Stories of Innovation

INNOVATE™ South Africa

RETROVIRAL MATCHKIT

RETROVIRAL MATCHKIT-Slick & Easy

Slick & Easy

I TRAVELLED TO ANFIELD JUST BEFORE THE HARD LOCKDOWN. I’M A HUGE LIVERPOOL FAN AND WANTED TO WATCH THE TEAM PLAY AT HOME BEFORE THEY WON THE LEAGUE, WHICH – FORTUNATELY – THEY DID. SO I RETURNED HOME ON A HIGH, BUT THEN GLOBAL AND LOCAL SPORT CAME TO A...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

Myya

Innovating Post-Mastectomy Care

At the heart of Myya lies a deeply personal mission inspired by the life and challenges faced by the Founder and CEO, Jasmine Jones. Witnessing her grandmother’s battle with breast cancer and the subsequent difficulties in finding supportive, well-fitting post-mastectomy bras and prostheses ignited a passion within Jasmine to create...

Global Innovation Spotlight

The New MVP Tech Stack: What Forward-Thinking Founders Are Betting On in 2026

The New MVP Tech Stack: What Forward-Thinking Founders Are Betting On in 2026 Somewhere right now, a founder is about to spend $120,000 building an MVP that could have been shipped for $25,000. Not because the cheaper version would be worse. Because the founder picked the wrong tech stack for...

INNOVATE® Jacksonville

Kamana

Travel Healthcare Accelerated

Kamana brings workflow efficiency and security to an antiquated industry, connecting healthcare employers with qualified professionals to fill contract staffing needs. The contract healthcare staffing industry is fundamentally flawed. Travel healthcare professionals, who change locations (and employers) every three months, consistently complain about the lack of continuity across the industry....

INNOVATE® Seattle

READ

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF WORKWITH CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF WORKWITH CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE. Founded in 2021 by David Shim, Robert Williams, and Elliott Waldron, Read AI brings together your meetings, emails, and messages and transforms them into collaborative partners, so that they talk to each other, share information, offer updates, find answers, and organize tasks through...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL

INNOVATING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 165 YEARS

INNOVATING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 165 YEARS Founded in 1857, Northwestern Mutual, a FORTUNE 500® financial services company, embodies a unique culture dedicated to helping people achieve financial security. As a mutual company, Northwestern Mutual answers to its policy owners — not Wall Street. Through a comprehensive planning...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

CALGARY INNOVATION COALITION

Accelerating a venture’s journey, providing a path to success

The Calgary Innovation Coalition (CIC) is striving to create a healthy, inclusive, globally recognized innovation ecosystem supporting thriving ventures in the Calgary region. To accelerate the venture’s journey we leverage the connectivity, experience, and knowledge of our member network to identify and address ecosystem needs, enhance connections, and enable venture...

INNOVATE® Puerto Rico

POPULAR AND PUERTO RICO

BANKING ON THE ISLAND’S FUTURE

Popular is an intricate part of Puerto Rico’s history. We are the longest serving and the largest financial institution in the Island, and a top 50 U.S. financial institution by assets. We play an important role in Puerto Rico’s economy, and we have supported its communities for over 130 years...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

PUXANO

PUXANO- ACCELERATING STRUCTURE-BASED PROTEIN RESEARCH

ACCELERATING STRUCTURE-BASED PROTEIN RESEARCH

PROTEIN STRUCTURESProteins are key building blocks and fulfill many essential roles within all living organisms. They are involved in processes such as immunity, metabolism, perception, etc. As many diseases are the result of malfunctioning proteins, understanding what they look like and how they work is essential to develop better therapeutic...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

STELLAR GAME ASSETS

STEP UP YOUR GAME

If you love video games, you may have thought about making one. So, what’s stopping you? Ten years ago, the answer likely would have been the industry itself. Video games were typically produced only by studios with enough capital to house the entire game creation pipeline. And that pipeline was...

