Entrepreneurship Week

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

ONRamp

Subheadline

“With students back on campus, this is an opportunity to expose the internal entrepreneurial ecosystem to all the different accelerator programs we have at the university”

The new school year is typically associated with lectures, textbooks and study groups – but at the ��Ƶ, students are also encouraged to think about how all that knowledge can be wielded to start game-changing companies that address important challenges, create jobs and foster innovation.

That’s one of the goals behind the inaugural AcceleratorFest, which takes place Sept. 18 at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.

Organized by U of T Entrepreneurship – which is ranked among the top five university business incubators in the world – AcceleratorFest offers a handy introduction to U of T’s thriving entrepreneurship scene.

“With students back on campus, this is an opportunity to expose the internal entrepreneurial ecosystem to all the different accelerator programs we have at the university,” says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship.

There are 12 campus-linked accelerators across the tri-campus, and the number of startups emerging from them continues to balloon – in 2019, U of T supported 380 entrepreneurial teams; last year, that number rose to nearly 1,000.

“This is one of the rare opportunities where we can bring staff, alumni, accelerator leads and companies to talk to the next generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs about resources and tools and the different accelerators in a classic ��Ƶ way,” French says.

AcceleratorFest features three key elements.

In classic trade show fashion, booths will be set up for attendees to chat informally with entrepreneurs about their startups.

Later in the afternoon, attendees can hear from Zain Zaidi, CEO of document verification and management startup Transcrypts, and Catherine Chan, founding CEO of clinical trials startup Honeybee (which was recently acquired by global clinical trials firm Leapcure), at the Desjardins Speaker Series.

Finally, an open house on the seventh floor of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus will invite visitors to check out ONRamp, a co-working and collaboration space for U of T’s entrepreneurship community.

(photo by David Lee)

Registration to AcceleratorFest includes a raffle ticket, with potential to win some unique swag (think a MOTUS U of T hoodie or Nanoleaf smart bulb) and a ticket to one of the tech industry’s premier events, Elevate Festival.

French says he encourages everyone in the U of T community to check out the event, noting U of T Entrepreneurship has a “no-wrong-door philosophy” – no matter what you’re studying or where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, “there's a door that you can open in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and there are people and alumni and resources that can support you.”

AcceleratorFest is the first of several exciting entrepreneurship events on the calendar for the upcoming academic year. A key date to watch out for: Oct. 15, which is when applications for the Desjardins Startup Prize will open for companies vying to win $100,000 in non-dilutive funding.

The prize is one of the highlights of the annual U of T Entrepreneurship Week, which will take place March 3-7.

Add new author/reporter

Adam Elliott Segal

Making waves: U of T entrepreneur uses quantum chemistry, AI to purify drinking water

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 19:51:46 +0000

Making waves: U of T entrepreneur uses quantum chemistry, AI to purify drinking water

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 04/23/2024 - 15:51

Cutline

U of T's Diana Virgovicova, the founder and CEO of XAtoms, is using quantum computing and AI to discover water-purifying molecules in a bid to improve access to clean drinking water around the globe (photo courtesy of Diana Virgovicova)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Artificial Intelligence

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

Quantum Computing

Subheadline

At age 17, Diana Virgovicova discovered a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water when exposed to sunlight

It’s not a bullet point that appears many resumes, let alone one belonging to a teenager: “Utilized quantum computing to discover a molecule that could revolutionize water treatment.”

But that’s exactly what Diana Virgovicova accomplished at age 17 when she modelled a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water when exposed to sunlight.

Originally from Slovakia, Virgovicova later made her way to the ��Ƶ to study computer engineering on a Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship and founded Xatoms, a startup using quantum computing and AI to discover water-purifying molecules in an effort to solve a long-standing global health problem.

“We want to be the leading water purification company in the world, offering affordable and efficient solutions and reaching some of the most vulnerable communities in the world,” says Virgovicova.

The young company is already making waves.

In March, Xatoms took home the top prizes for early-stage startups at the Desjardins Startup Prize and Pitch With a Twist competitions at U of T’s annual Entrepreneurship Week. A few days later, it was selected for the inaugural Compute for Climate Fellowship awarded by the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence, an organization backed by Amazon Web Services and UNESCO.

Virgovicova’s growing list of accolades also includes being selected for the NEXT 36 entrepreneurship program, the 776 Climate Fellowship (backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian) and a Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which she received from Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria.

She says she first recognized the urgency of the global water crisis when she was 14. She and her mother travelled to India, where she was confronted with a heavily polluted beach in Mumbai. “It really made me think about how we can solve this problem,” she says. “I decided to make cleaning polluted water my life’s mission.”

Upon returning home, Virgovicova contacted the University of Slovakia to enquire about water treatment research. A professor told her how quantum chemistry could be used to identify photocatalysts – materials that use sunlight to kickstart a chemical reaction that degrades pollutants.

