portfolio-new

Interactive city simulations

Jake Arsenault
Black Arcs CEO

Investment: $100,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2016

The Black Arcs provide interactive simulations of cities allowing citizens to engage around key land-use decisions such as transit routes and school locations. Citizens gain a better understanding of complex issues by building and comparing their own scenarios using a straightforward virtual city. The tool provides consultants, developers and governments a better way to connect and engage a larger cross section of citizens. Also, it provides policymakers a way to tap into local community insights for better land-use and real-estate designs.

Financial engagement platform that helps you save money

Jen Leger
Quber CEO

Investment: $200,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2016

Quber is an innovative, state-of-the-art financial engagement platform designed to work with existing digital toolsets to help you manage your money. For the consumer, Quber is an engaging, easy-to-use tool that helps them better manage their money and meet their saving goals using gamified saving challenges and personalized saving recommendations. The company’s focus is to improve financial literacy in a fun and simple way. For the financial institution, Quber is a platform that is licensed to help their business better understand and serve their customers through unique and powerful data insights and smart predictive technology.

Providing human-centric cyber risk analytics

David Shipley
Beauceron Security CEO

Investment: $900,000 Industry: Cyber Security Founded: 2016

Beauceron enables an organization to effectively measure, monitor and manage cyber risk. The cloud-based, easy to deploy solution evolves cybersecurity from an IT-centric and often reactive function to a strategic and proactive organizational performance indicator. Using a cross functional and human-centric approach to cyber risk, Beauceron enables organizations to decrease the exposure of people, data, intangible assets and intellectual property to the growing problem of cybercrime.

Augmented Reality for Training

Yan Simard
Kognitiv Spark CEO

Investment: $750,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2016

Kognitiv Spark is a New Brunswick-based company helping industry move beyond the digital age and exploit the potential of the cognitive revolution, using the latest augmented and mixed reality technology.  Kognitiv Spark is empowering companies to enhance their workflows by identifying industrial need and building mixed reality solutions with an end-user focus. Our methodology has been developed by applying holographic principals to mature business and security processes. Augmenting the view of our physical world with computer-aided sensory inputs (sounds, video, graphical tools and holograms) Kognitiv Spark is creating innovative and productive workflows for industrial users across Canada.

Digital packaging for gifts

Erin O’Halloran
Newpy CEO

Investment: $100,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2017

Newpy is a mobile app that lets users see how much someone loves and appreciates their gift as soon as they buy it. In a world where social media is used for personal gain, Newpy’s mission is to encourage people to do something nice for someone else.

Charitable donation management software

Mark Hobbs
Fundmetric CEO

Investment: $300,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

Fundmetric is a cloud-based software company that uses big data analytics and machine learning to predict donor behavior, enabling charities to fundraise more effectively. Fundmetric reduces the cost to acquire new donors and has consistently increased fundraising campaigns. The world’s top charities rely on Fundmetric to build strong relationships with their donors by increasing the level of communication and transparency.

Attention analytics for the competitive gaming industry

Heather Carson
Repable CEO

Investment: $350,000 Industry: TIC  Founded: 2015

Repable was founded in 2015 by co-founder and CEO Heather Carson. Repable is an e-sports data analytics rating system that allows sponsors and teams to put value to investments they make in teams and players of e-sports games. The gaming software data intelligence and optimization platform for the gaming and e-sports industry helps broadcasters, teams and enterprises understand the financial and social impact of their day-to-day interactions within the gaming space. What Repable has created are algorithms that measure the overall influence of the streamer (player), based on their followers, the platforms they’re playing on, and their abilities within the games they are playing.

Soricimed has completed a multi-centre phase 1 clinical trial in Canada and the United States and been granted Orphan Drug Status for ovarian and pancreatic cancer. The company has raised over $20M to date between Equity ($11M) and government ($9M) funding.

