Stories of Innovation

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

AQUÁRIO VASCO DA GAMA

Heart And Science For All Generations/Ciência Com Coração Para Todas As Gerações

Vasco da Gama Aquarium belongs to the extended family of the first public aquariums created around the world, between the late 19th century and the 1st World War. From this first “boom,” most of them were closed or converted into modern aquariums. Built in 1898, the Aquarium celebrates 400 years...

INNOVATE® Maryland

Ekaterina Vert-Wong (Nostopharma)

Resourceful and Scrappy Just Might Win the Race for a Biobased Economy

Across roles at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and human impact, Ekateirna Vert-Wong has demonstrated a belief that progress is most meaningful when it benefits people while safeguarding the future. Both as an executive leading biomedical teams and an entrepreneur building climate-resilient medicine in Maryland, her path has been guided...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

Devbridge

Devbridge- Is A Digital Product And Technology Consultancy Focused On Enterprise Transformation And Custom Software Development

Is A Digital Product And Technology Consultancy Focused On Enterprise Transformation And Custom Software Development

WHO WE AREDevbridge is a technology partner for forward-thinking Global 2000 companies looking to shift to a product-centric operating model. We build extraordinary custom software that delivers measurable results for our clients and their customers.   Using our proven methodology, data-informed strategy, and proprietary Devbridge Apollo toolkit, we not only...

Global Innovation Spotlight

Why Soft2Bet’s MEGA Platform Is Changing the Game

Soft2Bet’s MEGA Platform Redefines iGaming Growth in 2025

Most online casinos follow the same playbook: bright colors, big bonuses, and hope players stick around long enough to lose money. Soft2Bet decided that they were going to change the scene. In 2023, they launched MEGA: a platform that treats players like gamers instead of walking ATMs. Every bet becomes...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

LIFE SCIENCES NOVA SCOTIA

BUILDING A THRIVING COMMUNITY

Life Sciences Nova Scotia (LSNS) is more than just an organization; it is the cornerstone of Nova Scotia’s life sciences community, fostering growth, innovation, and collaboration across the province and Atlantic Canada. At its core, LSNS is driven by the belief that transformative ideas in biotechnology, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals can...

INNOVATE® Nashville

SOUNDSTRIPE

WHERE MUSIC MEETS MOMENTUM

Soundstripe makes it easier for creators to find music that moves—and for artists to make a living doing what they love. Born in Nashville and built by musicians who know the grind, Soundstripe is more than just a licensing platform—it’s a growing music library of tens of thousands of tracks...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Venture Forum

Igniting Innovation and Investment in Atlantic Canada

The Atlantic Venture Forum (AVF) serves as a beacon of innovation and investment in Atlantic Canada, providing a vital platform for high-potential startups to connect with investors, industry leaders, and policymakers. Atlantic Canada’s technology innovators, startups, and leaders come together at AVF to focus on: Mission & Vision The Atlantic...

INNOVATION Quebec

STARTUP MONTRÉAL

WE ARE STARTUP MONTRÉAL, AN NPO WHOSE MISSION IS TO MAXIMIZE THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE MONTRÉAL STARTUP ECOSYSTEM AND MAKE IT SHINE, HERE AND ELSEWHERE

Our vision: To have an attractive Montréal startup ecosystem that is internationally recognized for its performance, diversity, and impact. Our activities are based on five pillars that guide the development of our projects and programs. We are working to make the ecosystem increasingly accessible, collaborative, diverse, and impactful, and to...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

Mintwood Strategies

THE INNOVATORS OF UNOFFICIAL WASHINGTON

There is official Washington you see on TV, which features the National Mall, Congress, and the White House, and there is unofficial Washington, which is home to 700,000 citizens who are denied the ability to electorally participate in official Washington. Mintwood Strategies has carved out a niche in the media...