INNOVATE® South Florida

SEEDFUNDERS

EMPOWERING MIAMI’S STARTUP TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM WITH CAPITAL AND MENTORSHIP

EMPOWERING MIAMI’S STARTUP TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM WITH CAPITAL AND MENTORSHIP Seedfunders Miami is an angel investing organization focused on helping early-stage startups develop to the point where they can attract venture capital funding. Our partners come from diverse backgrounds with expertise covering a wide range of real-world business challenges. With funding...

INNOVATE® Georgia

WORKOPTI

WORKOPTI SAVES LEADERS TIME. WORKOPTI SAVES LEADERS MONEY.

WORKOPTI: Technology Built for Leaders in the AI Economy WORKOPTI, founded by our CTO Elkanah Reed, is revolutionizing executive decision-making by providing a platform designed for the AI economy. As the only AI-powered leadership platform, WORKOPTI integrates a data management engine that turns unstructured data into actionable insights. This helps...

INNOVATION Quebec

CEDFOB

CCTT IN BOREAL FORESTRY

The CEDFOB is a CCTT affiliated with the Cégep de Baie-Comeau. Our mission is to carry out research and development projects in collaboration with local communities to develop the resources of the boreal forest in a sustainable manner. Our goal is to foster the use of research findings in businesses...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

THE CCRM STORY

THE CCRM STORY: 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

“Regenerative medicine is the future, and not only is it the future, it’s a branch of medicine that Canada and the province of Ontario are actually quite good at.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau When it launched onto the scene in 2011, there was nothing else like it. Even today, ten years...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

AGILEMD

AGILEMD- SOFTWARE SAVES LIVES THROUGH BETTER CARE DECISIONS

SOFTWARE SAVES LIVES THROUGH BETTER CARE DECISIONS

Healthcare providers are overwhelmed and medical protocols change fast. AgileMD ensures that nurses and doctors can rapidly understand a patient’s status and follow the most current clinical best practices to provide optimal care. The company’s software offers real-time predictive analytics and adaptive clinical guidance that is deeply integrated into the...

INNOVATE® Seattle

SVB - SILICON VALLEY BANK

SVB helps individuals, investors and the world’s most innovative companies achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Our Seattle-based team is dedicated to helping leading founders, executives, and investors achieve their financial goals. We’re based in downtown Seattle and proudly serve the Greater Seattle innovation economy. Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Capital, SVB Private, and SVB Securities together offer the services that dynamic and fast-growing clients require as...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

AMPLIFY CAPITAL

TARGETING QUANTITATIVE IMPACT OUTCOMES; DELIVERING DOUBLE BOTTOM LINE RETURNS

Amplify Capital is a Canadian-based investment fund that provides early-stage companies long-term equity solutions and strategic support to develop their business to solve challenges affecting our future. Led by veteran private equity executive Kathryn Wortsman, Amplify Capital invests exclusively in impact ventures that demonstrate significant, measurable impact alongside market-rate returns....

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

The Frontier Collective

Building the future of Vancouver’s innovation movement on the local & global stage

Frontier technologies are thriving in Vancouver. The region is a talent engine and hub for VR/AR, AI, Cleantech, Web3, Robotics, Biotech/Healthtech, and so many more industries. Vancouver has an immense opportunity to lead the world in frontier tech, ushering in a new wave of transformation, economic prosperity and high-paying jobs, but...

INNOVATE® Seattle

BRINC

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SAFETY: THE FUTURE OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Blake Resnick, the founder and CEO of BRINC, started his engineering career at McLaren Automotive at 14. He later worked at Tesla Motors and DJI, the world’s largest drone company. Growing up in Las Vegas, the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting deeply impacted Blake, leading him to focus on public...

INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath

TEDxBristol - Delivering Inspirational Talks To Sell-Out Audiences

TEDxBristol - Delivering Inspirational Talks To Sell-Out Audiences

ELEVATOR PITCH TEDxBristol is one of the largest TEDx events in Europe, delivering talks to sell-out audiences, working with creative partners across the UK and reaching a global audience online. We’re a largely voluntary and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating thought-provoking, world-class TEDx talks and delivering inspirational, inclusive and friendly...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

DATA HOLDINGS

KEEPING BUSINESSES’ DATA SECURE AND AVAILABLE

Data Holdings is a premier Tier III+ commercial data center, centrally located in Milwaukee with a LEED gold design. Offering a full suite of solutions and services designed to meet any needs, Data Holdings is a highly secure facility with 24/7 staffing and monitoring. Commissioned in 2013 by Potawatomi Ventures,...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

CODE COVEN

CODE COVEN-BEWITCHINGLY DARING TO DEFY THE ODDS IN GAMING AND BEYOND

BEWITCHINGLY DARING TO DEFY THE ODDS IN GAMING AND BEYOND

The gaming community has always been full of diverse people and communities. However, the developers of games have not always reflected the same diversity. Marginalized people have not been offered many of the same opportunities as their counterparts. It’s time to move across the country, and the only person with...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

DRONE CADETS

DRONE CADETS- Is A Unique Drone Education Program Designed To Produce Safe And Responsible Drone Pilots Of Any Age

Is A Unique Drone Education Program Designed To Produce Safe And Responsible Drone Pilots Of Any Age

WHAT INSPIRED THE CREATION OF DRONE CADETS? In 2016 Sgt. Tony Reid, was a corrections officer at Rikers Island, a jail in New York City, working with incarcerated adolescents 16 to 18 years old. For 8 long years, he witnessed first-hand the plight of young men of color who became...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

Genesis

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Perched on a cliffside above the historic harbour of North America’s oldest city, Genesis is literally and figuratively at the edge of innovation, helping shape one of Atlantic Canada’s most vibrant startup communities. Since its launch in 1997, Genesis programming has been the starting point for over 1,000 aspiring tech...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

RETROVIRAL MATCHKIT

RETROVIRAL MATCHKIT-Slick & Easy

Slick & Easy

I TRAVELLED TO ANFIELD JUST BEFORE THE HARD LOCKDOWN. I’M A HUGE LIVERPOOL FAN AND WANTED TO WATCH THE TEAM PLAY AT HOME BEFORE THEY WON THE LEAGUE, WHICH – FORTUNATELY – THEY DID. SO I RETURNED HOME ON A HIGH, BUT THEN GLOBAL AND LOCAL SPORT CAME TO A...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

Myya

Innovating Post-Mastectomy Care

At the heart of Myya lies a deeply personal mission inspired by the life and challenges faced by the Founder and CEO, Jasmine Jones. Witnessing her grandmother’s battle with breast cancer and the subsequent difficulties in finding supportive, well-fitting post-mastectomy bras and prostheses ignited a passion within Jasmine to create...

Global Innovation Spotlight

The New MVP Tech Stack: What Forward-Thinking Founders Are Betting On in 2026

The New MVP Tech Stack: What Forward-Thinking Founders Are Betting On in 2026 Somewhere right now, a founder is about to spend $120,000 building an MVP that could have been shipped for $25,000. Not because the cheaper version would be worse. Because the founder picked the wrong tech stack for...

INNOVATE® Jacksonville

Kamana

Travel Healthcare Accelerated

Kamana brings workflow efficiency and security to an antiquated industry, connecting healthcare employers with qualified professionals to fill contract staffing needs. The contract healthcare staffing industry is fundamentally flawed. Travel healthcare professionals, who change locations (and employers) every three months, consistently complain about the lack of continuity across the industry....