Targeted theraputics for solid-tumor cancer

Robert Bruce
Soricimed CEO

Investment: $500,000  Industry: Biotech  Founded: 2005

Soricimed Biopharma is a private, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing proprietary first-in-class targeted cancer therapies, peptide-drug conjugates and a companion diagnostic. They have been successful in translating their initial discovery of soricidin, a protein from the venom of the Northern Short-Tailed Shrew, into new drug candidates for the treatment of various solid tumour cancers.

Soricimed has completed a multi-centre phase 1 clinical trial in Canada and the United States and been granted Orphan Drug Status for ovarian and pancreatic cancer. The company has raised over $20M to date between Equity ($11M) and government ($9M) funding.

Creating natural preservatives

Natasha Dhayagude
Chinova Bioworks CEO

Investment: $100,000 Industry: Bio-tech Founded: 2016

Chinova Bioworks has developed a natural preservative using mushroom chitosan. Chitosan is a biopolymer with a long history of use in food and cosmetics and is essentially a healthy fiber. With their technology, Chinova can take natural mushroom chitosan and formulate it specifically to target the spoilage microorganisms affecting each product. As an additional advantage over synthetic and other natural preservatives, the chitosan preservative can be customized to fit each product’s needs, improving performance and reducing production costs.

Today, Chinova is actively engaged with early adopters in the food and beverage segment, and looking to move into the cosmetics and personal care industry as well. The preservative lends itself to a wide variety of industries, including food and beverage, cosmetic, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

Chinova Bioworks hopes to solve the common problem of microbial contamination with a natural chitosan preservative.

Innovations in Equine Breeding

Lisa Pfister
Pfera CEO

Investment: $100,000 Industry: Agriculture Founded: 2016

Pfera provides horse owners with a birth prediction tool to use on pregnant mares. The system they have developed estimates when the pregnant horse will give birth to the foal based on the mare’s milk chemistry. Pfera’s device can be used on any number of milk samples, and on any number of mares. Once the test is done a birth prediction is displayed on the attendant’s smartphone. The target customers for Pfera’s technology are horse breeders, foaling attendants, and veterinarians/veterinarian technicians.

Making better milk

Bethany Deshpande
SomaDetect CEO

Investment: $250,000 Industry: Bioscience Founded: 2016

SomaDetect is the world’s premier machine learning and artificial intelligence company in dairy. SomaDetect provides real-time, automated analysis of milk quality without any addition of chemicals or consumables. The company measures every compound of interest in raw milk, enabling farmers to identify issues early, manage reproduction, reduce unnecessary antibiotic usage, and ensure that only the highest-quality milk makes it into bulk milk supplies. Founded in 2016, SomaDetect provides dairy farmers with information about herd health and milk quality from every cow at every milking.

Biogas project modelling software

Amir Akbari
Anessa CEO

Investment: $300,000  Industry: ICT  Founded: 2016

anessa^TM is a software company specializing in the biogas industry that has developed robust and sophisticated software products to assist clients in assessing, validating and operating anaerobic digestion plants. These products are designed to bring intelligence and analytics into the workflow of engineering consultants, project developers and facility owners. Anessa’s goal is to help their clients achieve success with their projects as well as provide viable long-term solutions to improve the environment by increasing the number of biogas projects globally.

Determining valuation and analyzing public companies

Brian Donovan
Patchell Brook CEO

Investment: $200,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2016

Patchell Brook Equity Analytics Inc. is a company with tools and data that enable our clients to determine valuation and analyze public companies. The software is called Stockcalc and includes the ability to query, backtest, forecast, value and collaborate. Stockcalc helps users understand the value of the companies they are buying and selling on the stock market.

