinal chemistry side, would give her compounds to evaluate.

“The flow of how we worked in the lab helped us connect,” Manaswiyoungkul says.

Working with fellow researchers Elvin de Araujo and Olasunkanmi Olaoye, it wasn’t long before Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul shifted their focus to the challenges of translating their promising research into a viable business.

The team established HDAX in 2021 and received its first big funding injection – and a confidence boost – a few months later when it won a bio-venture pitch competition hosted by Medicine by Design, a U of T institutional strategic initiative focused on regenerative medicine and cell therapy.

“That was the first thing that made us think, ‘OK, this may be a real company – this could really be something.’ It wasn’t just in our heads,” Nawar says.

HDAX has since attracted a total of $1.3 million in funding, Manaswiyoungkul says, noting the company and its five full-time employees is now preparing for its first seed round funding.

The work of Nawar, Manaswiyoungkul and their teammates hasn’t gone unnoticed. The two founders recently earned an unexpected individual accolade: inclusion in the Forbes list of 30 under 30 Torontonians. When the Forbes email landed in Nawar’s inbox, she says she was so surprised she wondered if it was spam.

As it turns out, the duo were nominated by one of their early U of T mentors, Paul Santerre, a professor in the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“The [HDAX] technology circumvents toxicity in neuro and cardiac drugs, with amazing efficacy demonstrated in their neuro models,” Santerre says, adding that Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul “not only accomplished novel, impactful findings during their PhD/post doc training, but did the work to accelerate their evolution to becoming serious entrepreneurs.”

Along the way, the startup received extensive support from the U of T entrepreneurship community, which ranks first in Canada for research-based startups and among the top five globally for university startup accelerators. In particular, HDAX worked with UTEST, the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) and the Black Founders Network.

Santerre says one of the keys to U of T’s successful entrepreneurial support network is its “no wrong door” policy.

“This means, regardless of where you come from at U of T, you will be supported by the incubators that best fit your venture,” he says.

Manaswiyoungkul’s advice for students thinking about making the leap into entrepreneurship? Just go for it.

“U of T is a very accepting community and there’s always someone who has more experience and the willingness to help take your ideas forward.”

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2023: Top 10 startups to watch

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 16:01:59 +0000

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2023: Top 10 startups to watch

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/02/2023 - 11:01

Cutline

(supplied images)

Mariam Matti

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Psychology

Self-Driving Cars

St. Michael's Hospital

Startups

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

A plant-based alternative to conventional plastic. Using drones to tackle reforestation in wildfire-ravaged locations. And a new generation of self-driving technologies that leverage the full potential of artificial intelligence.

These are just some innovative ideas that have emerged from the �ؿ�ζSM’s entrepreneurship community in recent years.

Ranked one of the top five university business incubators in the world, U of T Entrepreneurship is set to celebrate these and other startups, as well as their founders, during its annual U of T Entrepreneurship Week from March 6 to 9. The schedule includes pitch competitions, workshops, panel discussions and the popular True Blue Expo, which will feature the founders of more than 40 of U of T’s top startups.

Another highlight: Raquel Urtasun, founder and CEO of Waabi and a U of T professor of computer science, will discuss lessons learned while building her self-driving vehicle company at the Desjardins Speakers Series on March 9.

Here are 10 exciting U of T startups to keep an eye on in 2023:

Arma Biosciences

The ability to give patients agency over their own health monitoring was one of the reasons Surath Gomis co-founded Arma Biosciences. The startup’s goal is to develop a new sensor technology for biomarker-informed digital health care. In partnership with Analog Devices, work on the company’s first product is underway – a handheld finger-prick blood test for patients with heart failure.

With a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from U of T, Gomis established the company in 2020 with his supervisor Shana Kelley, a researcher in U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

Gomis hopes future products will include wearable, implantable and ingestible sensors for monitoring applications.

Erthos

U of T alumnae Nuha Siddiqui and Kritika Tyagi are working to transform the plastic industry for the better. In 2018, the pair co-founded Erthos, a company that offers fully biodegradable plant-based material as a replacement for single-use plastics.

Erthos creates resins using materials that are both compostable and microplastic-free – and compatible with existing manufacturing technology. Siddiqui and Tyagi recently made the Forbes list of 30 under 30 in the social impact category, which noted that Erthos has raised more than US$5.5 million in funding.

TransCrypts

Ali Zaheer and Zain Zaidi co-founded TransCrypts to transform digital privacy and security. Back in 2020, they set out to answer a simple question: “Why can’t consumers own their important documentation digitally and in a way that can be easily verified?”

TransCrypts – which took home a $10,000 second-place startup prize at a U of T pitch competition during last year’s Entrepreneurship Week – is a blockchain-based document verification platform that gives people direct access to their official documents, such as medical records. Supported by U of T Scarborough’s The Hub, Zaheer and Zaidi have already helped thousands of Ukrainian refugees access medical records through a pilot project and landed US$2.4 million in funding from backers including Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban.

Waabi

A world-leading expert in machine learning and computer vision, Raquel Urtasun was inspired to start Waabi when she recognized a need for a new generation of self-driving technologies that leverage AI’s full potential. Backed by high-profile investors, including Volvo and Uber, the company is leading the way when it comes to the next generation of self-driving solutions.

The company recently launched Waabi World, an advanced simulator to test its autonomous vehicles, and Waabi Driver, its first generation of self-driving trucks. Urtasun says she focused on the long-haul trucking sector because it’s one of the most dangerous occupations – not to mention an industry that suffers from a shortage of drivers.

WooYourBoo

Husband-and-wife co-founders La Vance and Colleen Dotson – head coach of the U of T Track & Field Club – are the entrepreneurial force behind a slick dating app for people already in relationships.

