MaRS Innovation-U of T accelerator program among Canada’s best
The University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology accelerator program (UTEST) is now accepting applications for a third cohort until April 17, 2014.
Applicants must be current students or faculty at U of T, or have graduated within the last two years.
UTEST has just launched a new website with complete application information about the early-stage incubator and a link to the application form:
The 12-month program allows selected U of T affiliates to access office space, mentoring and $30,000 in funding, with opportunities to access follow-on funding from MaRS Innovation later on.
Minuum keyboard creators accelerate wearable device input technology development
Whirlscape, Inc., creators of the Minuum keyboard, closed an seed funding round of $500,000.
TORONTO, Canada (February 6, 2014) — Whirlscape Inc., creators of Minuum, “the little keyboard for big fingers,” have closed an investment seed round for just over $500,000 (USD). Y Combinator, FundersClub, BDC Venture Capital, and a dozen other prominent angel investors have contributed to the round.
Whirlscape’s plans for the capital involve innovating beyond its participation in Silicon Valley’s start-up accelerator Y Combinator. Whirlscape also aims to consolidate the success of its Minuum keyboard for Android touchscreen devices—available on Google Play—whose positive reviews have boosted sales since the New Year.
Since launching the Minuum keyboard in 2013, Whirlscape has grown to a dedicated team of 10 working to enable new ways to type, and to unify input methods across the rapidly emerging field of wearable and ubiquitous computing devices such as smart watches and Google Glass. Whirlscape has recently demonstrated the Minuum keyboard working on Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smart watch.
“Our vision for the future of hyper-personalized input devices involves letting you choose your companion device for its input capabilities,” said Will Walmsley, CEO of Whirlscape. “By simplifying the concept of the keyboard, we allow text entry to occur in places where it was previously unthinkable, removing barriers to communication. Your keyboard can now be anywhere you want it to be, out of the way, yet immediately accessible.”
Whirlscape, Inc. was in the first cohort of UTEST, the MaRS Innovation and University of Toronto accelerator program for early-stage technologies. UTEST is now accepting applications for their third cohort.
Deal led by MaRS Innovation and Innovation York to strengthen Slyce’s mobile image recognition application for retail e-commerce
York’s technology will help Slyce in developing a mobile app that can be used to take pictures of a product in-store, enabling a user to purchase the item from the retailer immediately on his or her smartphone.
TORONTO, Feb. 4, 2014—Slyce today announced that it has acquired a computer vision technology developed at York University that quickly analyzes and aggregates similar images.
Through the acquisition, Slyce also hired former York PhD student, Dr. Ehsan Fazl-Ersi, to lead the integration of the intellectual property into Slyce’s Visual Search Platform as their new head of Research & Development.
Slyce is a premium provider of visual search technology for retailers, brands and publishers. Their platform allows customers to take a picture of real-world products with their smartphone and then find direct or close-matching products from the retailer’s catalogue, which they are able to purchase on the spot.
“Identifying and classifying an object captured within a scene is difficult due to the effects of background clutter, lighting variations and viewpoint changes on the object’s appearance,” says Fazl-Ersi, who designed and developed the technology with his PhD supervisor, Dr. John K. Tsotsos, a professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and a member and former director of York’s Centre for Vision Research.
“This is a much bigger problem for mobile applications where the algorithm’s speed and efficiency are the difference between losing a consumer or making a sale,” says Fazl-Ersi. “Our technology will provide higher accuracy when quickly identifying retail items so that consumers can choose among similar items according to style, colour or pattern using a mobile device.”
The researchers partnered with MaRS Innovation and Innovation York, York’s commercialization office, to file patent protection on the initial technology, develop a commercialization plan, secure grant funding, facilitate business development meetings and negotiate the resulting transaction.
Whirlscape‘s Minuum keyboard demo on a smartwatch was profiled on The Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet on January 27, 2014.
Whirlscape Inc.’s Minuum keyboard was featured on the January 27, 2014 episode of Discovery Canada’s Daily Planet.
Lucas Cochran, Daily Planet’s technology correspondent, covered the technology that’s perfect for small devices and big fingers, noting that Minuum’s creators are successfully combating the small amount of space available on wearable technology, like smart watches.
Check out the video here. The profile, in Cochran’s Digit@l segment, begins at the 1:10 mark.
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.
The University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology accelerator program (UTEST) is now accepting applications for a third cohort until April 17, 2014.
