Stories of Innovation
INNOVATE® Nashville
Nashville Health
Building a Healthier City, Together
NashvilleHealth’s story begins with a paradox. In 2015, Nashville was rising rapidly as one of America’s most dynamic economic engines, an “it city” defined by innovation, creativity, and growth. Yet beneath this momentum lay an alarming truth: Nashville’s residents were among the least healthy in the nation. Former U.S. Senate...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
BEKTEK
INNOVATING MANAGEMENT: CUTTING-EDGE HR, PAYROLL, AND MORE FOR TODAY’S WORKFORCE
INTRODUCTIONSince our inception, Bektek has been on a remarkable journey of innovation and growth. What began as a pioneering venture into Time and Attendance management, with the introduction of HostedTime, our flagship software, has evolved into a one stop solution for today’s workforce. OUR STORYAt Bektek, our story is one...
INNOVATE® Miami
Crowd Capital
We make investors happy by keeping families in their homes
Crowd Capital is a game changing social impact fintech operating at the intersection of crowd financing, investment platforms, and real estate. We help defaulting borrowers secure their homes while delivering above market average financial returns to our customers in a frictionless and transparent way. By leveraging machine learning and mobile...
INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2
Thrive Health
Making Healthcare Work Better for Everyone
Thrive Health is a digital healthcare platform company, founded in 2016 with a mission to make healthcare work better for everyone. The company provides an interactive patient engagement solution that enables healthcare providers to build custom clinical workflows, and offers patients enhanced access to their health data. Thrive Health’s innovative...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
ABARTYS HEALTH
Healthcare Data, Simplified
What we do: AbartysHealth focuses on improving healthcare by creating patient centric solutions that streamline data, communication, and services for the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry confronts several difficulties in developing interoperable solutions that reliably and accurately collect and communicate data in a complex, dispersed, and unconnected healthcare environment. Founded...
INNOVATE™ Flanders
Monsana
AI finds the options, doctors choose the right one.
Doctors make treatment decisions every day. But sometimes, the most promising option isn’t part of the standard treatment, it is part of a clinical trial. In Belgium alone, over 1,400 clinical trials run each year. Yet with doctors seeing 30 or more patients a day, keeping up with them is...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
CONNECTPLUG
RETAIL AUTOMATION CAN BE MORE AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE FOR EVERYONE
2014 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but the technology was very different back then. AI was just science fiction, the internet was much slower — and retail software was expensive and unnecessarily complex. This scenario led to ConnectPlug’s creation by computer engineer Rafael Hasson. Hasson, who has worked...
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
CITY RIDERS
BRIDGING THE GAP: HOW CITY RIDERS LINKS LIKE-MINDED ENTHUSIASTS
City Riders, born in 2018 from the frustrations of its founder, Thomas McElroy, embodies a passion for community and exploration. Motivated by the inconsistency of his riding companions, McElroy envisioned a solution that would unite like-minded enthusiasts globally. This vision materialized into City Riders, a platform connecting individuals who share...
INNOVATE® Blockchain
FBBA
THE FLORIDA BLOCKCHAIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2018, the FBBA is a dedicated and diverse network of business leaders who work together to represent and unite the blockchain community in the state of Florida. We bring together regulators, representatives, and industry leaders to create an innovation and technology focused environment, which benefits all Floridians. The...
INNOVATE™ Flanders
B4PLASTICS
Redesigning tomorrow’s plastics. Today.
B4Plastics is a Belgian Biopolymer Tech Company specialised in: Creating (R&D), Producing (up to kton), Selling and Licensing novel biomaterials, based on a unique range of Bio Based Building Blocks (hence the B4), tailored to an extended variety of applications. This Belgian-based company, located in Limburg, is a pioneer in...
INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition
PodTechs
Internationalization: Podcasting Across Languages with Artificial Voices
In the halls of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., two organizations met in 2019. PodTechs and Baycrest became partners in podcasting. Fast forward half a decade later, and in 2024, the duo accomplished a rare feat: Defy Dementia, which unpacks the significant effects of caregiving on brain health,...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
UTFPR
TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION TEAM BY UTFPR
The Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) – Brazil, is a century-old center for technological education, founded in 1909. In 2005, it became the first Technological University in Brazil. In 2023, it has approximately 35,000 students in various undergraduate courses across 13 campuses distributed throughout the state of Paraná. The...
INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath
Bristol Private Equity Club
ELEVATOR PITCH Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC) was founded by Jerry Barnes alongside five local influential and successful entrepreneurs in May 2016 and has, to date, provided circa £6M to 18 Bristol-based tech companies, some of whom are progressing to being globally-recognised leaders in their specialised sector. These investments have...