WooYourBoo aims to help partners reconnect and better communicate with each other through quizzes, activities and rewards.

“Our goal is to create depth and help you reconnect with this person that you’ve committed to – and make it fun,” Colleen recently told U of T News.

The Dotsons say that U of T’s Black Founders Network was instrumental in building WooYourBoo, which was among the inaugural cohort of the BFN Accelerate Program.

OTI Lumionics

OTI Lumionics could change the look of the smartphone in your pocket.

Founded by U of T alumnus Michael Helander, the company has been working on expanding its line of organic LED technology solutions – including smartphone screens that are uninterrupted by notches, which are currently needed to house front-facing cameras and other equipment in some smartphone designs.

The company, which was spun out of research at U of T, has collaborated with Microsoft Quantum and, most recently, their name has been connected to Apple as a key supplier for a future notch-free iPhone.

Flash Forest

Flash Forest, a startup with ties to U of T Mississauga, is fighting climate change and restoring forests by leveraging the use of drones, AI, geographic information systems and plant science technology.

The company – which received support from U of T’s Mississauga’s ICUBE incubator – recently inked a federal contract to use drones to plant more than one million trees over the next two years in wildfire-ravaged locations across Canada.

The co-founders, brothers Bryce and Cameron Jones, say they are focused on restoring severe wildfire sites where the seed pods and cones are lost.

Signal 1

Signal 1 is looking to transform health care by equipping doctors and nurses with real-time AI predictions.

The company, co-founded by CEO Tomi Poutanen, a U of T alumnus, and Mara Lederman, professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management, has built a machine learning tool called CHARTWatch that can help predict how much support a patient will need.

The tool was originally developed at St. Michael’s Hospital by a team led by Signal 1's clinical adviser Muhammad Mamdani, who is vice-president of data science and advanced analytics at Unity Health Toronto and holds cross-appointments at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

The surgical unit at St. Michael’s Hospital has already begun using CHARTWatch to help care teams communicate and make decisions.

Mounib Real Food Only

When U of T Scarborough alumna Iman Mounib encountered gut health issues, she took it upon herself to create products that are free of refined sugars, palm oils, gluten and dairy.

She founded Mounib Real Food Only, which sells a chocolate hazelnut spread made of just three local ingredients. The company also makes a peanut chocolate spread, as well as an almond chocolate version. Mounib’s goal was to create alternatives to popular products that are both tasty and good for you.

The products are sold in almost 20 restaurants, cafes and stores in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as one location in Ottawa.

HippoCamera

HippoCamera is a smartphone application that helps to improve memory recall, which could be beneficial for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of memory impairment.

Backed by years of research at U of T, the app has an easy-to-use interface and is a personalized way to boost recall of daily experiences and enhance activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory.

Morgan Barense, a professor in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science and co-author of a recent study on the technology, said her team found that memories that were associated with the HippoCamera were long-lasting – and that the device worked for both healthy older adults and those starting to show cognitive decline.

Learn more about U of Entrepreneurship Week

U of T Scarborough partners with Federation of Black Canadians to support Black entrepreneurs

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:12:43 +0000

U of T Scarborough partners with Federation of Black Canadians to support Black entrepreneurs

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/22/2023 - 09:12

Cutline

From left to right: Efosa Obano, Chris Thompson, Ebenezer Oteng, Filomena Tassi, Wisdom Tettey and Gary Anandasangaree (photo by Dylan Toombs)

Don Campbell

Topic

The �ؿ�ζSM Scarborough and the Federation of Black Canadians are partnering on a new project that will support the next generation of Black entrepreneurs.

The partnership is part of a $1.3-million investment announced by the federal government for the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC), a Black-led non-profit organization aimed at enhancing services that support and mentor Black youth and young adult entrepreneurs.

Filomena Tassi, the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, made the announcement at U of T Scarborough’s Catalyst Centre on Feb. 21.

“The Federation of Black Canadians will provide a vital platform for young Black entrepreneurs to develop, launch and scale-up their businesses with the investment announced today,” said Tassi, who was joined by Gary Anandasangaree, MP for Scarborough–Rouge Park.

The Federation of Black Canadians will collaborate with U of T Scarborough, The BRIDGE and U of T’s Black Founders Network (BFN) to conduct research, including surveys, in Black communities across Ontario, Alberta and Quebec. The goal is to determine the needs, obstacles and structural challenges faced by young Black entrepreneurs. The findings will help create programming, including a four-month entrepreneurial program focused on business planning, finance, risk management, legislation and commercialization – all aimed at supporting the success of Black entrepreneurs.

The BRIDGE will also partner with the federation to support the creation of a 12-month mentorship program that offers one-on-one support from leaders in the Black community aimed at building professional networks and expanding social capital. Topics will include managing stress, debt, technology, brand and business development, as well as mental wellness.

Founded in 2017, the Federation of Black Canadians works to further the social, economic, political and cultural interests of Black Canadians. It focuses on community programming, hosts workshops, conducts research projects, organizes community events and supports capacity building.

U of T Vice-President and Principal of U of T Scarborough Wisdom Tettey speaks with MP Gary Anandasangaree and MP Filomena Tassi at U of T Scarborough's Catalyst Centre (photo by Dylan Toombs)

Chris Thompson, the executive director of the Federation of Black Canadians, said the funding ties directly into the organization’s mandate to ensure economic security and inspire the next generation of Black entrepreneurs.

“Through our partnership with U of T Scarborough, The BRIDGE and the Black Founders Network, participants will gain access to passionate facilitators and mentors, as well as a greater understanding of what it means to be an entrepreneur and what goes into developing a business,” said Thompson.

