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SABRTech Wins International Clean Technology Open Competition

A small Nova Scotian startup, SABRTech, has won the Nova Scotia Clean Tech Open, an international competition designed to fund and mentor clean technology startups.

SABRTech, formerly Marine Arctic and Antarctic Technologies, is developing a procedure to convert grown and harvested algae into aviation biofuel.  The idea is obviously a good one: the company was awarded $100,000 in cash, $200,000 as a negotiable seed investment, and mentoring and business development services.

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Canadian Startup Makes Global Repository for Human Mistakes... One Mistake at a Time

Toronto's Mistakeville has created a "how not to" site - a place where people can share their mistakes and learn from the mistakes of others.

Because we believe you aren’t defined by your mistakes. Instead, you are defined by how you react to them. We believe mistakes are a badge of action. It's easy to make no mistakes – just do nothing. We believe sharing mistakes helps both ourselves and others. Sharing a mistake is the single most powerful thing you can do to learn and grow from your mistake. Sharing a mistake is like giving a gift of learning.

Mistakeville was created by Dimitris Sotirakopoulos and Michael Kahn. The pair are learning from other startup entrepreneurs mistakes and are currently looking for a technical co-founder to join the team.

Every Day Can be Draft Day with Fantasy Feud

With more major league franchises than any other Canadian city, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Toronto is home to the most sports-related startups.

Bump 50:50, YapAgame, InGamer Sports, and Huddlers are all on Techvibes' radar. And now Fantasy Feud has got our attention. One month out of beta, Fantasy Feud is a platform built for the avid fantasy sports enthusiasts.

Until now, fantasy sports has been limited to getting together with friends online or in person to pick players for a season long pool. Whether it be hockey, football, baseball, or basketball usually after a couple months half of the participants have lost interest while those in contention follow a little too closely.

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Securing Investment: How to Counter Common Startup Mistakes

As an investor in several Canadian startups, the key to securing financing is about putting the puzzle pieces together for the investment partner. It’s true that Canadian investors are generally more conservative than technology investment firms in Silicon Valley or New York, and that early stage financing may seem limited in relation to our stateside counterparts, but that doesn’t mean Canadian investors don’t exist.

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Canada's First Flash Sale Site Focused on Moms, Babies, and Kids

This week, the world of private flash sale sites welcomed MarilynJean to the party.

Based out of Vancouver and created by online marketing and retail veterans, MarilynJean claims to be Canada’s first referral based, private sale, online store that offers moms with exclusive deals and preferred pricing on hand-selected pregnancy, baby, kids and family related items and services.

MarilynJean has just come out of six-month private beta phase where it amassed an impressive membership base of 20,000.

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Weever Apps Collaborates with Mohawk College to Develop Mobile App for Students and Faculty

Mohawk College and Hamilton-based startup Weever Apps have launched a web-based mobile app. The app, developed in part through Mohawk’s iDeaWorks program, will enable Mohawk students, employees and visitors with instant access at their fingertips to search programs and courses, streaming social feeds, events, photos, videos, and a GPS mapping feature.

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Toronto's Claystone Labs is Reinventing the Android Homescreen

Toronto's Claystone Labs has launched its Android homescreen service. The Canadian startup's vision is to become "Everything on your Android phone in one swipe."

It's a new way to using your Android device; Claystone's navigation is composed of Panels that feature content and apps to interact with. Panels are layered atop one another each time a user selects an item, which creats a swipable, browsable Stack. Confused? Check out the video below to see Claystone work its magic.

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BDC Venture Capital Backs Accelerators Across Canada With Follow-On Funding

BDC Venture Capital announced today that it will issue up to $6 million in convertible notes over two years to graduates of Montreal's FounderFuel.

Some 40 young enterprises from all over the country in the web, mobile, software as a service (SaaS), and gaming fields, will each be eligible for a $150,000 BDC convertible note upon their successful completion of FounderFuel's 12-week, mentor-driven business "boot camp".

The investment is part of BDC Venture Capital's larger commitment towards accelerators across the country. Vancouver's GrowLab and Toronto's Extreme Startups has also announced that a $150K BDC convertible note in follow-on funding will be available to successful graduates of their programs.