INNOVATE™ Toronto

Ericsson has been a critical part of Canada’s innovation and R&D story for 69 years. We are committed to driving the country’s digital agenda through turning-point technologies such as 5G. This means enabling Canada’s industries and service providers to lead on the world stage, supporting major service providers on their...

INNOVATORS, SCHOLARS & EXPERTSCIFAR is a global leader in the research community, bringing together top researchers across disciplines to advance our understanding of the most complex and far-reaching questions. Our researchers establish new fields of inquiry — reimagining our health, our understanding of the Universe, the prosperity of our societies,...

e-Zinc is a company based in Toronto, Canada that has developed a breakthrough electrochemical technology for storing energy in zinc metal. This affordable, flexible, and long-duration energy storage solution is positioned to enable the world’s energy markets to be fully powered by renewable energy, enabling a zero-carbon energy future.  ...

Fresh City is an award-winning urban farm and omnichannel retailer. With the recent addition of Mama Earth to our family of brands that includes Mabel’s Bakery and The Healthy Butcher, Fresh City is now the largest organic online retailer in Ontario. After a decade, the impact and belief in our...

NRStor Incorporated is an industry-leading Canadian energy storage developer, owner and operator with experience deploying energy storage across the energy supply chain. Our vision is to deploy energy storage projects at scale in order to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon energy system. NRStor has successfully deployed numerous first-of-a-kind energy...

We believe in the power of arts and creativity to contribute to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of our city. For over 30 years, Artscape, a not-for-profit organization, has made space for creativity for artists and creatives to thrive. This has resulted in Artscape developing and operating 15 unique...

Gatik, the market leader in autonomous middle mile logistics, focuses on B2B short-haul delivery, moving goods safely and efficiently using its fleet of medium duty trucks. Gatik’s autonomous vehicles (AVs) are commercially deployed in multiple markets including Ontario, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Founded in 2017 by veterans of the autonomous...

Founded in 2011, NEXT Canada was built on the vision of supporting the growth trajectory of aspiring and scaling entrepreneurs. With the support and leadership from NEXT Canada’s Cofounders and Founding Patrons, NEXT has grown to become one of Canada’s top entrepreneurial networks, with graduates achieving significant milestones in their...

Edesa Biotech, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on commercializing latestage, research-validated assets. In 2020, the Markham-based company positioned itself on the frontline of the Covid-19 treatment race when one of its leading drug candidates showed great promise as a “rescue therapy” for hospitalized patients with a life-threatening form of...

How salmon & sangria started a green revolution.Some of the most inspiring inventions come at the most innocuous times. In 2017, Just Vertical co-founders Conner Tidd and Kevin Jakiela were completing their Masters of Science at the University of Toronto. Bright eyed and full of enthusiasm, they hoped to equip...

Balance is Canada’s largest digital asset custodian. Our solution powers financial services companies such as over-the-counter trading desks, exchanges, lenders, and ATM networks. The assets are kept secure on specialized hardware, kept fully offline in geographically distributed bank grade vaults that are access controlled, monitored, and guarded 24/7. Our internal...

The key to innovation is seeing opportunity in unlikely places. For Antibe Therapeutics, the place is a cloud of noxious gas; the prize is a new generation of painkillers. In the wake of the opioid crisis, there is an urgent need for safer analgesics. Almost one-in-10 Canadians prescribed opioid medications...

The Foundation awards the annual Canada Gairdner Awards to leading scientists from around the world whose discoveries have had a major impact on scientific progress and human health. The awards are Canada’s only globally recognized international scientific prize. Since 1959, more than 400 scientists from 40 countries have received a...

At BlueRock, our mission is to create authentic cellular medicines to reverse devastating diseases, with the vision of improving the human condition.   Built on the research of some of the world’s foremost experts in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) biology, BlueRock has revolutionized and scaled methods for creating authentic...

Since its inception, TBDC has worked with thousands of entrepreneurs by helping them build and grow their ideas. TBDC helps international entrepreneurs aggressively scale up and choose Canada to grow their businesses. To date, TBDC has helped over 9,000 domestic and international entrepreneurial businesses establish themselves in Toronto and Ontario...

Over 33,000 Canadians have died of Covid-19, most of whom were alone in the hospital or in long-term care homes known for poor conditions and mistreatment of residents. Against the backdrop of a long-existing labour shortage, health care workers’ resilience and compassion are being tested, and many are quitting. It’s...

At Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS (JLABS), our goal is to provide the optimal environment for emerging life science companies to catalyze growth by exposing them to vital industry connections, delivering entrepreneurial programs, and providing a capital-efficient, flexible platform where they can transform the scientific discoveries of today into...

Cancer is not just one disease. Each tumour is unique, and each person will experience cancer differently, requiring tailored therapies matched to the unique drivers of their disease.   To address this tremendous challenge effectively, it takes a diverse range of people working together in multidisciplinary networks on innovations in...

Docsie has one simple mission: helping businesses everywhere to write better documentation using reader insights, and removing barriers around web publishing and team collaboration.   Docsie brings product, support and development teams together, alongside their tools, in one AIpowered knowledge management system. Docsie breaks down silos and creates a fluid,...

At MountX we build a safe and simple marketplace that eliminates the inaccessibility and bureaucracy of traditional investments by making real estate investments accessible to everyone, without a large financial investment or previous experience.   MountX Real Estate Capital Corp. is creating the next generation of digital financial products to...

Real Ventures is one of Canada’s most active early-stage venture capital firms, dedicated to serving entrepreneurs and nurturing the communities in which they thrive. In 2007, we questioned why brilliant Canadian founders should have to fly to San Francisco to raise seed capital. Since then, we have dedicated ourselves to...

Fashion’s Pollution ProblemThe $2.5 trillion fashion industry is one of the top-most polluting industries in the world, generating 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the heavy reliance by the industry on synthetic, petroleum-derived, fabrics such as polyester, is projected to create over a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions...

One notable development is the move from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs). The lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in EVs are becoming more prevalent everywhere. These days, they are the go-to choice when it comes to powering everything from mobile phones to power tools, drones, EVs, and more....

Gene editing holds the potential to cure a wide range of genetic diseases by altering DNA in the genome inside cells – but today’s gene editors have limitations. To better realize the significant opportunity of this therapeutic approach, and allow for its application to new therapeutic areas, Specific Biologics (“Specific”)...