The investment by the federal government, made through the Black Entrepreneurship Program Ecosystem Fund, will support the Federation of Black Canadians to provide tools and resources to 170 Black youth entrepreneurs in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.

Wisdom Tettey, U of T vice-president and principal of U of T Scarborough, said the funding will help provide a lift to Black youth entrepreneurs and help them access resources that might otherwise be beyond reach.

“It’s important to recognize that Black entrepreneurship is Canadian entrepreneurship, and Canadian entrepreneurship is worse for it when there is no space for Black entrepreneurs to thrive and flourish,” said Tettey.

“It fills me with immense pride that our campus is part of the ecosystem fund and it’s a privilege to be a key partner in unleashing the full potential of Black entrepreneurs.”

Efosa Obano, program manager at the Black Founders Network, said his organization will support capacity-building and help create more pathways for Black entrepreneurs to connect with skilled employees.

“Capacity-building is critical,” said Obano, who founded the African Impact Initiative while he was an undergraduate student at U of T Scarborough.

“Giving folks funding when they aren’t ready can lead to mistakes. We want to help make sure entrepreneurs have the capacity and resources they need to take their idea forward.”

Relationship feeling stale? WooYourBoo startup to help couples reconnect

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 19:56:57 +0000

Relationship feeling stale? WooYourBoo startup to help couples reconnect

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 02/13/2023 - 14:56

Cutline

Colleen and La Vance Dotson, members of U of T's Black Founders Network, co-founded WooYourBoo to help couples better communicate with each other through features such as quizzes, activities and rewards (photo courtesy of WooYourBoo)

Adina Bresge

Topic

City & Culture

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Relationships

Startups

Falling in love is easy — but staying in love takes work.

That’s why husband-and-wife co-founders La Vance and Colleen Dotson decided to launch a dating app tailored for more seasoned lovebirds — couples who want to “swipe right” on strengthening their relationship.

Supported by the �ؿ�ζSM’s Black Founders Network, WooYourBoo is a digital platform that aims to help partners reconnect and better communicate with each other through features such as quizzes, activities and rewards.

Colleen says the app is designed to reignite the excitement of courtship by emulating the gamified thrill of swiping through profiles on a matchmaking app.

“Social media is not designed to be social in the way it nurtures relationships,” says Colleen, who is also head coach of the U of T Track & Field Club.

“Our goal is to create depth and help you reconnect with this person that you’ve committed to — and make it fun.”

The idea for WooYourBoo, which is set to launch in the coming weeks, stems from the Dotsons’ own relationship trajectory over nearly 15 years, three children and two countries.

La Vance first met Colleen at the University of Central Missouri, where he was playing football and she was coaching track and field while earning her master’s degree. But as time went on, their initial infatuation gave way to the familiar challenges of sustaining a long-term relationship.

One day, Colleen decided to tell La Vance how she was feeling: “You don’t woo me anymore.”

La Vance says he felt both offended and inspired.

“Up until that point, I had men teaching me how to go pick up a woman. No one had ever sat me down and said, this is how you actually have a successful relationship,” says La Vance. “What she was actually communicating to me was that ‘You don’t make me feel loved.’

“I told her that it’s not that I don’t want to. I just simply don’t know how to.”

La Vance recalls wishing that there was an app he could download to guide him; Colleen suggested it calling it WooYourBoo.

The resulting startup is built on the pair’s learnings as they worked to better communicate their love with each other. The “love expressions” quiz, for example, allows users to swipe through a series of prompts asking them to pick between two romantic options — spending quality time together or getting a small gift. Your “boo” can then take a test to see if they can guess your preferences.

The app also uses that data to make suggestions about ways you can make your partner feel loved and work toward mutual goals. There’s also a feature that awards users points for putting in the effort.

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A post shared by WooYourBoo (@wooeternal)

The Dotsons say the Black Founders Network (BFN) has been instrumental in building WooYourBoo, which was among the inaugural cohort of the BFN Accelerate Program.

“When you’re in a space with people who may come the same background as you, who may talk like you and look like you and have a similar experience, it makes accomplishing any task a lot easier,” La Vance says.

“It’s helping us connect with people and other organizations that on our own we may not have access to, but through the community of the BFN, we do.”

BFN founder and manager Efosa Obano says the couple’s focus on building connections could be a competitive advantage in a crowded dating app market.

“I think it’s really going to take off because it’s so much more than just matching with someone based on their profile pictures,” Obano says. “They’ve taken a more thoughtful approach to helping you understand yourself and how you connect with others and coaching you through every phase of your dating or relationship journey.”

The Dotsons say they can personally attest to WooYourBoo’s effectiveness. They’re also betting there are many other couples who can relate to their struggles.

“You have to keep wooing your boo because you’re going to discover more things to love about them that you didn’t know were there,” says Colleen. “It becomes exciting because you get to date that person all over again.

“It could be a new relationship every time if you allow it to be.”

Black History Month 2023: What's on across U of T's three campuses

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:58:26 +0000

Black History Month 2023: What's on across U of T's three campuses

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/01/2023 - 12:58

Cutline

Volunteers serve food at the annual Black History Month Luncheon three years ago, when the event was last held in-person (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Adina Bresge

Topic

City & Culture

Canadian Black Scientists Network

Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office

Black

Black History Month

Cinema Studies

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Film

Hart House

Innis College

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Rotman School of Management

Toronto International Film Festival

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

From dance parties to thought-provoking panels and celebrations of Black excellence, the �ؿ�ζSM is hosting a wide array of events across the three campuses to mark Black History Month.

Members of the U of T community will have the chance to come together to learn, reflect, share stories, have fun and engage in self-care at conferences, cultural events and celebrations throughout February.