Building better homes for tomorrow’s standard

Matt Daigle
Rise CEO

Investment: $350,000 Industry: ITC Founded: 2016

Rise believes in the next generation of home-building, and making sustainable shopping and building easy with their online platform. Making sustainable home building choices should be engaging, and should benefit everyone – financially, socially, and environmentally. The company’s goal is to make it easier and more accessible for everyone to take advantage of amazing technologies and advancements in sustainable home building, and breaking down barriers to adoption like cost prohibition and rebate/incentive availability – making it a no-brainer for any homeowner or professional to design and build this way. They’re on a mission to change the residential construction landscape by helping everyone build better homes that are fit for tomorrow’s standards.

Mini-grid solutions for third-world energy needs

Jeff Schnurr
Jaza Energy CEO

Investment: $200,000 Industry: CleanTech Founded: 2015

Jaza is a solar energy utility working to power the 600 million Africans currently living without electricity. By building brick and mortar energy hubs, Jaza uses solar energy to charge battery packs that customers carry home and use to power lights and charge cellphones. The company is based in Atlantic Canada and Tanzania.

Storing energy for later use

Jordan Kennie
Stash Energy CEO

Investment: $450,000 Industry: Energy Founded: 2016

The Stash Energy storage system works with conventional heat pumps to thermally store energy for later use, which prevents usage during peak times. Peak times are the costliest for utility companies, causing heavy demands on generating stations. Peak times affect both operating costs and C02 emissions. The technology will show significant savings to utility companies, which in turn can reduce customer home heating costs by 30-50%. The thermal energy is stored in affordable and environmentally friendly materials.

Employee volunteer elevator and celebrator

Topher Kingsley-Williams
Porpoise CEO

Investment: $300,000 Industry: Tech Founded: 2016

Today, many organizations are involved in a variety of charity and community organizations as good corporate citizens. Some are large, and some are small, and all need a way to organize events, social share, track progress and report for a number of reasons. Some companies will match an employee’s efforts to raise money for certain charities, others organize events of their own.

When done traditionally, it can be very complicated for employees to come up with new ideas and execute them. Many companies reward employees for their community service. Porpoise is a mobile-first platform that companies use to elevate and celebrate employees who are giving back in their community, in and outside of work.

Removing Heavy Metals

Keith Brunt
Chief Scientific Officer

Investment:$50,000 Industry: E&E Founded: 2014

The industrial contamination of water with heavy metals is the most costly and challenging problem for commercial water remediation. Since heavy metals, which are dangerous to human health when accumulated in the body, occur at the nano level, they slip through most membrane-based filters. Currently, many industries dump contaminated water into well holes drilled below the water table, or boil it, at great expense, to concentrate the heavy metals. Both practices cost industry up to $700 million per year.

BioMatrix’s product, Naqua-Pure, is an easy-to-use magnetic compound that provides cost-effective removal of heavy metals in wastewater. It is non-toxic, non-corrosive and safe to handle. As an absorbent, Naqua-Pure increases the density and facilitates the drying of post-treatment wastewater sludge to the extent that it can be used in bio or plasma reactors for energy generation. Finally, the leftover heavy metals are forever removed from the environment.

Automated moving desk and health monitor

Leon Desroches
Smartpods President

Investment: $734,035 Industry: Advanced Fabrication Founded: 2014

We all know that a healthier, happier employee is a more productive employee. In today’s computer-intensive workplaces, one of the keys is to move more. Sitting for extended periods can be detrimental to both health and productivity. Traditional sit-stand workstations are fine, but they rely on the user choosing when and how often to move their desk. Too often, sit-stand workstations stay in one position all day, rendering them of no additional value to traditional seated workstations.

Smartpods develops and manufactures dynamic workstations that will change workplace health environments. These ‘moving’ desks integrate automation and monitoring to improve employee health, wellbeing and productivity, as well as reduce employer health care costs. As you work, the station will automatically move, forcing you to change positions, if only slightly, without interrupting your work, and if you turn it off, it will automatically go into standing mode. Software allows the user to customize their experience, and receive health-related analytics that the company intends to expand over time.