Virgovicova says she began teaching herself to use quantum chemistry software and, within three years, used it to model a novel photocatalytic molecule.

How does it work? Most existing photocatalytic substances required ultraviolet (UV) radiation, but the structure that Virgovicova modelled works when exposed to simple visible light. “What I did was to remove this necessity of having an expensive UV reactor by modelling structures which would work when exposed to radiation from the sun,” she says.

The next step was to explore creating a company based around the discovery, which Virgovicova says influenced her decision to come to U of T. “I knew I wanted to build a company in the water space, so I chose U of T because it’s one of the best research-based universities in the world when it comes to entrepreneurship,” she says.

Xatoms, which was part of The Bridge accelerator program at U of T Scarborough, builds on Virgovicova’s photocatalyst discovery by incorporating AI to discover more – and more efficient – materials and molecules. “It’s now much more advanced and it’s not just about one material – it’s about multiple [materials] because different types of environments will need different types of materials to clean the water,” she says.

Xatoms now comprises a three-person team that includes co-founder and chief technology officer Kerem Topal Ismail Oglou, a computer engineering student at U of T, and chief operations officer Shirley Zhong, a Western University student.

The goal is to create two product lines: an industrial water-treatment powder that can eliminate viruses, pesticides and bacteria, and a portable water filter for consumer use. To that end, the company is collaborating with Alexandra Tavasoli, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of British Columbia, to synthesize photocatalytic molecules in the lab – a process that Virgovicova estimates will take several months.

Xatoms is also pursuing partnerships with water treatment organizations in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and India, and working with foundations in the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Virgovicova says access to safe drinking water isn't just a health issue but one of gender equality since women and girls often shoulder the burden of securing water for their households in many parts of the world.

“We want to see the number of people who lack access to clean drinking water to be reduced, and to see fewer women and girls investing their time – up to eight hours [a day] in some cases – to bring home a single container of water,” Virgovicova says. “Our goal is to have a big impact and introduce more and more solutions to reach as many people as possible.”

U of T startup targets harmful side effect of cancer treatment

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:17:45 +0000

U of T startup targets harmful side effect of cancer treatment

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 03/06/2024 - 11:17

Cutline

Nabanita Nawar and Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul, co-founders of HDAX Therapeutics, met while they were pursuing doctoral studies at U of T Mississauga’s department of chemical and physical sciences (photo by Matthew Volpe)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Black Founders Network

Alumni

Dentistry

Health Innovation Hub

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

HDAX Therapeutics is focused on developing treatments for peripheral nerve damage, which can result from chemotherapy or radiation

Pain, numbness, sore muscles and even paralysis. These are some of the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy, an often-debilitating condition associated with chemotherapy, radiation and other cancer treatments.

Such peripheral nerve damage can be temporary, but for some, it never goes away.

“There’s often really nothing for these patients except just symptom management and putting fingers and toes in a bucket of ice,” says Nabanita Nawar, who holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the ��Ƶ.

Nawar is the CEO and a co-founder of HDAX Therapeutics, a startup that grew out of technology developed in U of T Mississauga’s department of chemical and physical sciences. The company is currently working on treatments that focus on HDAC 6, a protein that has been implicated in cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders – including the peripheral nerve damage experienced by many cancer patients.

“We are essentially developing new medicine for diseases that have a transport problem in the body,” Nawar says, referring to the protein’s key role in multiple cellular processes.

HDAX’s patented mechanism targets HDAC 6 to return damaged neurons to health.

“Our target, HDAC6, plays a key role in regulating microtubule stability and thus, affects axonal transport,” explained Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul, who also earned a PhD at U of T and is now chief operations officer at HDAX. “In diseased states for indications that we are targeting, these axonal transports are impaired resulting in nerve degeneration, which results in symptoms in patients.”

By using a “two-site binding modality,” the startup’s technology essentially holds the target with two figurative hands instead of one – like many of its competitors – providing a tighter grip on the protein and a key competitive advantage.

The treatment, still in pre-clinical testing, would be delivered in the form of an oral pill.

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

The HDAX team also plans to apply the startup’s technology to target transport mechanisms in cardio-metabolic diseases, including heart failure.

Manaswiyoungkul met Nawar in the lab when they were pursing doctoral studies. She says Nawar, who was on the medicinal chemistry side, would give her compounds to evaluate.

“The flow of how we worked in the lab helped us connect,” Manaswiyoungkul says.

Working with fellow researchers Elvin de Araujo and Olasunkanmi Olaoye, it wasn’t long before Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul shifted their focus to the challenges of translating their promising research into a viable business.

The team established HDAX in 2021 and received its first big funding injection – and a confidence boost – a few months later when it won a bio-venture pitch competition hosted by Medicine by Design, a U of T institutional strategic initiative focused on regenerative medicine and cell therapy.

“That was the first thing that made us think, ‘OK, this may be a real company – this could really be something.’ It wasn’t just in our heads,” Nawar says.