Rounding out the calendar is the annual Black History Month Luncheon, which is being held in-person and will spotlight Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey.

Here’s a sampling of the events on offer throughout the month.

Feb 1. – Feb. 4

BE-STEMM 2023 Conference

The Canadian Black Scientists Network is hosting a four-day virtual conference that brings together researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine and Health (STEMM). The agenda includes talks by leading Black scholars across disciplines, networking sessions and opportunities to mentor the next generation of scientists.

Feb. 1

Ghetto Fabulous: Black Y2K Party

Time to pull out your finest threads from the 1990s and 2000s for this throwback bash, hosted by the Black Students’ Association at U of T, reclaiming the word “ghetto” and celebrating the Black subculture of the era.

Feb. 2 – Feb. 3

Re/Viewing, Re/Visioning, and Re/Imagining Black Canada Symposium

This two-day symposium, co-hosted by U of T and York University, will provide a forum for Canadian and American scholars to reckon with themes raised in the recent volume Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History, published by �ؿ�ζSM Press. The event will engage participants in the latest debates, research and theories in Black Canadian history/studies to better understand how scholarship has evolved to offer a more expansive and nuanced view of Black Canadian experiences.

Feb. 4

Black Excellence Kiki Ball

You better bring your A game to this sports-themed kiki at U of T's Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Guests can warm up with a beginner-friendly vogue dance workshop led by Legendary House Mother Snoopy of the Disney Kiki House. Then get ready for a ballroom battle celebrating game-changing Black athletes such as Colin Kaepernick, Simone Biles and Venus and Serena Williams.

Feb. 6

Black History Month Symposium – What Has Changed: The Role of Attitudinal Barriers to Advancing Black Inclusion

Hosted by the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, this event will examine attitudinal barriers that contribute to anti-Black racism in post-secondary environments and discuss strategies to address this systemic problem. It includes a performance by U of T alumna Michelle Bookal and opening remarks by Njoki Wane, chair of the department of social justice education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and Charmaine Williams, dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Panellists include: Cherilyn Scobie Edwards, director of the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Office at U of T Scarborough; Andrew Campbell, assistant professor at OISE; Nancy Simms, adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law; and Teeanna Munro, project co-ordinator in the Black Perspectives Office at Concordia University.

Feb. 8

Kickoff Panel for Black Histories Wikipedia & Wikidata Edit-a-thon

This is your chance to contribute to Wikipedia through a series editing sessions focused on Black histories. The events are co-organized by U of T and other universities in collaboration with the Toronto Public Library. Funké Aladejebi, an assistant professor in the department of history in the Faculty of Arts & Science, moderates the kickoff panel featuring multidisciplinary artist Debbie Ebanks Schlums and Jonsaba Jabbi, co-founder of Building A Black Archive.

Feb. 9

Tastes of Culture 2022-23: African Perspective

U of T Mississauga’s International Education Centre and Hart House co-present this virtual cooking session that will bring the tastes of Ghana to your home kitchen. Chef Kwame Owusu-Afriyie Nsafoah will show how to make stewed black-eyed peas and krakro (plantain fritters) to be paired with jollof rice and stuffed into a burrito.

Feb. 9

The Intersecting Identities that Inspire Our Excellence

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health hosts a celebration of Black leaders across a range of fields for a discussion on how their intersecting identities inform their work. Panellists include: Toronto Argonauts linebacker Hénoc Muamba; Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a former MP and business consultant; Jason Faulkner, owner and clothing designer of Spread Love; Stella Djulus, visual artist and founder of Arts by Stella; and Kevin Allwood, owner of Allwood MKRT & KaSpace Café.

Feb. 10

Rest as Resistance

This session, hosted by Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, invites Black participants to slow down and engage in community care. After starting the session with gentle meditation and movement, Yamikani Msosa will facilitate a dialogue about how both rest and action can be forms of resistance in the fight against anti-Black racism.

Feb. 13

Pop-Up Barbershop

Get a free trim, fade or braid while testing your hip-hop knowledge at this pop-up hosted by Hart House Hip Hop Education in partnership with beauty services finder Fyyne, co-founded by Jeff Fasegha, a U of T graduate and a member of the of the Black Founders Network.

Feb. 15

Our Stories: Black History Month

Learn from the lived experiences of three U of T students as they share their stories at this virtual event co hosted by U of T Scarborough’s International Student Centre, U of T Mississauga’s International Education Centre and the St. George Centre for International Experience.

Feb. 16

Black Health Leaders Recognition Ceremony

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health hosts its inaugural recognition ceremony celebrating Black leaders in Toronto’s public health and health systems. This year’s recipients are: Fatimah Jackson-Best, project manager at the Black Health Alliance and assistant professor at McMaster University; Cynthia Damba, director of health analytics at Ontario Health, Toronto Region; and Jacqueline Silvera, director of inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and anti-racism with the University of Health Network.

Feb. 17

Hip Hop Family Skate Day

Skaters of all ages are invited to hit the ice at Varsity Arena and glide along to the sounds of hip-hop, R&B and Afrobeats curated by DJ Mel Boogie. Professional figure skaters Chloe Panetta and Kieran Thrasher will be on hand to offer tips and perform a routine.

Feb. 22

Black Ice: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

U of T's Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE), Innis College and the Cinema Studies Institute present a special screening of Black Ice, an acclaimed documentary tracing the history of anti-Black racism in hockey, from the 19th century to the present-day. Director Hubert Davis will join KPE faculty members Janelle Joseph and Simon Darnell for a discussion of the film, which counts LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter as executive producers.