Human-grade chitosan production

Mark Symes
Mycodev Group Inc. CEO

Investment: $600,000 Industry: Bio-Technology Founded: 2013

Mycodev Group’s main product is called chitosan, a biopolymer that’s highly sought after by a wide variety of industries, especially biomedicine. Chitosan is an extremely effective coagulant that, when combined with other agents, can almost immediately stop bleeding and promote healing in humans. Although chitosan is already on the market, its traditional production method leaves impurities that can prevent its use in pharmaceutical products.

Chitosan is traditionally made by extracting it from shrimp and lobster shells. Due to some unfavorable characteristics, widespread use in humans has not developed. Mycodev’s process produces chitosan by extracting it from a selected species of fungus, a strictly non-animal source. High purity chitosan, such as Mycodev’s, can be used in applications such as drug delivery, cancer treatment, surgical hemostats and more.

Advanced online HR recruitment software

Yves Boudreau
Alongside CEO

Investment: $750,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2012

Moncton-based Alongside, formerly Qimple, is streamlining the hiring process with its easy to use web-based Software-as-a-service (SaaS) job posting system. The software allows employers to post employment opportunities to multiple job boards with one click. Employers can use it to rank what skills are most essential, and when applications are received, the interactive dashboard will sort the resumes using an algorithm that picks out keywords to filter the applicants, saving time sorting through every single resume.

Alongside goes beyond being a simple software solution. The company works tirelessly to ensure anyone who interacts with the platform, whether employers or job seekers, have a positive and empowering experience. Employers are guided through the job posting process with tips on how to write a great job description, as well as automated recommendations for what job boards to post on based on location, industry and the job board’s success rate (quality and quantity of applicants). Job seekers also enjoy using the platform when applying for positions stating that it is simple to use and gives them the opportunity to truly reveal their skills and personality to potential employers.

Interactive customer service technology platform

Daniella Degrace
Gemba Software Solutions CEO

Investment: $1,050,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2015

Companies with large workforces and multiple products have big challenges when it comes to providing up-to-date information and the decision points their service agents need to collaborate and fix problems. ProcedureFlow, the software-as-a service product offered by Gemba, reduces training time and increases consistency by guiding employees through complex processes with small hyperlinked flowcharts.

Every industry struggles with documentation and maintenance of standard operations procedures. ProcedureFlow helps centralize procedures, make them easy to follow, and engage the entire organization in keeping them up to date. Gemba’s customers have been able to decrease cross-training time by over 75 per cent and reduce the time it takes for new employees to become competent by 50 per cent.

Building better budgeting technology

Shawn Carter
Fiddlehead Technologies CEO

Investment: $500,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

Creating good budgets and forecasts is a challenge for all companies, and especially large corporations with multiple product lines, plants and operations. Budgeting and forecasting tools are readily available to companies via a number of different software programs. Fiddlehead Technology’s cloud-based software takes the art of this predictive activity to another level, with greater accuracy.

Layered on top of existing budgeting and forecasting tools, Fiddlehead’s system introduces multiple new data points that today are mostly ignored, such as weather patterns, economic conditions, and other things require manual intervention and guesswork.  With a focus on large packaged goods companies, Fiddlehead’s software will provide more accuracy, helping companies better plan and control costs on multiple levels.

Whiteboard software that takes notes for you

Tony Daye
Loft1 CEO

Investment: $200,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

Loft1 is a whiteboard software company that transforms whiteboard notes into a digital resource. Using only a smartphone, Loft1’s mobile technology automatically identifies and replicates notes from any ordinary whiteboard and displays them in real-time on any computer or mobile device. Edit, organize, and search handwritten notes from any computer using Loft1’s integrated Handwriting Recognition (HWR) technology – all without the need for a special ‘Interactive Whiteboard.’