HDAX has since attracted a total of $1.3 million in funding, Manaswiyoungkul says, noting the company and its five full-time employees is now preparing for its first seed round funding.

The work of Nawar, Manaswiyoungkul and their teammates hasn’t gone unnoticed. The two founders recently earned an unexpected individual accolade: inclusion in the Forbes list of 30 under 30 Torontonians. When the Forbes email landed in Nawar’s inbox, she says she was so surprised she wondered if it was spam.

As it turns out, the duo were nominated by one of their early U of T mentors, Paul Santerre, a professor in the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

“The [HDAX] technology circumvents toxicity in neuro and cardiac drugs, with amazing efficacy demonstrated in their neuro models,” Santerre says, adding that Nawar and Manaswiyoungkul “not only accomplished novel, impactful findings during their PhD/post doc training, but did the work to accelerate their evolution to becoming serious entrepreneurs.”

Along the way, the startup received extensive support from the U of T entrepreneurship community, which ranks first in Canada for research-based startups and among the top five globally for university startup accelerators. In particular, HDAX worked with UTEST, the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) and the Black Founders Network.

Santerre says one of the keys to U of T’s successful entrepreneurial support network is its “no wrong door” policy.

“This means, regardless of where you come from at U of T, you will be supported by the incubators that best fit your venture,” he says.

Manaswiyoungkul’s advice for students thinking about making the leap into entrepreneurship? Just go for it.

“U of T is a very accepting community and there’s always someone who has more experience and the willingness to help take your ideas forward.”

From nature to the lab: U of T startup brews more sustainable food ingredients

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:22:34 +0000

From nature to the lab: U of T startup brews more sustainable food ingredients

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/04/2024 - 10:22

Cutline

Pratish Gawand, who graduated from the ��Ƶ with a PhD in chemical engineering in 2014, says many natural flavouring ingredients are produced in small quantities and end up being shipped long distances to the companies that use them (photo by Matthew Volpe)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Chemical Engineering

ThisIsThePlace

UTEST

Subheadline

Using precision fermentation, Ardra Inc. aims to replace natural flavour ingredients with more sustainable alternatives

Natural ingredients may seem better for the planet, but that’s not always the case.

Consider rose oil. It takes thousands of kilograms of rose petals to extract a single kilogram of the popular fragrance ingredient.

“If a multinational cosmetics or consumer goods company said tomorrow, ‘We’re not going to use any artificial rose oil,’ we couldn’t grow enough roses in the world to supply such a big company,” says Pratish Gawand, who graduated from the ��Ƶ with a PhD in chemical engineering in 2014.

Pratish Gawand (photo by Matthew Volpe)

Gawand’s startup, Ardra Inc., aims to replace natural flavour ingredients in food with more sustainable alternatives manufactured using precision fermentation. Think of the fermenting tanks in a brewery, but instead of yeast, Ardra’s technology involves microbes that are genetically engineered to produce high-value compounds rather than ethanol.

Following fermentation, the ingredients must be purified to the high standards of “flavour houses,” where scientists known as flavourists formulate the flavours of food products.

“Humans are much more sensitive to detecting odours than even gas chromatography instruments,” says Gawand, who is Ardra’s chief executive. “We have to meet those kinds of standards, and we have done it.”

Typically produced in small quantities from plants and animals, most natural ingredients end up being shipped long distances to the companies that use them, which comes with a cost to the climate. Ardra’s process, on the other hand, would provide manufacturers with a local and more sustainable source of necessary ingredients.

“This addresses major challenges in the food industry – mainly around sustainability and supply,” Gawand says.

Ardra’s list of products includes heme, the iron-carrying molecule that turns blood red and gives meats their distinctive taste. Fermented heme can be used not only to enhance the taste of plant-based meats but also to give it other meat-like qualities. For example, Gawand says heme is thought to be among the reasons that meat chars on a grill.

Ardra can also ferment leaf-aldehyde, which replicates a variety of flavours including green apple, berry and citrus. And it makes natural petroleum-free butylene glycol, a versatile moisturizing agent often used in shampoos, lotions and cosmetics that is otherwise largely petroleum-based.

Gawand co-founded Ardra in 2016 with his U of T PhD supervisor Radhakrishnan Mahadevan, a professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Metabolic Systems Engineering. “U of T was our very first investor,” Gawand says, adding that Ardra received its first investment from the university’s UTEST (��Ƶ Early Stage Technology) program.

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

“The university helped us put the company together, put the patent together and it wrote us our very first cheque.”

Ardra began its journey with butylene glycol technology.

“Krishna [Mahadevan] and I were inventors on that patent, along with Associate Professor Alexander Yakunin and PhD student Kayla Nemr. We assigned the patent to the university and licensed it out,” Gawand says.

Mahadevan, for his part, says his prior experience working with startups, including Geno – a San Diego, Calif.-based company that currently makes a more sustainable version of nylon, among other products – made him keen to explore the commercial potential of his group’s research.