Feb. 23

Panel Discussion on Black-Led Community Space

Isaac Olowolafe Jr. of the Dream Legacy Foundation, Amina Mohamed of the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation and Alica Hall of Nia Centre for the Arts engage in conversation about the need for community spaces built by and for Black communities. The event – sponsored by the Infrastructure Institute at U of T’s School of Cities and co-hosted by the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation – comes on the heels of a joint report examining gaps in public investment in and access to Black-led social infrastructure in Toronto.

(photo by Johnny Guatto)

Feb. 24

21st Annual Black History Month Luncheon

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey is set to give the keynote address at this year’s celebration of Black excellence, continuing a more than two-decade-long tradition that has become Black History Month’s marquee event at the university. Community members will come together at Hart House and be treated to delicious food, captivating speakers and dynamic performances.

Feb. 25

Future Black Business Leaders Conference

Black business leaders will share their tips for success with the next generation of power players at this conference hosted by the Rotman School of Management. Attendees will have the chance to connect with top industry professionals and learn more about Rotman’s scholarships and awards for future Black leaders.

Feb. 28

Lecture/Recital with Beau Dixon

Actor, musician and playwright Beau Dixon returns to U of T to discuss his creation and curation of the Stratford Festival’s Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America. The event will also feature performances by Dixon and singers from the Faculty of Music.

Feb. 28

The Self-Care Fair

There are plenty of ways to decompress at this Hart House event aimed at encouraging self-care for Black students. Relaxing activities include painting, aromatherapy ball-making, guided meditation, massages and board games.

Black Founders Network celebrates a year of Black excellence in entrepreneurship

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 20:11:21 +0000

Black Founders Network celebrates a year of Black excellence in entrepreneurship

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 11/01/2022 - 16:11

Cutline

Olugbenga Olubanjo, an alumnus and founder of clean energy startup Reeddi, delivers a presentation during a recent event in U of T's Convocation Hall (photo by Alyssa K. Faoro)

Alyson Bruce

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

U of T Entrepreneurship

Alumni

Startups

More than 200 entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, students and community supporters gathered at the �ؿ�ζSM recently to mark the first anniversary of the Black Founders Network (BFN) and celebrate the achievements of its inaugural BFN Accelerate cohort of entrepreneurs.

“What brought me to the BFN was the community of like-minded founders all working to build amazing things,” said Olugbenga Olubanjo, founder of Reeddi, one of eleven startups to complete the BFN Accelerate’s four-month bootcamp.

“The community is designed to help us grow, find solutions to challenges and meet our desired outcomes. What I loved most was learning from the experts who were engaged with us through BFN Accelerate.”

Members of the BFN Accelerate 2022 cohort pose for a photo outside Convocation Hall (photo by Alyssa K. Faoro)

Reeddi took home the top Venture Award prize from the event, with funding awards also going to startups Fyyne, HDAX Therapeutics, Woo Your Boo, and Elev.

Part of the response to the recommendations in the final report of U of T’s Anti-Black Racism Task Force, the BFN works to create an inclusive community for Black entrepreneurs from ideation to scaleup – and support them as they launch, fund and scale impactful businesses. Since launching, the BFN has hosted and supported more than 30 events, engaged with over 50 mentors and advisers, and received support from more than 20 community and corporate organizations – including new corporate donor KPMG, which announced at the event that it will be funding grants to early-stage Black founders.

Efosa Obano is the founder and program manager at the Black Founders Network (photo by Alyssa K. Faoro)

“We are overwhelmed with gratitude for all the community support BFN has received in its first year,” said BFN program manager Efosa Obano. “Everything we have achieved together in such a short time validates the need for what we are building.

“It’s only year one and I’m very excited for what is to come.”

Here are six BFN Accelerate startups to watch:

AfterData AI

Co-founded by U of T alumnus Anu Oladele, Afterdata AI enables organizations to understand their own data by helping them access, connect and explore existing datasets in easy and interactive ways. The AI startup recently raised $250,000 in funding from a U.S. based venture capital firm.

Aworie

Founded by U of T alumna and social entrepreneur Rae Massop, Aworie provides convenient, affordable and accessible mental health services for marginalized Canadians. With quickly growing revenues, the health-care startup recently crossed the 500-customer mark.

Blair + Jack

Dr. Bimpe Ayeni, a board-certified plastic surgeon and U of T lecturer in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, co-founded Blair + Jack to address common skincare problems experienced by men and simplify the process of having physician-formulated skincare delivered without a prescription. The startup recently won the Ella Express Pitch Contest and got onto the shelves of Black Owned Toronto at Scarborough Town Centre.

NobelHub

Co-founded by U of T alumni Melisa Ellis, Malcolm Wright and Chevon Riley, NobelHub connects startups and existing businesses with the most essential services they need to grow and scale their ventures. Initially focused on the Black community, it is a one-stop-shop that offers services such as legal, accounting, marketing, technology development and business planning.

NORM

Launched by U of T alumnus Chevon Riley, NORM provides natural cosmetics to individuals seeking an alternative to synthetic products with questionable ingredients. The organic skincare startup wants customers to know exactly what they put on their body, so it handcrafts its almond balm with only natural ingredients, tailoring its formula for those with dry or sensitive skin. NORM recently won the UTSC Hub Pitch Competition with a $5,000 Prize.

Yuko AI

Founded by Jean Marie Uwabeza, Yuko AI provides an accurate and efficient AI-powered software solution to help dermatology clinics communicate, triage and manage skin health issues more effectively online. The SaaS startup took home the Next AI Top Startup Award at Startupfest in Montreal this past July.