Smart meter energy control system for home and commercial

Asif Hasan
Simptek Technologies CEO

Investment: $500,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

SimpTek Technologies is a unique platform that brings together efficiency-focused services, products and property stakeholders who are looking to have one turnkey platform to leverage their real-time data to make their buildings as energy efficient as possible. Not only does this increase operational cash-flow while driving down costs month over month, but it also increases the resale value of the property.

Whether you are a property manager, building owner, municipal utility operator or electric utility company, SimpTek’s platform will constantly mine your real-time data to match you and/or your customers with the right products, service providers and rebates for you, exactly when you need them. Unlike their competitors, you do not need to have energy expertise on your team, know what products to use or who can install them; SimpTek allows your team to continue expertly serving your customers while their platform handles the rest, no matter where you are in the world.

Advanced optic sensors for manufacturing

Scott Everett
Eigen Innovations CEO

Investment: $1,500,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2012

Manufacturing is one of the most technologically advanced sectors in the global economy, yet many companies still struggle to resolve production problems such as raw material waste, inefficient energy use, and quality defects. A leading innovator in the emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sector, Eigen Innovation’s Intellexon™ software platform leverages industrial vision systems, human operator input, and advanced machine learning that automates operational improvements.

Eigen is currently partnering with a number of companies in the deployment and testing of its solution including Oregon-based FLIR Systems Inc., the world’s largest thermal camera and sensor makers. Eigen Innovations spun out of the work of NBIF-backed researcher and co-founder Dr. Rickey Dubay at the University of New Brunswick.

Smart agricultural drones and software

Jeff Grammer
Resson Aerospace CEO

Investment: $786,349 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

Resson Aerospace delivers customized precision agriculture solutions for large corporate clients. Using recent advances in large-scale cloud-based data processing, swarm robotics and advanced data analytics, their proprietary Resson Agriculture Management and Analytics System (RAMAS™) gives the agriculture operator analytical insight and dynamic control over the farm area. The RAMAS™ data-driven agriculture solution analyzes crop metrics to assess crop status and health, providing operators with the information required to optimize agricultural operations, improve efficiency, boost yields and maximize profitability.

When attached to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Resson’s infrared and software technology can assess and predict crop yield, disease, and moisture and help farmers to better manage their crops by knowing which areas to spray instead of guessing or spraying the entire field.

Investment: $517,375 Industry: ICT Founded: 2015

Itavio helps you manage your children’s play times and spending in these so-called “free” games.

Tablets and smartphones are wonderful things, especially for families. They help us stay in touch, teach our children and entertain them on long trips. They change the way children play and spend their allowance. Where, decades ago, children asked for money to buy berry-shaped and flavoured sweets, they now want to buy magic berries to do wonderful things with their favourite game.

Itavio provides an app that allows parents to give their children an allowance that they can spend at their discretion, as well as technology that limits access to certain types of online content and allows them to manage playback time for video games. Itavio was co-founded by Melani Flanagan and Matt Pichette. A former Vice-President of Operations for a gaming studio, Melani has written and produced a number of games, documentaries and commercials. With more than 15 years of experience as a CTO, architect and software engineer, Matt is a veteran of several start-ups and co-owns many patents.

Engineers: use your phone to find bumps in the road

Coady Cameron
Total Pave CEO

Investment: $250,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2013

Grand prize winner of Breakthru 2013, Total Pave, created by brothers Coady and Drew Cameron uses the technology found in today’s smart phones so that civil engineers and technologists can measure and plot the condition of roads. This is a practice that many jurisdictions complete by either purchasing or renting high tech vehicles that cost upwards of $800,000. With Total Pave’s novel software app, plus data collection, storage and analytical tools, including the Pavement Conditions Index and International Roughness Index, transportation departments can now find and measure the severity of road disrepair at a fraction of the cost.