He says Gawand had the passion and drive necessary to translate bench research into a viable business.

“He had a tough work ethic and would go to great lengths to achieve his research goals,” Mahadevan recalls.

He adds that Gawand’s commitment to sustainability also made a strong impression, recalling an essay that his former student wrote and shared with the lab describing the urbanization of the landscape near his hometown in India. (Gawand, an avid birdwatcher in his youth, lamented that new construction near his home drove out the egrets, cormorants and other birds that he remembered seeing on his walks to and from school.)

Ardra has come a long way since it was founded less than decade ago. It has raised more than $4 million in funding and has strategic partnerships with a U.S.-based flavour house and a European company.

Gawand says he hopes Ardra’s success will pave the way for other Canadian companies in the bio-manufacturing sector.

“I want to put the wheels in motion for Canadian bio-manufacturing and precision fermentation,” he says. “From Ardra’s success, I want to get Canada started on bio-industrial innovations.”

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2024: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 20:00:17 +0000

U of T Entrepreneurship Week 2024: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 03/01/2024 - 15:00

Cutline

HDAX Therapeutics, a startup that grew out U of T Mississauga’s department of chemical and physical sciences, is developing a drug that could prevent nerve damage caused by chemotherapy (photo by Matthew Volpe)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Translational Research Program

Sustainability

ThisIsThePlace

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

Preventing nerve damage caused by chemotherapy. Using artificial intelligence to help people who are Deaf communicate with machines through sign language. Accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in urban communities.

These are some of the innovations being advanced by members of the ��Ƶ’s thriving entrepreneurship community.

Ranked among the top five university business incubators in the world, U of T Entrepreneurship is preparing to celebrate these and other startups during the eighth annual Entrepreneurship Week from March 4 to 7. The week-long celebration includes more than 15 events, including pitch competitions, startup showcases, workshops and more.

Here are 10 exciting U of T-affiliated startups to keep an eye on in 2024:

HDAX Therapeutics

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

Chemotherapy kills cancer cells, but it can also cause irreversible nerve damage that results in pain, loss of sensation and even paralysis. HDAX Therapeutics, co-founded by alumnae Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul and Nabanita Nawar, is looking to tackle the problem with a preventative drug that has delivered promising results in pre-clinical studies.

Waabi

(photo by Polina Teif)

Waabi is a self-driving technology startup founded by Raquel Urtasun, a professor of computer science in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science and co-founder of the Vector Institute who headlined the Desjardins Speaker Series at last year’s Entrepreneurship Week. Her company operates at the intersection of autonomous driving, AI and commercial transportation. In September, it announced a 10-year strategic partnership with Uber Freight to accelerate the adoption of autonomous technologies in the trucking industry.

Kiwi Charge

(supplied image)

Kiwi Charge is looking to boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) via a charging-as-a-service model that caters to people living in apartments and condos. Founded by Abdel Ali, Kiwi Charge helps building owners offer EV charging amenities while avoiding hefty infrastructure costs, allowing tenants to enjoy a hassle-free charging experience. The startup was part of the 2023 cohort of the Nobellum Innovator Program, which provides support and capital to Black founders. Kiwi Charge will be at the True Blue Expo on March 7.

BlueDot

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

BlueDot is using AI to detect infectious disease outbreaks, carry out risk assessment and provide actionable insights to clients in public health, the pharmaceuticals and life sciences industries and global companies more generally. The company was founded by Kamran Khan, a scientist at Unity Health Toronto and professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Khan is scheduled to speak at Entrepreneurship Week, where he will take part in a panel discussion about mental health and wellness for startup founders.

Deaf AI

(photo by Alyssa K Faoro)

Deaf AI is using AI to train machines in sign language to improve human-machine communication for people who are Deaf or have hearing impairments. The company made an impression at the Desjardins Startup Prize Pitch Competition at Entrepreneurship Week 2023, winning first-place in the late-stage category as well as the Dongjun Wang Family True Blue Prize (People’s Choice Award). It was co-founded by Azadeh Bojmehrani, who earned a master of health science degree in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s translational research program (which is hosting a networking lunch event for health-care innovators and entrepreneurs on March 8 to cap off this year’s Entrepreneurship Week action).

Transcrypts

(supplied image)

TransCrypts, too, has enjoyed success at U of T Entrepreneurship pitch competitions, taking home the second-place prize in the later-stage category for the UTE Startup Prize during Entrepreneurship Week 2022. Co-founded by Ali Zaheer and Zain Zaidi, the company aims to enhance digital privacy and security by automating document verification – ultimately giving users ownership and access to their own data. The pair have participated in the Y-Combinator accelerator in Silicon Valley and raised more than $3-million in funding from investors that include Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks and a “shark” on Shark Tank.