Meet the full BFN Accelerate 2022 cohort

First 11 startups in Black Founders Network program introduced at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 14:35:55 +0000

First 11 startups in Black Founders Network program introduced at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/24/2022 - 10:35

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Professor Rhonda McEwen, a member of the Black Founders Network leadership council, speaks during a recent kick-off event at ONRamp for the BFN Accelerate program (photo by Duane Cole)

Alyson Bruce

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

The inaugural cohort of a �ؿ�ζSM program to support Black entrepreneurs was introduced last week at an in-person event on the St. George campus.

The kick-off event – hosted by the Black Founders Network (BFN) and U of T Entrepreneurship – welcomed 11 early-stage startups to BFN Accelerate, a three-month, cohort-based accelerator that’s open to companies from the U of T community with at least one Black-identifying founder.

It was the first large scale event in more than two years to be hosted at ONRamp, the university’s co-working and collaboration space for startups.

“Selecting the cohort was difficult, with many exciting startups being built in our community,” said Efosa Obano, program manager of the Black Founders Network.

“It will hopefully be the first of many, and we are really inspired by this special group. We are also grateful to the BFN community of mentors, advisers and investors who will be helping us take them to the next level.”

The Black Founders Network, introduced by U of T Entrepreneurship last fall, aims to celebrate Black excellence in entrepreneurship and is built on a foundation of community support and allyship. Its mission is to create a community of Black entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey – from ideation to scaleup – and support them as they launch, fund and scale impactful businesses.

BFN Accelerate is the first of the network’s three main pillars (Core, Accelerate and Scale) to be set in motion.

From left to right: Anu Oladele, Rae Massop and Bimpe Ayeni (photos by Duane Cole)

“This is a major step forward in our execution of the Black Founders Network – part of a larger institutional response to the recommendations in the Anti-Black Racism Taskforce’s final report,” said Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship.

The inaugural 2022 BFN Accelerate cohort comprises a variety of early-stage companies bringing innovative solutions to industries ranging from clean tech and drug discovery to beauty and wellness.

Led by U of T alumnus Anu Oladele, AfterData AI enables organizations to better understand their own data by helping them to access, connect and explore existing data sets in easy and interactive ways. Oladele, who completed his master's degree in information systems at U of T, worked in data architecture and enterprise information management for a decade before launching his company.

Another startup in the cohort, Aworie Health, was founded by U of T alumna and social entrepreneur Rae Massop, who holds a master’s degree in social work from the university. Her company provides convenient, affordable, and accessible mental health services for marginalized Canadians.

Dr. Bimpe Ayeni, a board-certified plastic surgeon and U of T lecturer in the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, founded Blair + Jack with her husband Ade Ajayi. The skincare startup, which formulates its products to address common skincare problems experienced by men, aims to simplify the process of having physician-formulated skincare delivered without a prescription.

"I didn't understand the magnitude of this program until seeing everything that happened at last week's launch event: brilliant people, solid networks, generous humans. I'm thankful to the BFN community for making all of this happen,” said Ayeni.

Over the next three months, Oladele, Massop, Ayeni and their eight fellow cohort members will undergo a first-of-its-kind program that is tailored to the lived experience of the most successful Black entrepreneurs. The key outcomes of which include increased effectiveness of each startup in meeting their customers’ needs, a boost in user growth, more revenue generation and new key-value chain partnerships.

The BFN Accelerate Selection Committee from left to right: Jon French, Elsie Amoako, Craig Wellington, Efosa Obano, Gwyn Chapman and Ruth Mengitsu (photo courtesy of Efosa Obano)

Designed to complement other accelerator programs and opportunities within the U of T Entrepreneurship community across the three campuses, BFN Accelerate provides Black-led startups with access to a network of peers and mentors, resources, education and support with venture funding.

More than 70 Black-led startups were part of the initial applicant pool, which included a competitive selection process featuring in-person presentation and interviews led by the BFN selection committee. In the end, 11 successful applicants were chosen to join the inaugural cohort with a commitment from the larger BFN community to support all applicants however possible.

The launch event, which doubled as the orientation session for the cohort, concluded when founders presented their business pitches to an audience of BFN supporters, investors, community partners and mentors.

The three-month program will culminate with a Venture Demo Day in the fall when the 11 startups will share their progress and pitch once again to an audience of investors, business leaders and university leaders.

Rhonda McEwen, the outgoing U of T Mississauga vice-principal, academic and dean who was recently appointed president and vice-chancellor of Victoria University in the �ؿ�ζSM, is a member of the leadership council which governs the BFN.

She shared words of encouragement and support to the cohort after they showcased their businesses.

“It is an honour to serve on the inaugural BFN Leadership Council, along with UTSC Principal Wisdom Tettey,” McEwen said at the event. “As you begin your journeys through BFN Accelerate, you will have the highest levels of leadership at the university doing our best to support you.”

View the 2022 BFN Accelerate cohort

'Disruptive innovation': Student-run Black hackathon tackles algorithm bias, community-building

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:49:15 +0000

'Disruptive innovation': Student-run Black hackathon tackles algorithm bias, community-building

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/14/2022 - 12:49

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(photo by Jamie Grill/Getty Images)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Black

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Students

More than 200 participants from across Canada and the United States recently joined NSBEHacks, a 24-hour virtual hackathon that aimed to redesign digital technologies so they offer better service to marginalized communities.

Now in its fourth year, the 2022 event was organized by the University of Toronto chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE U of T). NSBEHacks is the first Black student-run hackathon within the Greater Toronto Area.

“This year’s theme was ‘Disruptive Innovation,’ and by the end of the weekend, we received an influx of solutions that we could have never envisioned,” says Chetachi Ugwu-Ojobe, a third-year student in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and president of NSBE U of T.

