Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president & CEO, MaRS Innovation.
MaRS Innovation’s “model solves the two weakest points in tech transfer: the lack of dealflow and the ability to match public funding,” writes Thierry Heles in, “MaRS Innovation: A Unique Model for Tech Transfer,” for Global University Venturing.
The article, which includes an interview with Dr. Rafi Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, was published September 14, 2015.
Here’s an excerpt exploring the range of MI’s portfolio and Hofstein’s strategy for addressing technologies emerging in new areas:
In the beginning, Mars received primarily discoveries in the medical sector, but the balance has since shifted to 60% medically-oriented research and 40% for other areas. The medically-oriented discoveries, Hofstein elaborated, are a diverse set of technologies and include everything from drug development and molecular diagnostics to medical devices and healthcare IT.
The remaining 40% meanwhile cover “a smörgåsbord all the way from alternative energies and solar energy, and water reclamation to all sorts of mobile apps”.
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.
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.
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.