Genecis

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

Genecis is a climate-focused biotech startup that converts organic waste into sustainable and biodegradable plastics. Founded by CEO Luna Yu, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from U of T in only four years, Genecis aims to provide plastic manufacturers with competitively priced bio-plastics, while helping waste management companies save on their organic material disposal costs. Since competing in U of T pitch competitions back in 2017, Genecis has raised more than $22 million.

Reeddi

(photo by Polina Teif)

Founded by U of T Engineering alumnus Olugbenga Olubanjo, Reeddi is bringing affordable and clean electricity to under-resourced communities by renting out solar-powered energy capsules that can power household devices and appliances. Currently based in Nigeria, Reeddi aims to eventually expand its presence to other countries in Africa and beyond. The company was a finalist in Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which recognizes efforts to tackle environmental problems.

Erthos

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

Co-founded by alumnae Nuha Siddiqui and Kritika Tyagi, Erthos is helping tackle the global plastic pollution crisis with its novel plant-based resin, which serves as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastics. After starting with a focus on packing peanuts, Erthos has expanded its offerings to include cutlery, clothes hangers and packaging for consumer products, among others. In September, the company announced $6.5 million in Series A funding.

Ardra Bio

(photo by Matthew Volpe)

Co-founded by alumnus Pratish Gawand and Radhakrishnan Mahadevan, a professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, Ardra Bio is developing technologies to produce sustainable biochemicals and novel food products including heme, a plant-based product that matches the flavour, colour and iron nutrients of meat, and leaf-aldehyde, which is used as a flavouring ingredient for foods and beverages and as an ingredient in the fragrance industry.

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship Week

Five things to look forward to at Entrepreneurship Week 2024

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 17:31:12 +0000

Five things to look forward to at Entrepreneurship Week 2024

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 02/26/2024 - 12:31

Cutline

U of T’s annual Entrepreneurship Week takes place March 4 to 7 and features more than 15 events across U of T’s three campuses, including pitch competitions, startup showcases, keynote speeches, workshops and panel discussions (supplied image)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The ��Ƶ is gearing up for its annual tri-campus Entrepreneurship Week, a four-day showcase of U of T’s diverse and extensive entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Taking place from March 4 to 7, Entrepreneurship Week features more than 15 events across U of T’s three campuses, including pitch competitions, startup showcases, keynote speeches, workshops, panel discussions and more.

All events are free and open to students, entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders and anyone else interested in learning about – and being inspired by – the startups, founders and research-based entrepreneurship ecosystem that have made U of T one of the top five university startup incubators in the world.

“There is no wrong door for the entrepreneurs in our community. Regardless of what and where you study or how far along you are on your journey, there is a place for you,” says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship. “This week is an opportunity to showcase the calibre of our talented founders and the breadth and depth of opportunities we can offer over 600 teams annually.”

Here are some of the key events and themes for the upcoming edition of U of T’s annual celebration of all things entrepreneurship:

Watch startups compete for funding and prizes

U of T Entrepreneurship’s marquee business pitch competition is the Desjardins Startup Prize, which will see startups and their founders vie for more than $100,000 in cash prizes.

This year’s shortlist includes companies that are innovating across an array of important areas including neurodegenerative disease treatments, greenhouse gas monitoring, oral hygiene and AI chatbots. The competition, which is split into early-stage and later-stage startup categories, will take place during True Blue Impact Day on March 7.

On March 6, U of T Mississauga’s ICUBE accelerator will host Pitch with a Twist, an annual pitch competition for women entrepreneurs that is judged by an all-women panel. The event, which marks the lead-up to International Women’s Day on March 8, will also feature a keynote address by Catherine Addai, founder of the women’s clothing company Kaela Kay.

Hear from entrepreneur-investor power couple Eva and Allen Lau

(photo supplied)

This year’s Desjardins Speaker Series address will be delivered by Eva and Allen Lau, spouses who are both alumni, successful entrepreneurs and co-founders of Two Small Fish Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm.

In a keynote titled “School of Fish: Lessons Learned from Swimming Upstream,” the Laus will discuss an array of topics including the story of digital storytelling platform Wattpad – co-founded by Allen Lau, with Eva Lau as one of its founding members – from its inception in 2006 to its $600-million exit 15 years later.

The Laus will also offer their advice for early-stage founders, discuss the current investment climate and explore opportunities and challenges in the Canadian innovation ecosystem – including their thoughts on key industries and technologies such as AI, quantum computing and electric vehicles.

The hybrid event will take place on True Blue Impact Day on March 7.

Get inspired by leaders from underrepresented groups

U of T Entrepreneurship continues to celebrate and advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in the entrepreneurship world through its Entrepreneurship Week programming.

