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

Crowd Capital - We make investors happy by keeping families in their homes

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

FBBA-THE FLORIDA BLOCKCHAIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

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

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

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

TECHNORI-Since Launching Nearly a Decade Ago

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

PEAK POWER- MAKING IT PROFITABLE FOR THE BUILDING SECTOR TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO

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

Arup - An Innovative Approach To Creating A Strategy For A Carbon-neutral And Climate-resilient City By 2030

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

Crowd Capital - We make investors happy by keeping families in their homes

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

FBBA-THE FLORIDA BLOCKCHAIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

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

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

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

TECHNORI-Since Launching Nearly a Decade Ago

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

PEAK POWER- MAKING IT PROFITABLE FOR THE BUILDING SECTOR TO ACHIEVE NET ZERO

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

Arup - An Innovative Approach To Creating A Strategy For A Carbon-neutral And Climate-resilient City By 2030

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...

Ecosystems