INNOVATE® Seattle

READ

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF WORKWITH CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF WORKWITH CONNECTED INTELLIGENCE. Founded in 2021 by David Shim, Robert Williams, and Elliott Waldron, Read AI brings together your meetings, emails, and messages and transforms them into collaborative partners, so that they talk to each other, share information, offer updates, find answers, and organize tasks through...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL

INNOVATING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 165 YEARS

INNOVATING IN FINANCIAL SERVICES FOR MORE THAN 165 YEARS Founded in 1857, Northwestern Mutual, a FORTUNE 500® financial services company, embodies a unique culture dedicated to helping people achieve financial security. As a mutual company, Northwestern Mutual answers to its policy owners — not Wall Street. Through a comprehensive planning...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

CALGARY INNOVATION COALITION

Accelerating a venture’s journey, providing a path to success

The Calgary Innovation Coalition (CIC) is striving to create a healthy, inclusive, globally recognized innovation ecosystem supporting thriving ventures in the Calgary region. To accelerate the venture’s journey we leverage the connectivity, experience, and knowledge of our member network to identify and address ecosystem needs, enhance connections, and enable venture...

INNOVATE® Puerto Rico

POPULAR AND PUERTO RICO

BANKING ON THE ISLAND’S FUTURE

Popular is an intricate part of Puerto Rico’s history. We are the longest serving and the largest financial institution in the Island, and a top 50 U.S. financial institution by assets. We play an important role in Puerto Rico’s economy, and we have supported its communities for over 130 years...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

PUXANO

PUXANO- ACCELERATING STRUCTURE-BASED PROTEIN RESEARCH

ACCELERATING STRUCTURE-BASED PROTEIN RESEARCH

PROTEIN STRUCTURESProteins are key building blocks and fulfill many essential roles within all living organisms. They are involved in processes such as immunity, metabolism, perception, etc. As many diseases are the result of malfunctioning proteins, understanding what they look like and how they work is essential to develop better therapeutic...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

STELLAR GAME ASSETS

STEP UP YOUR GAME

If you love video games, you may have thought about making one. So, what’s stopping you? Ten years ago, the answer likely would have been the industry itself. Video games were typically produced only by studios with enough capital to house the entire game creation pipeline. And that pipeline was...

INNOVATE® South Florida

SEEDFUNDERS

EMPOWERING MIAMI’S STARTUP TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM WITH CAPITAL AND MENTORSHIP

EMPOWERING MIAMI’S STARTUP TECHNOLOGY ECOSYSTEM WITH CAPITAL AND MENTORSHIP Seedfunders Miami is an angel investing organization focused on helping early-stage startups develop to the point where they can attract venture capital funding. Our partners come from diverse backgrounds with expertise covering a wide range of real-world business challenges. With funding...

INNOVATE® Georgia

WORKOPTI

WORKOPTI SAVES LEADERS TIME. WORKOPTI SAVES LEADERS MONEY.

WORKOPTI: Technology Built for Leaders in the AI Economy WORKOPTI, founded by our CTO Elkanah Reed, is revolutionizing executive decision-making by providing a platform designed for the AI economy. As the only AI-powered leadership platform, WORKOPTI integrates a data management engine that turns unstructured data into actionable insights. This helps...

INNOVATION Quebec

CEDFOB

CCTT IN BOREAL FORESTRY

The CEDFOB is a CCTT affiliated with the Cégep de Baie-Comeau. Our mission is to carry out research and development projects in collaboration with local communities to develop the resources of the boreal forest in a sustainable manner. Our goal is to foster the use of research findings in businesses...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

THE CCRM STORY

THE CCRM STORY: 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

10 YEARS IN THE MAKING

“Regenerative medicine is the future, and not only is it the future, it’s a branch of medicine that Canada and the province of Ontario are actually quite good at.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau When it launched onto the scene in 2011, there was nothing else like it. Even today, ten years...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

AGILEMD

AGILEMD- SOFTWARE SAVES LIVES THROUGH BETTER CARE DECISIONS

SOFTWARE SAVES LIVES THROUGH BETTER CARE DECISIONS

Healthcare providers are overwhelmed and medical protocols change fast. AgileMD ensures that nurses and doctors can rapidly understand a patient’s status and follow the most current clinical best practices to provide optimal care. The company’s software offers real-time predictive analytics and adaptive clinical guidance that is deeply integrated into the...