At U of T Scarborough on March 5, attendees can take in an International Women’s Day panel discussion featuring Fennella Bruce, media consultant and founder of FKB Media Solutions, and Melanie Ratnam, founder of the researcher-focused software platform Indaggo and president the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology. The event will also feature opportunities to network with women leaders and entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, on the St. George campus, the second day of Entrepreneurship Week will feature the return of the popular Fireside at FemSTEM conversation series featuring special guest Yasaman Soudagar, co-founder and CEO of the neuroscience startup Neurescence who completed her PhD in experimental quantum optics at U of T and École Polytechnique in Montreal.

Another moderated conversation on March 7 will examine women who are transforming Canada’s music and arts landscape. The discussion, titled “I’m first cause I’m a L-A-D-I-E: Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Female Empowerment in Canada’s Hip Hop and Black Music Industries,” will feature: Tinesha Richards-Morris, director of 925 Agency Inc. and former managing director the arts and culture non-profit Manifesto; Annalie Bonda, label manager for independent record label Golly Geng Inc. and former executive director of arts training organization The Remix Project; and Keysha Freshh, a solo emcee and member of all-female hip-hop crew The Sorority. Audience members will have the chance to network with key figures in Canada’s music industry, learn how to navigate its barriers and discuss the role of gender in the Canadian music landscape.

Learn about mental wellness, stress management and how to deal with failure

This year’s Entrepreneurship Week will kick off with a keynote address and panel discussion on a critical but often overlooked topic in the world of entrepreneurship: stress management and mental wellness. The session will begin with a keynote from Lauren Brown, lead facilitator and program co-ordinator of mindfulness, meditation and yoga for U of T’s Division of Student Life, that will explore how entrepreneurs can harness their intuition and tackle stress. The keynote will be followed by a moderated discussion with a panel of founders.

Themes of wellness and resilience will also be explored during “Redefining the 'F-word’ (Failure, not the other one),” a fireside chat with U of T Scarborough's entrepreneur-in-residence Elina Chow and executive coach Matthew Fuller. The chat will include a candid exploration of failure in entrepreneurship.

Experience the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

(photo by David Lee)

For the first time, this year’s Entrepreneurship Week will see several events hosted at U of T’s new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.

The result of a historic $100-million donation by Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman, the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus serves as a hub for entrepreneurship, innovation and advancement in AI and related fields.

The building’s west tower will serve as the anchor location of Entrepreneurship Week 2024, hosting events including the curtain-raiser on mental wellness on March 4 and the entire slate of events on True Blue Impact Day on March 7, including the Desjardins Startup Prize and Speaker Series as well as the True Blue Expo featuring more than 40 startups, 12 campus-linked accelerators and numerous community partners.

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship

Three takeaways from Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun’s entrepreneurial journey

mattimar — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:00:54 +0000

Three takeaways from Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun’s entrepreneurial journey

mattimar Wed, 03/15/2023 - 12:00

Cutline

Raquel Urtasun, a professor of computer science and founder and CEO of self-driving startup Waabi, delivers a talk during the Desjardins Speakers Series at U of T's Entrepreneurship Week (photo by Polina Teif)

Mariam Matti

Topic

Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Raquel Urtasun

Research & Innovation

Self-Driving Cars

Desjardins Speaker Series: Driving Innovation with Raquel Urtasun, Founder of Waabi from U of T Entrepreneurship on Vimeo.

Raquel Urtasun may be a world-leading expert in machine learning and computer vision – but that doesn’t mean she likes to talk about her abilities.

In fact, the CEO of self-driving vehicle company Waabi says she had to overcome her humble nature when trying to convince big-name investors she had the winning formula to transform the self-driving industry.

“You need to say [to venture capitalists] – why you, why this team and why this technology in a way that’s very convincing,” says Urtasun.

The approach worked. Urtasun, a professor in the department of computer science in the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Arts & Science, secured $100 million in initial capital – one of the largest rounds of seed funding in Canadian history. She’s since worked on developing the next-generation of AI-powered technology for self-driving trucks.

She recently spoke about her entrepreneurial journey during a keynote speech at True Blue Impact Day, which marked the culmination of the seventh annual U of T Entrepreneurship Week.

Here are three takeaways from her talk:

Be bold and aim high

As someone who prefers to show others she can do something, Urtasun says she knew that asking for $100 million from a slew of big-name investors would not come naturally.

But she was confident in her detailed plan.

“In front of the venture capitalists, you cannot be humble,” she says. “They will never fund you.”

Urtasun says she made sure to draw a roadmap of how she intended to use the money.

“I didn’t want to worry about fundraising in six or nine months,” she adds. “I wanted the money so we could execute and build this transformational technology.”

Be strategic about your team

Urtasun is the sole founder of Waabi, but she says her team and the investors she’s worked with have been incredibly important in building the company. She adds that she knew from the beginning she wanted to work with investors from the technology and AI sector – including fellow U of T AI luminaries ��Ƶ and Sanja Fidler – because they would better understand Waabi’s mission.

“I think it’s important to have people you can rely on and that have each other’s back,” she says.