Parking tickets no more

Philip Curley
HotSpot Merchant Solutions CEO

Investment: $250,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2014

A big frustration for city shoppers and shopkeepers is metered parking. Customers are limited by time, and some avoid shopping in metered districts altogether. With HotSpot Merchant Solutions, consumers can pay for their parking using their smart phone to add time without returning to their car. HotSpot sends notifications before your parking runs out, and through its Ticket Defender, will automatically add an hour for you, free of charge, up to two times per month.

That’s just the customer’s part. HotSpot is much more powerful for retailers. With a HotSpot Beacon installed, retailers can pay for or top up their customers’ parking and push notifications when they are in proximity to their store. All to help their customers linger longer – up to 150 per cent longer.

Apple iStore’s #1 photo app makes living photos

Philippe LeBlanc
Flixel Cinemagraph CEO

Investment: $450,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2012

To really understand the power of Flixel, you have to see it to believe it. Flixel makes an iOS application for iPhone and iPad that allows people to make high quality Cinemagraphs™ quickly and easily. A Cinemagraph™ is a still photograph that shows one or more isolated moving components that is becoming increasingly popular in the fashion industry. What makes Flixel’s cinemagraphic solution unique is its speed and quality. Using your smartphone, a few-second recording of a scene will leave a one-frame still on your screen. Then, using Flixel’s patented process, you use your finger to rub away or “reveal” that part of the image that you want to be in motion. Finally, Flixel produces a high definition still image with a flawless and seamless moving area. It can be output in several formats.

Flixel received a huge boost after appearing on and becoming a permanent fixture on the 2013 season of the hit U.S. reality television series America’s Next Top Model (ANTM). Show host and executive producer Tyra Banks also made an investment in the company. Flixel’s app is available on the Apple iStore, where it has reached #1 for photography. There is a lite version (free) and a pro-tools version with professional, technical enhancements and possibilities.

Putting employee social nets to work to increase sales

Jody Glidden
Introhive CEO

Investment: $250,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2012

IntroHive has developed a big data mining cloud solution that helps large companies develop new sales contacts. After analyzing a company’s network of smartphones and computers, contacts are compiled into one giant digital Rolodex that can be searched by sales teams to see if anyone is already connected to an outside firm that they’re developing as customers.

If a salesperson on one side of the country is targeting a specific prospect, the system can tell if anyone else in the company already has a connection to them, and the relative strength of that connection. As CEO Jody Glidden will say, the software helps replace cold calls with “warm” introductions that can generate new business.

The company currently has about 40 large clients signed on, and has been featured in The Washington Post, The Washington Business Journal, and The National Post. With a sales office in Washington, DC, the company’s operations and development teams are centered in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Wholesale car dealing made a whole lot simpler

Kevin Barry
Selectbidder Inc. CEO

Investment: $200,000 Industry: ITC Founded: 2013

SelectBidder Inc. is a technology company based in Moncton, NB that has developed a proprietary platform to allow new and used car dealers to lower costs and increase profits on their wholesale vehicle inventory.  SelectBidder’s sophisticated mobile/web auction tool enables the efficient remarketing of vehicles without the high costs associated with physical auction houses. Through innovative product features, including “Trusted Buyer Zones” and a “Second Look” feature, Select Bidder is leveraging the hidden value of social networks to drive bidding and achieve true market value for sellers. During its beta stage, early adopters quickly averaged 70 per cent of posted vehicles sold with little or no hassle.

Providing self-help interactive therapy

Darren Piercy

WellTrack CEO

Investment: $450,005 Industry: ICT Founded: 2011

WellTrack provides an app software to monitor your mental well-being. The app offers features such as: mood monitoring, access to relaxation techniques, therapy, and other tools to check your mental state of being. WellTrack products, including one for public speaking anxiety, can be found in the Apple App Store and on their website. They are also working with a number of large corporations and insurance companies to deploy their product, Conquer Anxiety Pro, as part of their employee assistance programs.

WellTrack first came to the attention of NBIF as a finalist in its 2011 Breakthru Business Plan Competition. Even though they didn’t win, they continued to strengthen their business case until they were investment ready.