INNOVATE® Seattle

SVB - SILICON VALLEY BANK

SVB helps individuals, investors and the world’s most innovative companies achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Our Seattle-based team is dedicated to helping leading founders, executives, and investors achieve their financial goals. We’re based in downtown Seattle and proudly serve the Greater Seattle innovation economy. Silicon Valley Bank, SVB Capital, SVB Private, and SVB Securities together offer the services that dynamic and fast-growing clients require as...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

AMPLIFY CAPITAL

TARGETING QUANTITATIVE IMPACT OUTCOMES; DELIVERING DOUBLE BOTTOM LINE RETURNS

Amplify Capital is a Canadian-based investment fund that provides early-stage companies long-term equity solutions and strategic support to develop their business to solve challenges affecting our future. Led by veteran private equity executive Kathryn Wortsman, Amplify Capital invests exclusively in impact ventures that demonstrate significant, measurable impact alongside market-rate returns....

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

The Frontier Collective

Building the future of Vancouver’s innovation movement on the local & global stage

Frontier technologies are thriving in Vancouver. The region is a talent engine and hub for VR/AR, AI, Cleantech, Web3, Robotics, Biotech/Healthtech, and so many more industries. Vancouver has an immense opportunity to lead the world in frontier tech, ushering in a new wave of transformation, economic prosperity and high-paying jobs, but...

INNOVATE® Seattle

BRINC

TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SAFETY: THE FUTURE OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Blake Resnick, the founder and CEO of BRINC, started his engineering career at McLaren Automotive at 14. He later worked at Tesla Motors and DJI, the world’s largest drone company. Growing up in Las Vegas, the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting deeply impacted Blake, leading him to focus on public...

INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath

TEDxBristol - Delivering Inspirational Talks To Sell-Out Audiences

TEDxBristol - Delivering Inspirational Talks To Sell-Out Audiences

ELEVATOR PITCH TEDxBristol is one of the largest TEDx events in Europe, delivering talks to sell-out audiences, working with creative partners across the UK and reaching a global audience online. We’re a largely voluntary and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to creating thought-provoking, world-class TEDx talks and delivering inspirational, inclusive and friendly...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

DATA HOLDINGS

KEEPING BUSINESSES’ DATA SECURE AND AVAILABLE

Data Holdings is a premier Tier III+ commercial data center, centrally located in Milwaukee with a LEED gold design. Offering a full suite of solutions and services designed to meet any needs, Data Holdings is a highly secure facility with 24/7 staffing and monitoring. Commissioned in 2013 by Potawatomi Ventures,...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

CODE COVEN

CODE COVEN-BEWITCHINGLY DARING TO DEFY THE ODDS IN GAMING AND BEYOND

BEWITCHINGLY DARING TO DEFY THE ODDS IN GAMING AND BEYOND

The gaming community has always been full of diverse people and communities. However, the developers of games have not always reflected the same diversity. Marginalized people have not been offered many of the same opportunities as their counterparts. It’s time to move across the country, and the only person with...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

DRONE CADETS

DRONE CADETS- Is A Unique Drone Education Program Designed To Produce Safe And Responsible Drone Pilots Of Any Age

Is A Unique Drone Education Program Designed To Produce Safe And Responsible Drone Pilots Of Any Age

WHAT INSPIRED THE CREATION OF DRONE CADETS? In 2016 Sgt. Tony Reid, was a corrections officer at Rikers Island, a jail in New York City, working with incarcerated adolescents 16 to 18 years old. For 8 long years, he witnessed first-hand the plight of young men of color who became...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

Genesis

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Perched on a cliffside above the historic harbour of North America’s oldest city, Genesis is literally and figuratively at the edge of innovation, helping shape one of Atlantic Canada’s most vibrant startup communities. Since its launch in 1997, Genesis programming has been the starting point for over 1,000 aspiring tech...

Ecosystems