The investments from Uber, Khosla Ventures, BDC Capital and others have allowed the company to develop Waabi World, an advanced simulator to test its autonomous vehicles, and Waabi Driver, its first generation of self-driving trucks.

Ignore the competition

“My philosophy is to write a strategy and focus on that,” Urtasun says, adding that it’s important to tune out naysayers.

Case in point: When she first founded the company two years ago, she says she heard people say that she was getting into the self-driving sector “too late.”

“What I heard a lot was ‘everybody’s in this path, what are you doing?’ What I hear today is ‘how did you perfectly time this?’” she says. “And nothing changed, right? I just focused on doing my thing.”

U of T grads develop Mind-Easy therapy platform with a focus on equity

siddiq22 — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:44:26 +0000

U of T grads develop Mind-Easy therapy platform with a focus on equity

siddiq22 Mon, 03/13/2023 - 10:44

Cutline

Alexandra Assouad and Akanksha Shelat created Mind-Easy, an adaptive mental health platform that provides knowledge and tools in more than 100 languages, dialects and accents (supplied images)

David Goldberg

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Health Innovation Hub

Mental Health

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Rotman Commerce

A new app launched by ��Ƶ alumnae aims to make cultural competence a minimum standard in mental health – including innovative ways to deliver identity-centric preventive care.

“Available to anyone around the world, the Mind-Easy app is an adaptive health platform that uses avatars with human-like characteristics that help guide users through their therapeutic journey,” explains Mind-Easy co-founder and chief technology officer Akanksha Shelat, who graduated in 2018 with an honours bachelor of science from the Faculty of Arts & Science as a member of New College, majoring in computer science and cognitive science.

“This platform is designed to provide personalized care to patients, using a proprietary human taxonomy and artificial intelligence to deliver tailored mental health plans.”

Shelat and fellow Faculty of Arts & Science alumna Alexandra Assouad, along with Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) PhD candidate Dalia Ahmed, developed and launched Mind-Easy, drawing from their own experiences as international students.

In consultation with mental health professionals across the country, Mind-Easy provides knowledge and tools in more than 100 languages, dialects and accents. Asynchronous learning makes the resources available on demand. Leveraging the OISE and psychology network at U of T, the team built a database of carefully curated content for Canada’s diverse and often marginalized groups.

From the start, the co-founders' goal was to solve two major problems: the shortage of therapists and the lack of cultural competence. Mind-Easy checks both boxes.

“Cultural competence is essential when providing proper mental health care,” says Assouad, who is Mind-Easy’s CEO and graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree from Rotman Commerce in 2018 as a member of St. Michael’s College.

“Coming to Toronto from Lebanon sparked internal chaos and filled me with an overwhelming sense of loneliness,” she says. “I wanted a therapist who spoke my language – a person who ethnically represents me and allows me to share vulnerable experiences.”

The Mind-Easy system learns from a patient's data to determine which interventions will be most effective. The approach not only improves patient outcomes, but reduces costs by avoiding unnecessary therapy treatments, the founders say.

Shelat and Assouad credit U of T’s abundance of resources for helping them develop and launch Mind-Easy, including support from the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) accelerator at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“It is very exciting to be part of the innovation economy in Canada, especially when it involves working with passionate entrepreneurs who are dedicated to commercializing their technology and intellectual property,” says Andris Lauris, H2i's associate director.

“It’s also extremely rewarding to help these companies raise non-dilutive funding and equity investments in an ever-challenging struggle to bridge the funding gap in Canada. H2i focuses on one-on-one mentorship for companies in health and life sciences in software, medical devices, and diagnostics and therapeutics.”

In part, H2i’s in-house mentors guided Mind-Easy's co-founders with practice pitch sessions, helping the aspiring entrepreneurs develop their product and business plans.

“Mind-Easy has built a great team and are poised for success,” Lauris says.

Assouad also credits Arts & Science faculty members for their support – including the mentorship of Craig Geoffrey, an assistant professor, teaching stream, at Rotman.

“Alexandra had a really entrepreneurial view of how she’d run her life,” Geoffrey recalls. “She was always interested in taking on new challenges, learning new things and working to develop a full skill set she could apply to any career she’d eventually take on.”

Assouad and Shelat advise aspiring entrepreneurs to “network, network, network” while at school to build important connections they can tap into down the line for professional, financial and even emotional support.

“Being surrounded by other entrepreneurs and world-class experts is inspiring,” Shelat says. “And amazingly, it all takes place on this campus with its rich legacy of boundary-breaking innovation.”

U of T-supported startup Xanadu aims to lead quantum computing sector

siddiq22 — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 18:14:23 +0000

U of T-supported startup Xanadu aims to lead quantum computing sector

siddiq22 Thu, 03/09/2023 - 13:14

Cutline

Toronto-based Xanadu is racing to build the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer – a machine that could have applications in everything from drug discovery to climate change mitigation (photo courtesy of Xanadu)

Tabassum Siddiqui

Topic

Creative Destruction Lab

Rotman School of Management

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is one of the fastest-growing tech sectors in the world – and Toronto startup Xanadu Quantum Technologies is among the companies leading the way.