INNOVATE® Miami
City Of Coral Gables - Recognized Nationwide As A Pioneering Smart City
Coral Gables was founded on innovation, being one of the very first planned communities in the United States. Today, we’re known nationwide as a Smart City, leveraging information and communication technologies to benefit our residents, employees, businesses and visitors, as well as make our city more resilient and sustainable. First...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
TECHNORI
Since Launching Nearly a Decade Ago, Our Mission Has Been Simple; Help Founders More Easily Raise Startup Funds By Building a Community Around Tech And Investing
Before Chicago became a tech hub featuring world-renowned incubators like 1871 and more than a dozen unicorns, there was Technori – a small group of early adopters and startup founders on a mission to turn Chicago into the largest and most diverse tech community in the world. And, what began...
INNOVATE™ Toronto
PEAK POWER
MAKING IT PROFITABLE FOR THE BUILDING SECTOR TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO
Peak Power is a Canadian climate tech company at the forefront of the energy transition. We are the only company bringing together batteries, grid-interactive buildings, and bi-directional electric vehicles into one technology platform, Peak Synergy. This technology enables our commercial and industrial real estate partners to achieve net-zero goals, cut operating...
INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath
Arup
An Innovative Approach To Creating A Strategy For A Carbon-neutral And Climate-resilient City By 2030
Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, architects, consultants and technical specialists working across every aspect of today’s built environment. Our office in Bristol city centre was founded more than 40 years ago and today is home to more than 350 staff, working on local, national and international...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
PERSONIFY CARE
INNOVATIVE HEALTH TECH PLATFORM ENABLES PATIENTS TO ACCESS THE BEST POSSIBLE CARE
Personify Care is a flexible and scalable health tech platform that accelerates health services to transform their patient experience whilst simultaneously reducing the administrative and cognitive burden on our frontline staff. Led by South Australian CEO Ken Saman, Personify Care’s approach is to support healthcare teams to rapidly adapt and...
INNOVATION Quebec
NUMANA
QUEBEC’S MACRO-ACCELERATOR
Numana is a Quebec based not-forprofit organization (NPO) and acts as a macro-accelerator by creating, promoting and energizing ICT technology ecosystem projects. In this endeavour, Numana brings together ecosystems composed of companies using technologies and technology providers (hardware, software and applications), public organisations, and research and test centers to foster...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
THINCLAB
GIVE YOUR IDEAS AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
ThincLab is the University of Adelaide’s business incubator and provides start-ups with a dynamic space and community in which to nurture ideas, develop entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, and facilitate valuable connections and networks with mentors, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs. ThincLab supports students, alumni, staff and the wider community create and...
INNOVATE® Nashville
LODESTONE ADVISORY GROUP
Is reimagining venture capital and economic development from the ground up
When we founded Lodestone Advisory Group in 2013, business leaders were tired of a management consulting industry that was a stiff, black box offering one-size-fits-all “solutions,” with little accountability on end results. Lodestone, named after the naturally occurring magnetic powder that gave early merchants and tradesmen the ability to navigate...
INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada
BMM TESTLABS
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE A BEACON OF INNOVATION IN MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
Nestled amidst the vibrant community and picturesque landscapes of Moncton, New Brunswick, an eastern Canadian city, BMM Testlabs’ Center of Excellence is setting a new benchmark in testing, product certification, and partnership for the global land-based and digital gaming industry. A Vision for Excellence BMM Testlabs, founded in 1981, is...
INNOVATE® Los Angeles
WAVEMAKER THREE-SIXTY HEALTH
LA’s Go-To Health-tech Venture Capital Firm
The WHY L.A.’s healthcare innovation ecosystem is so incredibly strong thanks to remarkable institutions like UCLA Medical Center, CedarsSinai Medical Center, City of Hope, Keck Hospital of USC, SCAN, Amgen, and many more, plus world-class universities including Caltech, UCLA and USC. Yet for decades, the city was missing a venture...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
FROM MEMORY TO MASTERPIECE
MARIA WESTERBERG’S T-SHIRT CHAIR WEAVES STORIES INTO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Swedish designer Maria Westerberg has long been a pioneer in upcycling and sustainable design, but it was a single chair — woven from worn-out T-shirts — that propelled her into the global spotlight. Known as the “Queen of ReMake design,” Westerberg blends narrative, memory, and sustainability in a way that...