INNOVATION Quebec

THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTRE (RI-MUHC)

THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTRE (RI-MUHC) IS A UNIQUE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM AFFILIATED WITH THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY. A global leader in precision healthcare across the lifespan, the RI-MUHC is home to more than 600 researchers, 1472 research trainees and 1,300...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

VIDCRUITER

FROM A TEAM OF TWO TO 100+ – VIDCRUITER DRIVES THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL RECRUITMENT

When Sean Fahey, CEO of VidCruiter, was faced with a challenge of hiring 200 people in a time crunch, he learned how frustrating and inefficient it was to find and hire candidates the traditional way. He asked, “What if there’s a way to improve and scale the interviewing process for...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

DESTINATION TORONTO IFC

FOUNDED ON INNOVATION

Today, as Toronto strives to be a model of wellness and sustainability, the city looks to learn from Indigenous communities, combining many traditional practices with contemporary medicine, design and green technologies....

INNOVATION Quebec

ITMI

CCTT EN MAINTENANCE INDUSTRIELLE

Nous n’avons jamais autant parlé de transformation numérique, de maintenance prédictive, d’optimisation des opérations et d’innovation tant industrielle qu’économique dans notre écosystème de l’industrie et des PME. Et ce n’est que le début! À l’Institut technologique de maintenance industrielle (ITMI), on se réjouit de cette tendance puisqu’elle cadre avec la...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

TALTECH

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION: IT DIDACTICS RESEARCH GROUP AT TALTECH

Our Vision and Laboratory Looking around us, we witness the rapid rise of technology that touches every aspect of our lives—robots, artificial intelligence, social media, and countless other digital tools. But how do these innovations translate into meaningful changes in education? At Tallinn University of Technology’s IT College, the IT...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

IMPRESA

IMPRESA-Our Values: Commitment / Cooperation / Integrity / Innovation / Excellence

Our Values: Commitment / Cooperation / Integrity / Innovation / Excellence

IMPRESA was founded by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, one-time prime minister and founding member of Portuguese SocialDemocratic Party (PSD). The journey started with Expresso: the first democratic weekly newspaper published during the dictatorship regime.   Now its portfolio of brands are the country’s leader in sales. Impresa then escalated with SIC,...

INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2

Boundless Innovations

Boundless Innovations - An Award-winning Product Design And Development Company

An Award-winning Product Design And Development Company

Boundless Innovations LLC is an award-winning product design and development company, plus advocates of the open innovation movement since 2004. We invent independently and form strategic partnerships with great companies such as Design Circle (seen below) to design, prototype, co-invent, and bring new products, innovations, and businesses to market via...

INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2

PLAYMAKER RECRUITING

Is here to level the playing field for student athletes and coaches, providing more access to opportunities and resources

Playmaker Recruiting was born from the broken system that is college athlete recruiting, with the mission to help students and coaches navigate the complicated recruiting process, and provide greater access to opportunities at the next level. Having seen friends and family go through the college recruiting process, it was apparent...

INNOVATE™ Flanders

Sightera

Complex Patient-Derived Biology Meets AI-Drug Design

Sightera Biosciences accelerates drug discovery with an innovative approach that combines chemical structure analysis with complex patient-relevant preclinical models to design novel therapies. Due to the organization’s exclusive research collaboration with the DrugVision.AI screening platform of the University of Antwerp/UZA, it can produce exclusive datasets from patient-derived models to train...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

TELUS STORYHIVE

SUPPORTING NEW AND EMERGING CONTENT CREATORS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA

10 years-  Established in 2013$52M+ in production funding provided1,100+ projects funded Since 2013, TELUS STORYHIVE has supported a community of thousands of local content creators across British Columbia and Alberta, providing over $52 million in production funding and over 10,000 hours of robust training and one on one mentorship. STORYHIVE...

INNOVATE® Georgia

REPAY

ATLANTA’S REPAY REVAMPS PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE ADVANTAGES FOR CONSUMERS & BUSINESSES

History & PurposeREPAY was founded in 2006 by John Morris and Shaler Alias with the goal of providing fast, frictionless, and fail-safe integrated payment processing solutions for consumers and businesses. Morris serves as REPAY’s CEO to this day, and Alias co-leads as president from the company’s headquarters in Atlanta. REPAY’s...

INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2

Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ) and Michael Ward Jr

Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ)and Michael Ward Jr

Innovatively Redefining Career Readiness and Eliminating the Skills Gap in Tech

Throughout history, a lack of career readiness and workforce development have stunted the advancement of society and its ability to overcome challenges. Take, for example, the industrial revolution where we witnessed mass migration to the North for factory jobs, the call for nurses and doctors in our healthcare system as...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

CHORUS CALL

THE DIAMOND OF CONFERENCING CHORUS CALL- IS A LEADING PROVIDER IN CONFERENCING

CHORUS CALL IS A LEADING PROVIDER IN CONFERENCING, OFFERING AUDIO, VIDEO AND VIRTUAL EVENT SOLUTIONS. WE PROVIDE PERSONALIZED AND CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS TO YOUR CONFERENCING NEEDS

Chorus Call founder, Dr. Giorgio Coraluppi, started with Compunetics in 1968 when they won the US Navy contract for control and communications equipment, employed in the AWS (Anti-Submarine Warfare) program. The original idea grew to three companies that provide hardware, software, and conference services to the international markets. In 1990,...

INNOVATE™ Botswana Vol.1

ECOHUB (PTY) LTD

ECOHUB (PTY) LTD- “ONE MAN’S WASTE

“ONE MAN’S WASTE, ANOTHER MAN’S SUSTAINABLE ECO BUILDING”

July 2017 I left my 9-5 job of being a full time Lecturer, and founded Ecohub (Pty) Ltd, a startup that innovatively uses plastic waste combined with other additives to produce affordable, architect designed flat pack ecobricks to build ecohouses. As the only Founder, I took a risk and sold...

INNOVATION Quebec

ÉCOFAUNE BORÉALE

CCTT IN ECO-RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION IN THE LEATHER SECTOR, FUR AND RELATED PRODUCTS

Our mission at Écofaune boréale—Cégep de Saint-Félicien’s college centre for the transfer of technology—is to promote the development of innovative social practices through applied research, technological development, technical assistance, knowledge transfer and scientific knowledge dissemination, enabling all socio-economic players in the fur and leather industries to reposition themselves economically in...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

AQUÁRIO VASCO DA GAMA

Heart And Science For All Generations/Ciência Com Coração Para Todas As Gerações

Vasco da Gama Aquarium belongs to the extended family of the first public aquariums created around the world, between the late 19th century and the 1st World War. From this first “boom,” most of them were closed or converted into modern aquariums. Built in 1898, the Aquarium celebrates 400 years...

INNOVATE® Maryland

Ekaterina Vert-Wong (Nostopharma)

Resourceful and Scrappy Just Might Win the Race for a Biobased Economy

Across roles at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and human impact, Ekateirna Vert-Wong has demonstrated a belief that progress is most meaningful when it benefits people while safeguarding the future. Both as an executive leading biomedical teams and an entrepreneur building climate-resilient medicine in Maryland, her path has been guided...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

Devbridge

Devbridge- Is A Digital Product And Technology Consultancy Focused On Enterprise Transformation And Custom Software Development

Is A Digital Product And Technology Consultancy Focused On Enterprise Transformation And Custom Software Development

WHO WE AREDevbridge is a technology partner for forward-thinking Global 2000 companies looking to shift to a product-centric operating model. We build extraordinary custom software that delivers measurable results for our clients and their customers.   Using our proven methodology, data-informed strategy, and proprietary Devbridge Apollo toolkit, we not only...

Global Innovation Spotlight

Why Soft2Bet’s MEGA Platform Is Changing the Game

Soft2Bet’s MEGA Platform Redefines iGaming Growth in 2025

Most online casinos follow the same playbook: bright colors, big bonuses, and hope players stick around long enough to lose money. Soft2Bet decided that they were going to change the scene. In 2023, they launched MEGA: a platform that treats players like gamers instead of walking ATMs. Every bet becomes...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

LIFE SCIENCES NOVA SCOTIA

BUILDING A THRIVING COMMUNITY

Life Sciences Nova Scotia (LSNS) is more than just an organization; it is the cornerstone of Nova Scotia’s life sciences community, fostering growth, innovation, and collaboration across the province and Atlantic Canada. At its core, LSNS is driven by the belief that transformative ideas in biotechnology, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals can...

