News

WaveCheck co-directers talk crowdfunding commercialization research on CBC’s “The World This Weekend”

MaRS Innovation staff and WaveCheck Campaign Co-directors Dr. Fazila Seker and Elizabeth Monier-Williams spoke with the CBC’s Colleen Ross about the process of crowdfunding WaveCheck’s partner-based clinical studies on “The World This Weekend.”

The radio segment, called “Crowdfunding Science,” aired on January 25, 2014 and discussed the lack of funding researchers have access to for commercialization, making it harder to advance research that could be helping people in a variety of industries.

To listen to the full interview, click here.

WaveCheck’s crowdfunding campaign is an example of how MaRS Innovation gets creative when traditional funding channels take too long or run dry, speeding up the commercialization process.

UTEST Featured in BetaKit’s The Accelerator Series

January 27, 2014
Susanne Staer
Crowdmark

The University of Toronto Early Stage Technology (UTEST) program was the focus of a recent online article in BetaKit, a Canadian innovation and technology resource.

The article by Joseph Czikk, BetaKit’s managing editor, is part of a series on Canada’s most promising start-up accelerators and the people who make them successful. Czikk highlights UTEST “as one of the most value-packed programs in the entire country” and credits the calibre of applicants and ideas to the program’s requirement to have at least one co-founder affiliated to the University of Toronto.

UTEST is now accepting applications for the program’s third cohort. Those interested should watch for updates through MaRS Innovation and the University of Toronto, or contact UTEST co-directors Mike Betts and Kurtis Scissons for more information.

UTEST success stories Crowdmark, Granata Decision Systems and Whirlscape reflect the scope of ideas that come through the program and how the grow to address needs across many industries.

Crowdmark announces new partnership with Ricoh Canada Inc.

January 23, 2014
Susanne Staer
Crowdmark

Crowdmark, a MaRS Innovation and University of Toronto start-up incubated through the UTEST program, has reached a deal with Ricoh Canada Inc.

Announced January 20, 2014, the deal outlines national printing and scanning service for Crowdmark customers, with U.S. discussions coming up in the future, to improve the start-up’s online marking process for teachers.

Here’s an excerpt from the release (emphasis ours):

Toronto, Ontario (January 20, 2014) – Crowdmark Inc., a software company that delivers an ultra-scalable collaborative assessment platform to educators worldwide, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Ricoh Canada Inc., to support Crowdmark’s customers, and with plans to explore additional enhancements to the relationship that will deliver additional client benefits.

Today’s announcement covers standardized terms and pricing from Ricoh Canada to provide a national printing and scanning service to Crowdmark’s customers in post-secondary institutions and K-12 school systems across Canada. Discussions about a similar service for USA-based Crowdmark customers are next on the agenda.

Whirlscape releases Minuum demo on a Smart Watch

January 22, 2014
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

Whirlscape continues to build momentum for the Minuum keyboard. On January 21, the UTEST grad launched a demo of their keyboard on a Galaxy Gear Smart Watch.

The remarkably accurate keyboard that encourages sloppy typing for smartphones and wearable technology uses a disambiguation algorithm to make sense of any letter combination, so it’s been proven perfect for big fingers.

Xavier Snelgrove, Minuum’s co-founder and CTO, wrote a detailed explanation on the creation of the keyboard in Input, a blog by Minuum’s creators. From language models to algorithm descriptions, the post offers fans of Minuum an inside look at the science that makes the technology so user-friendly.

The Toronto-based start-up was covered by TechCrunch, TechCrunch Japan, Mobile Syrup and Android Police within hours of the demo’s release.

Xagenic founder Shana Kelley’s MRI blog post on bringing research to market

U of T professor shares tips to her team’s commercialization success

When it comes to bringing research from the lab to the market, the University of Toronto’s Dr. Shana Kelley knows firsthand what it takes. She’s co-founder of Xagenic, a MaRS Innovation and U of T start-up company that’s developed the first lab-free molecular diagnostic platform with a 20-minute time-to-result based on her research with fellow U of T colleague Professor Edward Sargent.

Xagenic recently announced a Series B financing announcement following their successful $10 million Series A round and more than $2 million seed funding round.

In her guest blog post for the Ministry of Research and Innovation, Kelley outlines what she’s learned through her experience in the commercialization process (emphasis ours):

1. When ready to commercialize, look in your own backyard for investment and support

Dr. Shana Kelley, co-founder of Xagenic Inc. and University of Toronto professor.

When the Xagenic technology was mature enough to consider commercialization, we started to call venture investors all over the world to see if we could get them to back the company. We always got the meetings we wanted, and lots of enthusiasm and encouragement, but it was difficult to get people engaged. We were fortunate to get seed funding from a group of local organizations including MaRS Innovation, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the Innovation Acceleration Fund (IAF), and Ontario Centres of Excellence and then finally found the group that would eventually be our Series A lead investors, CTI Life Sciences Fund.

