Canada’s Accelerators Send Their Best to BDC Pitch Event at Startup Fest

July 7, 2014

This week at the International Startup Festival in Montreal BDC is hosting a Pitch Event on the keynote stage.

Six startups from Montreal’s FounderFuel, Toronto’s Extreme Startups, and Vancouver’s GrowLab will have 3 minutes to wow the crowd and judges.

Representing FounderFuel are VanHawks and Provender.

VanHawks is responsible for the hugely successful, crowdfunded Valour bike. The Valour is connected to iOS, Android and Pebble through Bluetooth and tracks rider statistics in real-time including the route, distance, speed, and time.

Provender is aiming to disrupt the food industry. The Provender team wants to put farmers back in control of their own sales. By disintermediating the supply chain, and connecting farmers and their stories with the restaurants that use their produce, Provender aims to use the power of the Internet to forge direct relationships from farm to fork.

Extreme Startups is sending Hurrier and Uplette.

The gist of Hurrier is simple: order stuff and hire a courier through the website, either on your phone or your desktop computer. The entire bill is settled by Hurrier, and a bike or car courier grabs the stuff and brings it to you. You can leave a tip through the site or in person, and 100% of that money goes to the delivery person.

Innohub’s flagship product Uplette automates, consolidates, and optimizes the mobile advertising experience through the delivery of smart post-ad content.

Heading east on behalf of GrowLab is Cinecoup and Learn Dot.

CineCoup is a film accelerator set out to disrupt the way independent films by new filmmakers are marketed, produced and distributed. Partnering with Cineplex Entertainment, CineCoup offered up to $1 million in financing and a guaranteed theatrical release for the top project; out of 90 teams, the Regina-based filmmakers behind WolfCop were greenlit for production, finished filming and just returned from Cannes.

Learn Dot is looking to put people back into online learning by acting as the bridge between those that wish to teach a class and those that want to learn about a subject. Incorporating modern technology like video chat and messaging, they provide a personal experience when learning only rivalled by actually being with people.