INNOVATE® Nashville
Nashville Health
Building a Healthier City, Together
NashvilleHealth’s story begins with a paradox. In 2015, Nashville was rising rapidly as one of America’s most dynamic economic engines, an “it city” defined by innovation, creativity, and growth. Yet beneath this momentum lay an alarming truth: Nashville’s residents were among the least healthy in the nation. Former U.S. Senate...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
BEKTEK
INNOVATING MANAGEMENT: CUTTING-EDGE HR, PAYROLL, AND MORE FOR TODAY’S WORKFORCE
INTRODUCTIONSince our inception, Bektek has been on a remarkable journey of innovation and growth. What began as a pioneering venture into Time and Attendance management, with the introduction of HostedTime, our flagship software, has evolved into a one stop solution for today’s workforce. OUR STORYAt Bektek, our story is one...
INNOVATE® Miami
Crowd Capital
We make investors happy by keeping families in their homes
Crowd Capital is a game changing social impact fintech operating at the intersection of crowd financing, investment platforms, and real estate. We help defaulting borrowers secure their homes while delivering above market average financial returns to our customers in a frictionless and transparent way. By leveraging machine learning and mobile...
INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2
Thrive Health
Making Healthcare Work Better for Everyone
Thrive Health is a digital healthcare platform company, founded in 2016 with a mission to make healthcare work better for everyone. The company provides an interactive patient engagement solution that enables healthcare providers to build custom clinical workflows, and offers patients enhanced access to their health data. Thrive Health’s innovative...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
ABARTYS HEALTH
Healthcare Data, Simplified
What we do: AbartysHealth focuses on improving healthcare by creating patient centric solutions that streamline data, communication, and services for the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry confronts several difficulties in developing interoperable solutions that reliably and accurately collect and communicate data in a complex, dispersed, and unconnected healthcare environment. Founded...
INNOVATE™ Flanders
Monsana
AI finds the options, doctors choose the right one.
Doctors make treatment decisions every day. But sometimes, the most promising option isn’t part of the standard treatment, it is part of a clinical trial. In Belgium alone, over 1,400 clinical trials run each year. Yet with doctors seeing 30 or more patients a day, keeping up with them is...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
CONNECTPLUG
RETAIL AUTOMATION CAN BE MORE AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE FOR EVERYONE
2014 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but the technology was very different back then. AI was just science fiction, the internet was much slower — and retail software was expensive and unnecessarily complex. This scenario led to ConnectPlug’s creation by computer engineer Rafael Hasson. Hasson, who has worked...
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
CITY RIDERS
BRIDGING THE GAP: HOW CITY RIDERS LINKS LIKE-MINDED ENTHUSIASTS
City Riders, born in 2018 from the frustrations of its founder, Thomas McElroy, embodies a passion for community and exploration. Motivated by the inconsistency of his riding companions, McElroy envisioned a solution that would unite like-minded enthusiasts globally. This vision materialized into City Riders, a platform connecting individuals who share...
INNOVATE® Blockchain
FBBA
THE FLORIDA BLOCKCHAIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2018, the FBBA is a dedicated and diverse network of business leaders who work together to represent and unite the blockchain community in the state of Florida. We bring together regulators, representatives, and industry leaders to create an innovation and technology focused environment, which benefits all Floridians. The...
INNOVATE™ Flanders
B4PLASTICS
Redesigning tomorrow’s plastics. Today.
B4Plastics is a Belgian Biopolymer Tech Company specialised in: Creating (R&D), Producing (up to kton), Selling and Licensing novel biomaterials, based on a unique range of Bio Based Building Blocks (hence the B4), tailored to an extended variety of applications. This Belgian-based company, located in Limburg, is a pioneer in...
INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition
PodTechs
Internationalization: Podcasting Across Languages with Artificial Voices
In the halls of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., two organizations met in 2019. PodTechs and Baycrest became partners in podcasting. Fast forward half a decade later, and in 2024, the duo accomplished a rare feat: Defy Dementia, which unpacks the significant effects of caregiving on brain health,...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
UTFPR
TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION TEAM BY UTFPR
The Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) – Brazil, is a century-old center for technological education, founded in 1909. In 2005, it became the first Technological University in Brazil. In 2023, it has approximately 35,000 students in various undergraduate courses across 13 campuses distributed throughout the state of Paraná. The...
INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath
Bristol Private Equity Club
ELEVATOR PITCH Bristol Private Equity Club (BPEC) was founded by Jerry Barnes alongside five local influential and successful entrepreneurs in May 2016 and has, to date, provided circa £6M to 18 Bristol-based tech companies, some of whom are progressing to being globally-recognised leaders in their specialised sector. These investments have...
