The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation announced funding of up to $500,000 in 8 companies through the Investment Accelerator Fund. I’ve talked about how I think this program is AWESOME for early stage entrepreneurs, it provides access to capital for companies creating technical innovations that need with commercialization and getting to market. The program is not the only path for entrepreneurs but it is a good program that supports Ontario entrepreneurs. As Paul Buchheit at FriendFeed says, “overnight success takes a long time”. Many of these companies have used more than one OCE or IRAP program to get to this level.
The distribution of the companies is interesting. Six companies in Toronto, one company in Kanata, and one company in Hamilton. Spectrum of solutions covering optical crystal chips for a new generation of laser displays (C2C Link Corporation), water leak detection (Echologics), WAN QoS (IPeak Networks), marketing performance (Kneebone), wireless controller for energy reduction (Regen Energy), in-vehicle sensors (Skymeter) and social media monitoring (Sysmos).
Love starting off 2009 with a funding announcement in a down market.