Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE)

Slyce acquires YorkU computer vision technology for retail e-commerce

February 4, 2014
Susanne Staer
Acquisitions

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. — 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.

Slyce’s acquisition of York’s technology was covered in the Financial Post, Dx3 Digest, BetaKit, Mobile Payments Today, Global University Venturing, World News, Consumer Electronics Net and Retail Customer Experience. You can also read the York University announcement.

“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.

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!

Lang & O’Leary Exchange features Granata Decision Systems

UTEST company makes cameo through launch of OneEleven, Toronto’s new data-driven accelerator for entrepreneurs

CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange featured Granata Decision Systems, one of the first UTEST companies incubated through that program for early-stage technologies by MaRS Innovation and the University of Toronto, in their program on Wednesday, November 28, 2013.

Granata founders Tyler Lu (left) and Craig Boutilier on the Lang & O'Leary Exchange — Granata founders Tyler Lu (left) and **Craig Boutilier** made a cameo on CBC’s *Lang & O’Leary Exchange* November 28, 2013.

The data-driven company is one of eight to join the inaugural cohort for OneEleven, a new accelerator funded by OMERS Ventures, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ryerson University and other industry partners to support mature, sophisticated entrepreneurs tackling big data problems.

Cellax profiled in SciBX; MaRS Innovation’s MSc PoP program cited in National Post supplement

The Cellax technology was profiled in a recent issue of SciBX (subscription necessary). MaRS Innovation is mentioned in the article as the technology’s commercialization agent.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Ontario Institute for Cancer Research scientists have developed glycopolymer-conjugated docetaxel nanoparticles that outperform Abraxane in mouse models of breast cancer. The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is backing the program with $1.5 million to take it to the clinic. The expectation is that the product’s ability to target the tumor stroma rather than the tumor itself will differentiate it from Abraxane and other chemotherapeutic formulations.”

Call for Applications: MaRS Innovation seeks applicants for early-stage MSc POP projects

September 4, 2013
Susanne Staer
BresoTec Inc.

MaRS Innovation (MI) seeks applicants for the Medical Sciences Proof-of-Principle (MSc PoP) program, which supports early-stage medical science technologies and allows their founding teams to conduct crucial proof-of-principle work.

Through the two-year MSc POP program, MI will distribute funding awards to qualified applicants within its membership on behalf of the Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI). Funds are available in $25,000 or $75,000 grants.

“At MaRS Innovation, the PoP program functions as a kind of internal Dragons’ Den,” says Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “For three years, we’ve used a panel of industry leaders to hear pitches from the founding teams of the most promising technologies in our intellectual property pipeline. Based on their assessments, the strongest projects receive PoP funding to fuel their prototyping and other proof-of-principle work.”

Dr. Raphael Hofstein’s MRI blog post: How Team Ontario’s biotechnology takes on the world

Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president & CEO, MaRS Innovation.

Dr. Raphael (Rafi) Hofstein is president and CEO of MaRS Innovation (MI) – the commercialization agent for an exceptional research discovery pipeline stemming from 16 leading Ontario academic institutions. As a single entry point to annual member research and development activity of $1B, MI provides a gateway for investors and licensees who wish to access Ontario’s technology assets.

During the 2012 BIO convention in Boston, Dr. Hofstein blogged about how CQDM of Montreal and MaRS Innovation of Toronto had teamed up to help “fill” the QC-Ontario corridor and why the corridor is good for business in both provinces.

In my previous blog post during BIO2012, I talked about how MaRS Innovation and CQDM had jointly collaborated to form Encycle Therapeutics, a startup that was created around disruptive technology, developed by Professor Andrei Yudin of the University of Toronto, involving the cyclization of biologically active peptides.

A year later, I’m pleased to report that Encycle is alive and kicking. The company has since recruited seasoned management, and its developing product line is drawing tremendous interest from global pharmaceutical groups. In the next few months, we expect Encycle to raise significant capital and establish meaningful ties with strategic allies.

Taking a wider look at the life sciences sector, this has been a vintage year for Ontario in general and MaRS Innovation’s ecosystem in particular.

Crowdmark to save teacher marking time and government dollars

June 11, 2013
Susanne Staer
Crowdmark

Ed-tech start-up completes successful EQAO and Canadian Open Math Challenge pilots

TORONTO, Canada (June 11, 2013) — Crowdmark Inc., a Canadian education technology start-up, is positioned to save cash-strapped Departments of Education millions by making massive-scale testing more efficient. Crowdmark has raised $600,000 in seed funding through the University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) program, MaRS Innovation and U of T’s Connaught Fund, among others.

This story was covered by Yonge Street Media, TechVibes, EdSurge and PEHub.

Dr. James Colliander, co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark — **Dr. James Colliander**, co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark.

The Crowdmark assessment interface, informed by decades of teaching experience and research by company co-founders, James Colliander (Professor of Mathematics) and Martin Muñoz (Researcher and Developer), at the University of Toronto, streamlines the complicated and time-consuming grading workflow for teachers.

Crowdmark archives student work and all grading feedback into individual digital portfolios that students and parents may access any time online and via mobile devices.

Through two separate pilot projects, Crowdmark has achieved proof-of-concept as a novel and scalable solution to the problem of assessment blockage that eats into already limited resources in education systems worldwide.

Canadian biotech sector makes strong showing at BIO2013

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation’s marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI’s activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog.

Downtown Chicago skyline in late April — **Chicago**‘s famous downtown skyline during the 2013 BIO Convention.

Nearly 14,000 delegates—representing over 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centres and related organizations across the United States and more than 60 countries—attended the 2013 BIO International Convention from April 22 to 26, 2013.

The event drew biotechnologists, pharmaceutical industry executives and life sciences researchers, along with sector-based organizations and associations, to Chicago.

According to a press release issued by the conference organizers, BIO 2013 offered “a record number of partnering meetings and panel sessions on the latest science, policy issues and business opportunities and challenges facing the biotechnology industry.”

MaRS Innovation announces new strategic partnership with Pfizer

TORONTO, April 22, 2013 — MaRS Innovation, a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, today announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Pfizer Inc. to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics and diagnostics.

Through this collaboration, MaRS Innovation and Pfizer will jointly identify investment opportunities emerging from well-validated scientific research discoveries within MaRS Innovation’s 16 member institutions, including the University of Toronto and its nine affiliated teaching hospitals.

“There’s growing consensus that transferring technologies from the university lab bench and into the market requires unique public-private partnerships,” said Dr. Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “Partnering with MaRS Innovation gives Pfizer access to Toronto’s robust innovation pipeline and a close look at emerging IP from Canada. It signals both the strength and attractiveness of our commercialization model and Toronto-based research technologies to global industry players.”

“Our government is committed to making Ontario the best place to translate great ideas into innovative products that will gain demand around the world,” said the Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation. “Today’s announcement from MaRS Innovation is an exciting collaboration with Pfizer that will both advance healthcare technologies for Ontarians and help to strengthen our economy.”

ScarX Therapeutics featured on cover of Bioworld Today

“More than 240 million surgeries are performed worldwide each year, yet there is no approved product on the market to prevent the dermal scarring that can frequently occur,” writes Jennifer Boggs, managing editor of BioWorld Today in her cover story on ScarX Therapeutics.

The article, “ScarX Finds New Uses for Old Drug in Dermal Scarring,” appeared in the New Co section and focuses on the MaRS Innovation-Hospital for Sick Children start-up company.