INNOVATE® Miami
City Of Coral Gables - Recognized Nationwide As A Pioneering Smart City
Coral Gables was founded on innovation, being one of the very first planned communities in the United States. Today, we’re known nationwide as a Smart City, leveraging information and communication technologies to benefit our residents, employees, businesses and visitors, as well as make our city more resilient and sustainable. First...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
TECHNORI
Since Launching Nearly a Decade Ago, Our Mission Has Been Simple; Help Founders More Easily Raise Startup Funds By Building a Community Around Tech And Investing
Before Chicago became a tech hub featuring world-renowned incubators like 1871 and more than a dozen unicorns, there was Technori – a small group of early adopters and startup founders on a mission to turn Chicago into the largest and most diverse tech community in the world. And, what began...
INNOVATE™ Toronto
PEAK POWER
MAKING IT PROFITABLE FOR THE BUILDING SECTOR TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO
Peak Power is a Canadian climate tech company at the forefront of the energy transition. We are the only company bringing together batteries, grid-interactive buildings, and bi-directional electric vehicles into one technology platform, Peak Synergy. This technology enables our commercial and industrial real estate partners to achieve net-zero goals, cut operating...
INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath
Arup
An Innovative Approach To Creating A Strategy For A Carbon-neutral And Climate-resilient City By 2030
Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, architects, consultants and technical specialists working across every aspect of today’s built environment. Our office in Bristol city centre was founded more than 40 years ago and today is home to more than 350 staff, working on local, national and international...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
PERSONIFY CARE
INNOVATIVE HEALTH TECH PLATFORM ENABLES PATIENTS TO ACCESS THE BEST POSSIBLE CARE
Personify Care is a flexible and scalable health tech platform that accelerates health services to transform their patient experience whilst simultaneously reducing the administrative and cognitive burden on our frontline staff. Led by South Australian CEO Ken Saman, Personify Care’s approach is to support healthcare teams to rapidly adapt and...
INNOVATION Quebec
NUMANA
QUEBEC’S MACRO-ACCELERATOR
Numana is a Quebec based not-forprofit organization (NPO) and acts as a macro-accelerator by creating, promoting and energizing ICT technology ecosystem projects. In this endeavour, Numana brings together ecosystems composed of companies using technologies and technology providers (hardware, software and applications), public organisations, and research and test centers to foster...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
THINCLAB
GIVE YOUR IDEAS AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
ThincLab is the University of Adelaide’s business incubator and provides start-ups with a dynamic space and community in which to nurture ideas, develop entrepreneurial skills and knowledge, and facilitate valuable connections and networks with mentors, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs. ThincLab supports students, alumni, staff and the wider community create and...
INNOVATE® Nashville
LODESTONE ADVISORY GROUP
Is reimagining venture capital and economic development from the ground up
When we founded Lodestone Advisory Group in 2013, business leaders were tired of a management consulting industry that was a stiff, black box offering one-size-fits-all “solutions,” with little accountability on end results. Lodestone, named after the naturally occurring magnetic powder that gave early merchants and tradesmen the ability to navigate...
INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada
BMM TESTLABS
CENTER OF EXCELLENCE A BEACON OF INNOVATION IN MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
Nestled amidst the vibrant community and picturesque landscapes of Moncton, New Brunswick, an eastern Canadian city, BMM Testlabs’ Center of Excellence is setting a new benchmark in testing, product certification, and partnership for the global land-based and digital gaming industry. A Vision for Excellence BMM Testlabs, founded in 1981, is...
INNOVATE® Los Angeles
WAVEMAKER THREE-SIXTY HEALTH
LA’s Go-To Health-tech Venture Capital Firm
The WHY L.A.’s healthcare innovation ecosystem is so incredibly strong thanks to remarkable institutions like UCLA Medical Center, CedarsSinai Medical Center, City of Hope, Keck Hospital of USC, SCAN, Amgen, and many more, plus world-class universities including Caltech, UCLA and USC. Yet for decades, the city was missing a venture...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
FROM MEMORY TO MASTERPIECE
MARIA WESTERBERG’S T-SHIRT CHAIR WEAVES STORIES INTO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN
Swedish designer Maria Westerberg has long been a pioneer in upcycling and sustainable design, but it was a single chair — woven from worn-out T-shirts — that propelled her into the global spotlight. Known as the “Queen of ReMake design,” Westerberg blends narrative, memory, and sustainability in a way that...