With CTI, we immediately got the traction we had been looking for from a venture investor that indicated genuine interest in the company. When we later made the rounds for the Series B investment outside of Canada, we repeatedly heard the comment: “we’re glad to see you could do the Series A in your own backyard.”

When I probed about why this was important, I found that the investment community thinks it is important to have your early investors as close geographically as possible. The level of interaction when a company gets off the group needs to be fairly intense — being geographically closer helps entrepreneurs and investors keep in better contact. This is definitely not a hard-and-fast rule, but I found it interesting that many investors had this perception. And it creates a particular challenge for Canadian companies given how little venture capital is available locally!

Financial Post lists Whirlscape as Canadian Start-Up to Watch

January 17, 2014
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

2014 set to be big year for the start-up and UTEST grad

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard leads the way in Matthew Braga‘s January 5 Financial Post article highlighting promising start-ups from across Canada.

In 2013, Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard app debuted at number 2 on Google’s Top New Paid Apps List after raising over $87,000 on an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. They’ve also been accepted into Y Combinator, a prestigious U.S. accelerator program.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Minuum’s potential goes far beyond improved touchscreen typing. The company’s so-called “one-dimensional” keyboard approach can actually be applied to a wide range of scenarios, in particular, highly touted new wearable technologies like Google Glass, and motion-sensing technologies such as Microsoft’s Kinect and the Leap Motion 3D controller, enabling users to type “anywhere.”

Triphase signs collaboration and option agreement with Celgene Corporation, leading innovator of cancer therapies

MI portfolio company actively seeking additional products for licensing and development

TORONTO and SAN DIEGO, Jan. 9, 2014 — A unique collaboration of life science leaders, including the Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust, MaRS Innovation Ventures Trust and MaRS Phase II Investment Trust, have formed Triphase Accelerator Corporation, an oncology development accelerator.

Triphase Accelerator’s announcement was covered in Yonge Street Media, Bloomburg Businessweek and Global University Venturing.

Formed in 2010, Triphase Accelerator Corporation is a cancer-focused biotechnology development company that aims to reduce the time and expense between an investigational new drug application and “proof-of-concept” at Phase II.

Triphase, spun out of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), develops and advances late pre-clinical, Phase I or early Phase II potential products. Triphase and its founding investors are in a position to take advantage of the excellent research and development capabilities in the Toronto healthcare and innovation ecosystem.

The Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust (FACIT), MaRS Innovation Ventures Trust, and MaRS Phase II Investment Trust, are all Toronto-based equity investors in Triphase.

After company formation, Triphase entered into a strategic relationship with Celgene Corporation. Through this arrangement, Celgene obtained rights of first refusal on the first three oncology products Triphase advances to clinical proof-of-concept (POC), plus a right of first negotiation on three more future oncology products which may be acquired by Triphase.

MaRS Innovation’s 2013 Top 10 List

2013 was an exceptional year for MaRS Innovation. Here are the top 10 news stories from our commercialization portfolio. 1. MaRS Innovation secures a $15 million CECR funding extension In January,…

OtoSim CEO on growing a successful start-up company with help from MaRS Innovation

December 18, 2013
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

Dr. Andrew (Andy) Sinclair, OtoSim’s CEO, was interviewed by PharmaBoadroom.com on October 10, 2013 to discuss the company’s success and plans for the future. OtoSim's otoscopy training device is revolutionizing…

WaveCheck’s Crowdfunding Campaign Featured on CTV National News and Canada AM

December 18, 2013
Susanne Staer
Media Coverage

Indiegogo campaign raised $53,390 from over 500 worldwide donors

Screen Shot 2013-12-18 at 9.40.42 AM — WaveCheck co-inventor, Dr. Gregory Czarnota, appeared on CTV National News on December 15.

CTV National News featured WaveCheck’s crowdfunding campaign on December 15 in a report by Avis Favaro. The report included an interview with MaRS Innovation’s President and CEO, Dr. Raphael Hofstein (at the 1:37 mark).

William Tran, a researcher associated with the project at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, was also interviewed on Canada AM on December 16.

WaveCheck, which closed its campaign December 4, was invented by Dr. Gregory Czarnota of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Prof. Michael C. Kolios of Ryerson University. WaveCheck uses ultrasound technology to show people with breast cancer if their chemotherapy is working within weeks.

While the Indiegogo campaign has concluded, Sunnybrook Foundation is now accepting donations flagged “WaveCheck” on behalf of the researchers through its website.

At campaign close, WaveCheck ranked in the top 0.005 per cent of health-related campaigns on Indiegogo, and was covered by CBC television and Metro Morning, the Toronto Star, Sing-Tao and MedCity News.