INNOVATE® Nashville

SOUNDSTRIPE

WHERE MUSIC MEETS MOMENTUM

Soundstripe makes it easier for creators to find music that moves—and for artists to make a living doing what they love. Born in Nashville and built by musicians who know the grind, Soundstripe is more than just a licensing platform—it’s a growing music library of tens of thousands of tracks...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Venture Forum

Igniting Innovation and Investment in Atlantic Canada

The Atlantic Venture Forum (AVF) serves as a beacon of innovation and investment in Atlantic Canada, providing a vital platform for high-potential startups to connect with investors, industry leaders, and policymakers. Atlantic Canada’s technology innovators, startups, and leaders come together at AVF to focus on: Mission & Vision The Atlantic...

INNOVATION Quebec

STARTUP MONTRÉAL

WE ARE STARTUP MONTRÉAL, AN NPO WHOSE MISSION IS TO MAXIMIZE THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE MONTRÉAL STARTUP ECOSYSTEM AND MAKE IT SHINE, HERE AND ELSEWHERE

Our vision: To have an attractive Montréal startup ecosystem that is internationally recognized for its performance, diversity, and impact. Our activities are based on five pillars that guide the development of our projects and programs. We are working to make the ecosystem increasingly accessible, collaborative, diverse, and impactful, and to...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

Mintwood Strategies

THE INNOVATORS OF UNOFFICIAL WASHINGTON

There is official Washington you see on TV, which features the National Mall, Congress, and the White House, and there is unofficial Washington, which is home to 700,000 citizens who are denied the ability to electorally participate in official Washington. Mintwood Strategies has carved out a niche in the media...

INNOVATION Quebec

THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTRE (RI-MUHC)

THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF THE MCGILL UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTRE (RI-MUHC) IS A UNIQUE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM AFFILIATED WITH THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES AT MCGILL UNIVERSITY. A global leader in precision healthcare across the lifespan, the RI-MUHC is home to more than 600 researchers, 1472 research trainees and 1,300...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

VIDCRUITER

FROM A TEAM OF TWO TO 100+ – VIDCRUITER DRIVES THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL RECRUITMENT

When Sean Fahey, CEO of VidCruiter, was faced with a challenge of hiring 200 people in a time crunch, he learned how frustrating and inefficient it was to find and hire candidates the traditional way. He asked, “What if there’s a way to improve and scale the interviewing process for...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

DESTINATION TORONTO IFC

FOUNDED ON INNOVATION

Today, as Toronto strives to be a model of wellness and sustainability, the city looks to learn from Indigenous communities, combining many traditional practices with contemporary medicine, design and green technologies....

INNOVATION Quebec

ITMI

CCTT EN MAINTENANCE INDUSTRIELLE

Nous n’avons jamais autant parlé de transformation numérique, de maintenance prédictive, d’optimisation des opérations et d’innovation tant industrielle qu’économique dans notre écosystème de l’industrie et des PME. Et ce n’est que le début! À l’Institut technologique de maintenance industrielle (ITMI), on se réjouit de cette tendance puisqu’elle cadre avec la...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

TALTECH

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION: IT DIDACTICS RESEARCH GROUP AT TALTECH

Our Vision and Laboratory Looking around us, we witness the rapid rise of technology that touches every aspect of our lives—robots, artificial intelligence, social media, and countless other digital tools. But how do these innovations translate into meaningful changes in education? At Tallinn University of Technology’s IT College, the IT...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

IMPRESA

IMPRESA-Our Values: Commitment / Cooperation / Integrity / Innovation / Excellence

Our Values: Commitment / Cooperation / Integrity / Innovation / Excellence

IMPRESA was founded by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, one-time prime minister and founding member of Portuguese SocialDemocratic Party (PSD). The journey started with Expresso: the first democratic weekly newspaper published during the dictatorship regime.   Now its portfolio of brands are the country’s leader in sales. Impresa then escalated with SIC,...

INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2

Boundless Innovations

Boundless Innovations - An Award-winning Product Design And Development Company

An Award-winning Product Design And Development Company

Boundless Innovations LLC is an award-winning product design and development company, plus advocates of the open innovation movement since 2004. We invent independently and form strategic partnerships with great companies such as Design Circle (seen below) to design, prototype, co-invent, and bring new products, innovations, and businesses to market via...

INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2

PLAYMAKER RECRUITING

Is here to level the playing field for student athletes and coaches, providing more access to opportunities and resources

Playmaker Recruiting was born from the broken system that is college athlete recruiting, with the mission to help students and coaches navigate the complicated recruiting process, and provide greater access to opportunities at the next level. Having seen friends and family go through the college recruiting process, it was apparent...

INNOVATE™ Flanders

Sightera

Complex Patient-Derived Biology Meets AI-Drug Design

Sightera Biosciences accelerates drug discovery with an innovative approach that combines chemical structure analysis with complex patient-relevant preclinical models to design novel therapies. Due to the organization’s exclusive research collaboration with the DrugVision.AI screening platform of the University of Antwerp/UZA, it can produce exclusive datasets from patient-derived models to train...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

TELUS STORYHIVE

SUPPORTING NEW AND EMERGING CONTENT CREATORS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA

10 years-  Established in 2013$52M+ in production funding provided1,100+ projects funded Since 2013, TELUS STORYHIVE has supported a community of thousands of local content creators across British Columbia and Alberta, providing over $52 million in production funding and over 10,000 hours of robust training and one on one mentorship. STORYHIVE...

INNOVATE® Georgia

REPAY

ATLANTA’S REPAY REVAMPS PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE ADVANTAGES FOR CONSUMERS & BUSINESSES

History & PurposeREPAY was founded in 2006 by John Morris and Shaler Alias with the goal of providing fast, frictionless, and fail-safe integrated payment processing solutions for consumers and businesses. Morris serves as REPAY’s CEO to this day, and Alias co-leads as president from the company’s headquarters in Atlanta. REPAY’s...

INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2

Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ) and Michael Ward Jr

Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ)and Michael Ward Jr

Innovatively Redefining Career Readiness and Eliminating the Skills Gap in Tech

Throughout history, a lack of career readiness and workforce development have stunted the advancement of society and its ability to overcome challenges. Take, for example, the industrial revolution where we witnessed mass migration to the North for factory jobs, the call for nurses and doctors in our healthcare system as...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

CHORUS CALL

THE DIAMOND OF CONFERENCING CHORUS CALL- IS A LEADING PROVIDER IN CONFERENCING

CHORUS CALL IS A LEADING PROVIDER IN CONFERENCING, OFFERING AUDIO, VIDEO AND VIRTUAL EVENT SOLUTIONS. WE PROVIDE PERSONALIZED AND CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS TO YOUR CONFERENCING NEEDS

Chorus Call founder, Dr. Giorgio Coraluppi, started with Compunetics in 1968 when they won the US Navy contract for control and communications equipment, employed in the AWS (Anti-Submarine Warfare) program. The original idea grew to three companies that provide hardware, software, and conference services to the international markets. In 1990,...

INNOVATE™ Botswana Vol.1

ECOHUB (PTY) LTD

ECOHUB (PTY) LTD- “ONE MAN’S WASTE

“ONE MAN’S WASTE, ANOTHER MAN’S SUSTAINABLE ECO BUILDING”

July 2017 I left my 9-5 job of being a full time Lecturer, and founded Ecohub (Pty) Ltd, a startup that innovatively uses plastic waste combined with other additives to produce affordable, architect designed flat pack ecobricks to build ecohouses. As the only Founder, I took a risk and sold...

INNOVATION Quebec

ÉCOFAUNE BORÉALE

CCTT IN ECO-RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION IN THE LEATHER SECTOR, FUR AND RELATED PRODUCTS

Our mission at Écofaune boréale—Cégep de Saint-Félicien’s college centre for the transfer of technology—is to promote the development of innovative social practices through applied research, technological development, technical assistance, knowledge transfer and scientific knowledge dissemination, enabling all socio-economic players in the fur and leather industries to reposition themselves economically in...

Ecosystems