Toronto, ON, Sept. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MaRS Innovation is pleased to announce that, on its 10th anniversary, it has changed its name to Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) to reflect its refined focus on venture building and growth to advance its Members’ health science innovations .
The organization was created as a not-for-profit organization in 2008 by a visionary agreement among 14 of Toronto’s top academic research institutions – including University of Toronto and affiliated teaching hospitals, Ryerson U., York U, and OICR – to create a vehicle that could provide increased commercialization traction for their research. With initial financial backing from the Federal Government, through the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program, and the Members’ steadfast support of this vision, the organization is now well on its way to becoming financially self-supporting.
MaRS Innovation – now TIAP – is a leading Canadian provider of management, technology development and financing programs to support the overall mission of advancing health science technologies. Through its strong global strategic partnerships with industry and financial investors, TIAP is poised to deliver on its member-driven mandate to advance commercialization of their most promising research breakthroughs through venture building and growth. TIAP’s portfolio consists of over 60 early-stage companies in sectors such as therapeutics, medical devices and health IT/AI . Over the last decade TIAP has established a strong track record by enabling its portfolio companies to raise over $400M and create more than 1000 direct and indirect STEM jobs in Canada.
Dr. Rafi Hofstein, President and CEO of TIAP, commented, “By changing our name we are developing a strong identity that more effectively represents our committed focus as venture builders of our Member’s assets. A refreshed brand will dovetail nicely with our future strategic direction for bringing health science technologies to the marketplace”.
“MaRS Innovation has been crucial in helping many of our most promising scientists and entrepreneurs leverage their groundbreaking research to support the growth of impactful businesses”, said Yung Wu, CEO of MaRS Discovery District. “Canada’s health sciences industry is fast becoming a world-leading sector, and I’m confident that with MaRS Innovation’s – now TIAP’s – refined focus, they will continue to play an invaluable role in this important work.”
While the name MaRS Innovation is fondly woven into the history of the organization and is well known in our ecosystem, Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) has been chosen to better reflect our core mandate: through vibrant partnering with our membership, lead venture building endeavors to accelerate and drive innovation for the betterment of human health.
Along with the name change, the organization has a new logo and website.
For more information please visit www.tiap.ca, follow us on twitter @TIAPToronto or contact
Susanne Staer Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (647)-260-7869 sstaer@tiap.com