Founded by former ��Ƶ post-doctoral physics researcher Christian Weedbrook, Xanadu is working on building the world’s first photonic-based, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Quantum computers harness the unique properties of subatomic particles to deliver an exponential increase in computational power. Unlike systems that require temperatures colder than those found in deep space, Xanadu’s method involves firing lasers at room temperature, enabling light particles to generate quantum effects on computer chips (Xanadu's architecture still requires cryogenics, but the demands are lower than for rival systems).

While that may sound complex, what it boils down to is an end goal of making quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere, says Ilan Tzitrin, a lead quantum architecture scientist at Xanadu.

“We’re trying to build a photonic, scalable full-tolerant quantum computer – those might sound like buzzwords, but basically all it means is that we’re trying to build a device that’s capable of solving certain things faster in principle than the world’s fastest supercomputer, something that’s not attainable using the rules of classical physics,” says Tzitrin, a U of T PhD graduate who got his start at Xanadu by doing an internship at the company while still a student.

Xanadu, an alumnus of the Creative Destruction Lab seed-stage accelerator at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, recently received $40 million in federal funding to support its leading quantum computing technology, lauded by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “cutting-edge not just in Canada, but around the world.”

The company announced last year that its system, called Borealis, had achieved a key milestone by demonstrating “quantum advantage” – the ability of a quantum computer to outperform any supercomputer in the world at a specific task.

“We were working on near-term experiments that are designed to solve a specific problem provably faster than our current best algorithm run on the world's fastest supercomputer,” Tzitrin says. “Borealis was one such demonstration, and we were very excited about that – there was a lot of hard work leading up to it.

“We were able to essentially build a quantum computer – not fault-tolerant just yet, but some quantum device that was able to solve a particular math problem designed to demonstrate quantum advantage, orders of magnitude faster than any other computer. I’m talking doing something in microseconds versus 9,000 years.”

Ilan Tzitrin, a lead quantum architecture scientist at Xanadu, says the company is trying to make quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Some of the practical applications of Xanadu’s work include the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs, financial risk modelling and climate change mitigation. The company also leverages its quantum expertise through corporate and research partnerships, including recent work with automotive giants BMW Group, Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen as well as the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

In his role, Tzitrin helps support both the software and hardware teams, iterating toward the ultimate goal – or the “Holy Grail,” as he calls it – of improving every component until they build the device they hope to ultimately achieve.

He credits his education at U of T – where he studied math and physics in undergrad under a National Scholarship and went straight into a PhD in physics – for his path toward joining an innovative startup like Xanadu.

“The field I was in, quantum information, was directly relevant to the work we do at Xanadu. U of T is very strong on the quantum optics front, so my knowledge from taking quantum optics courses and from doing research on photonic quantum repeaters was directly transferable and related to my current role with the company,” Tzitrin says.

He notes that his supervisor Hoi-Kwong Lo – a professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who is cross-appointed with the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – also advised Xanadu CEO Weedbrook during his time at U of T.

“We continue to have a lot of nice collaborations with U of T through the Mitacs program – tangible research assistance to further Xanadu’s goals – which has been a big help,” Tzitrin says. “We've also received support from talented faculty at U of T from professors such as John Sipe and Hoi Kwong-Lo.”

As one of Xanadu’s earliest employees, Tzitrin has had a front-row seat to the company’s rapid growth – when he joined, the startup only had 30 staffers, but now has more than 160. The recent federal funding will go toward hiring new people and purchasing hardware as the company pursues its mission to build a cloud-based universal quantum computer.

Xanadu, which has historically been open about its research, will continue to publish the results of its ongoing experiments in a bid to remain transparent and also help advance the growing sector – recently bolstered by a new $360-million national strategy to advance quantum technologies.

Tzitrin, who considered a career path in academia before joining Xanadu, has some straightforward advice for those taking part in U of T’s Entrepreneurship Week and exploring a potential startup journey: stay open to possibility – and take advantage of the exceptional expertise the university and its partners have to offer.

“Do your own research and see what’s out there, but it’s very helpful to have a mentor to guide you – in my case, somebody in academia who knows about industry; or it could be somebody from industry that you seek out,” he says. “Programs like Mitacs are also an excellent way to get your foot in the door – they really give you a sense of what it’s going to be like working in the area you’re interested in.”

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship Week

Startup trains women in rural Costa Rica, 'upcycles' airline seats into leather goods

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:29:40 +0000

Startup trains women in rural Costa Rica, 'upcycles' airline seats into leather goods

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 03/08/2023 - 11:29

Cutline

Lynne Corvaglia, who graduated from U of T Scarborough two years ago, models one of her startup company's bags made of leather upcycled from old airline seats (photo courtesy of Wearsos)

Alexa Battler

Topic