One problem that NSBEHacks teams tackled is algorithm bias, where errors or assumptions in a system’s machine learning process can lead to prejudices and create unfair outcomes.

D’SpeakerVerse, the team that won first place in the hackathon’s U of T Engineering Challenge, noticed that many voice assistant services alienate individuals by misunderstanding their accents. In response, they created an interactive platform where users can take part in voice games and tongue twisters to test the voice-to-text AI, with the goal of improving accent recognition for voice AI services through collected data.

“This team was able to create a disruptive innovation by building on something that already exists in the market and opening it up to people who are neglected by these services – people with non-Western accents who are often misunderstood and left frustrated by popular voice services,” says Genevieve Aguigwo, a second-year student and vice-president of NSBE U of T.

The 2022 NSBEHacks event was organized by the U of T chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

The event also sought to cater to the specific needs of Black audiences in fast-paced digital environments such as virtual reality.

The Barbershop team, which won second place in the event’s Google Cloud Challenge, used virtual reality to create a welcoming online space that replicates the sense of community found in many Black-owned barbershops.

“Barbershops hold a historical significance to many Black communities. It’s not just a place to get a haircut, it can also serve a therapeutic role,” says Ugwu-Ojobe.

“The Barbershop team created a virtual space that allows people who are unable to visit a barbershop, because of the pandemic or personal challenges, to gather, share information and stay connected with their community.”

NSBE U of T is committed to supporting participants beyond the hackathon as they take their designs to the next level.

“We are partnering with the Black Founders Network to give our design teams a platform to bring their ideas to life and make a business out of it,” says Ugwu-Ojobe.

“Having a network of people in the industry who they can turn to with questions and reach out to in the future really ties in with NSBE’s own goals to support the professional development of our community,” adds Aguigwo.

“At the end of the day, we’re trying to increase the representation of Black individuals in engineering and industry.”

Seven takeaways from U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2022

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 15:46:24 +0000

Seven takeaways from U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2022

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/14/2022 - 11:46

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(photo by Jeff Beardall)

Alyson Bruce

Topic

Alumni

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Dentistry

Faculty of Music

Health Innovation Hub

The �ؿ�ζSM recently hosted its sixth annual Entrepreneurship Week, a four-day showcase of the university’s vast and vibrant entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem.

Featuring over 15 sessions – startup showcases, pitch competitions, keynote speakers, workshops, panel discussions and more – the event shone a bright light on the breadth and depth of the university’s entrepreneurship community.

Here are some of the top insights for current and prospective entrepreneurs from this year’s U of T Entrepreneurship Week:

Get rich quick? Not likely

In one of the standout moments of the week, sprinting legend and business leader Donovan Bailey shared his insights on the parallels between sport and business.

“I think the greatest misnomer is that you can get rich overnight. You can’t. You also can’t become an Olympic sprinter overnight. The first thing I tell entrepreneurs is the same thing I tell CEOs and young athletes: if you don’t put the work in, you’re not going to get the results.”

Hard work, passion, discipline and focus were among the characteristics that Bailey credits for his success as both an athlete and a businessperson.

In a candid fireside chat with Rita Trichur, a senior business writer for the Globe and Mail, Bailey shared his lessons in overcoming adversity – “win or learn” – and said that failing isn’t a word he likes to use.

Reinforcing the principle of community, Bailey encouraged young entrepreneurs not to be shy and to seek out successful people in their industry to provide mentorship.

“There are such incredible successful people out there who are willing to share the knowledge.”

Toronto is a hotbed for startups

U of T was named the fastest-rising global institution for startup founders in the 2021 PitchBook rankings – jumping six places. And the university remains the number one university in Canada for research-based startups and is among the top 10 university-managed incubators globally.

“I like to think that the U of T and the City of Toronto embody some of Donovan Bailey’s commitment to excellence and, to use a technical term, swagger,” said U of T President Meric Gertler during his introduction of Bailey at the UTE Speaker Series.

In total, entrepreneurs associated with U of T have launched more than 600 venture-backed companies, raised funding in surplus of $2 billion and created more than 9,000 jobs in the last decade.

“The U of T is an anchor of the city’s achievement in creating an innovation ecosystem with 10-plus accelerators and entrepreneurial hubs across the U of T’s three campuses,” said John Tory, Toronto’s mayor, in his opening remarks at the speaker series.

“These talented entrepreneurs are fostering meaningful economic and social impact, and this is one of the reasons why global investors are flocking to Toronto and international conferences like Collision want to be hosted by our inclusive and innovative ecosystem.”

In fact, Toronto-based and U of T-affiliated startups Waabi, Ada, Deep Genomics, Xanadu and Cohere each raised over $100 million in funding from investors last year.

Lifting communities through entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is often thought of as a solo journey. But several of last week’s sessions made it clear that community, support systems and networks are the differentiating factor in the success story for many entrepreneurs.

For Jonathon Redbird, entrepreneurship is all about providing solutions that benefit your entire community – not just the bottom line.

Speaking at the session Two-Eyed Seeing in Entrepreneurship, Redbird and Christina Tachtampa of Redbird Circle Inc. focused on how Indigenous Knowledge applies to the fields of entrepreneurship and business education given the Indigenous Peoples’ long history as innovators and entrepreneurs.

Slowing down, adding value to your community and thinking about entrepreneurship in a way that considers the self, community and our connection to the spirit of the land, were some of the key takeaways from this session which provided a refreshing perspective on startup culture.

Support for Black entrepreneurs grows

Community was a topic raised throughout the week – most notably in relation to the two new programs launched to support Black entrepreneurs, the Nobellum Innovator Program and the Black Founders Network (BFN) Accelerate program.

Built by and for the Black community, BFN was launched in the fall of 2021 to support Black founders, create more Black-led business and celebrate Black Excellence.

At the UTE Speaker Series, Efosa Obano, program manager of the Black Founders Network, announced that applications are now open for the first BFN Accelerate cohort, which will accept eight to 10 Black-led startups to participate in its three-month program this summer.

Following a classic cohort-based model, BFN Accelerate will help Black-led startups from the U of T community develop solutions to meet customers’ needs, launch a minimum-viable product, generate revenue, secure funding and explore value chain and distribution partnerships.

Moving the needle on gender diversity

More than half the winners of the �ؿ�ζSM Entrepreneurship (UTE) Startup Prize pitch competition that took place at Entrepreneurship Week were startups led and co-founded by women entrepreneurs.

In recent years, there’s been a perceivable shift in the startup playing field, which has historically been dominated by men. In part, this can be attributed to the greater emphasis placed on creating new opportunities for women-identifying entrepreneurs.

ICUBE at U of T Mississauga and the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) are two U of T’s accelerators dedicating space to women-identifying entrepreneurs with inspiring speaker series such as Fireside at FemSTEM and a stage to showcase ventures at the Pitch with a Twist business competition and FemSTEM Pitch Competition, which is taking place on March 24.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Pitch with a Twist (part of Entrepreneurship Week), provides a community of strong female founders with a platform to showcase their ventures, network with top companies and win cash prizes.

For, Justine Abigail Yu, the founder of Living Hyphen – taking up space meant creating one.

During the panel discussion at Pitch with a Twist, Yu shared her motivation behind launching her startup. “In 2015, there wasn’t a lot of representation across media including the arts and literature space in Canada,” she said.

Recognizing this, she set out to create a space by and for bi-racialized writers and artists to share their stories and work by launching a magazine and podcast with a mission to “reshape the mainstream.”

In a fireside conversation hosted by H2i, Sandy Skotnicki, a U of T alumna and the founding director of Bay Dermatology Centre, spoke about opportunities to innovate in the field of dermatology and reflected on her successful 20-plus year career advocating for changes to patient care and diagnosis.

Skotnicki’s advice to women entrepreneurs? “If you have something you’re strongly passionate about, think big, start bigger, don’t be afraid to do that.”

Innovation in the arts

What does entrepreneurship look like in the arts?

Similar to the approach taken by the creators of RedBird Circle, entrepreneurship in the arts is about more than generating revenue and raising venture capital.

U of T artist and researcher Adrian Berry explained the approach as follows: “Recognizing a challenge and figuring out how to respond in an innovative way – but also in a thoughtful way. We try to innovate in a way in which we can improve our lives and thrive and keep making art.”

Berry and Hayley Janes took the stage at Entrepreneurship Week in a new session hosted by the Toronto Music Entrepreneurship Exchange. The research duo spoke to their individual research projects – both of which address the same challenge: precariousness in the arts sector.

“Toronto art workers and art organizations were vulnerable prior to the pandemic, during the pandemic, and after – in this post-pandemic world – due to limited resources, years of sector-wide financial precarity, societal inequalities, the list goes on and on,” Berry said.

The panel discussion was moderated by Ely Lyonblum, strategic research development officer in the Faculty of Music at U of T. In addition to Berry and Janes, the session featured Faculty of Music alumni Adam Fainman and Renee Fajardo, who shared their unique perspectives on entrepreneurship and innovation in art and its role in cultural design.

Fainman, whose innovation in beatboxing technology led to new collaborative opportunities across music genres, and Fajardo, whose project aims to cater opera to a 21^st-century audience, exemplify how innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset can make an impact in the arts.

Making time for mental wellness

Mental health is health. And entrepreneurs, like everyone, can benefit from prioritizing self-care and mindfulness to cope with the stress of work and life.

Beginning with a guided meditation led by registered psychotherapist Soroosh Vafapoor, H2i hosted a stress management and mental health session to close of Entrepreneurship Week on a more relaxed note.

The session provided advice for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, featuring a panel of U of T alumni that included: Harold Wodlinger, chief technology officer at ViTAA Medical; Michael Floros, founder and CEO at Cohesys; and Wendy Naimark, chief technology officer at Ripple Therapeutics.

Moderated by Professor Paul Santerre, director of H2i, the intimate session also provided professional insights on mental health best practices from Vafapoor. Entrepreneur or not, the tips offered by the panelists provided actionable tactics to mitigate stress and make time for mental health.

Wodlinger touted mastering the art of delegation to “spread the stress,” rather than carrying it all on our own.

Creating balance between work and home is also key.

“Make rules for yourself, define barriers and stick to them,” said Wodlinger.

One way to do this: add appointments to your calendar. Whether it’s penciling in time to focus on a project distraction-free or reserving a block of time for daily meditation, scheduling appointments with yourself can help you take back control of your day.

Vafapoor, meanwhile, recommends leaning toward self-compassion and kindness to cope with stress. “Be aware of what narratives arrive at your mental doorstep and challenge their authenticity and reality,” he said.

He also suggested that movement could help to decompress the mind – not necessarily “working out” but moving the body in the ways that feel good, whether that’s dancing, yoga or another form of mindful movement.

A cut above: U of T startup Fyyne makes hair services more accessible

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 22:01:50 +0000

A cut above: U of T startup Fyyne makes hair services more accessible

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 03/10/2022 - 17:01

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Fyyne, a startup co-founded by two U of T alumni, seeks to eliminate the difficulty in finding suitable hair services and prioritizes Black-owned businesses (photo by WestEnd61via Getty Images)

Tina Adamopoulos

Topic