The sharpest images of the world – up close

Rick MacPhee
SceneSharp Technologies Inc. CEO

Investment: $250,000 Industry: ITC Founded: 2011

Under the Fuze Go brand, SceneSharp processes where to add color to non-colorized image data. Fuze Go can be applied to still image processing with Earth observation through remote sensing and airborne imagery. Fuze Go MS Sharp adds color to black and white image data. It is a fully automated universal image processing tool that integrates with all major image processing formats.

Fuze Go SAR Sharp adds color to processed synthetic aperture radar data. This creates context, perspective and the ability to literally see in color at night or through the clouds.

SceneSharp was created through NBIF’s Breakthru Business Plan Competition in 2011 after winning the Grand Prize of $100,000 in investments and $45,000 in professional services.

National-level health information systems

Tristan Rutter
Populus Global CEO

Investment: $1,571,600 Industry: ICT Founded: 2010

Populus Global’s ACSiS proprietary Health Information System has emerged as the World Health Organization’s Health Metrics Network as a best practice solution for developing countries. Their comprehensive system enables effective centralized management of national, regional, or local health sectors. Understanding that the central transaction within the business of health care is between patient and clinician, the hub of ACSiS is the Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Successfully implemented in the countries of Belize, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the company is presently doing the same in Barbados. A report by the World Health Organization attributed a 9% reduction in pharmaceutical expenses plus a 70% reduction in complications arising from hypertension in Belize to the implementation of the company’s software solution.

Beyond its primary function, ACSiS’ ability to function even when connectivity to its main database fails is a tremendously attractive feature in countries that face severe storms and unreliable telecommunications infrastructure.

Pressure sensitive electronic nanotechnology for industry

Kumaran Thillainadarajah
Smart Skin CTO

Investment: $1,501,454 Industry: Advanced Manufacturing Founded: 2009

SmartSkin is an artificial touch-sensitive skin for electronic devices. Using nanotechnology to detect and measure pressure, the super-thin film works to give any surface the control of touch, much like the skin of a real hand. The company is currently developing applications of their technology for a number of control devices, with its current focus on the bottling industry.

With several of the world’s largest brewers signed on, Smart Skin Technologies provides a state-of-the-art system for measuring line pressure and 3D orientation in glass, can, PET, and many secondary and tertiary packaging lines. By embedding the Quantifeel™ DRONE into a line, the dynamic effect of pressure and movement exerted on the device can be observed in real-time and analyzed to understand the effect operational parameters have on line performance, improving efficiency, reducing waste and minimizing downtime.

The core technology of Smart Skin was developed by NBIF researcher Felipe Chibante. A 2009 winner of our Breakthru Business Plan Competition, they received additional capital by NBIF and other investors to help them develop their product for a major brewer’s bottling system. The company also continues to develop its technology for one of the world’s leading golf club manufacturers.

Live streaming technology and apps for TV broadcasters

Sean Higgins
Encore Interactive CEO

Investment: $500,000 Industry: ICT Founded: 2007

The ability to pause, record, and playback television using personal video recorders (PVR) has been around for several years. But people could only control it when at home with their PVR console and remote.

Encore Interactive allows consumers to record, view and share television programming using the Internet. Since it’s web-based, customers are able to record their favorite television programs from work, their car, or anywhere else using any Internet-enabled device, and watch them whenever they want. Telecommunications companies that offer broadband Internet protocol television services (IPTV) will implement the technology.

The versatility of their product extends beyond content management and delivery as well. Since it has the ability to access and control systems in the home, Encore is developing partnerships with companies to develop the technology for the energy, healthcare and smart house industries.

Diagnostic imaging technology for industry

John Bowles
Inversa Systems CEO

Investment: $1,275,381 Industry: Industrial Fabrication Founded: 2006

Inversa Systems allows businesses to achieve accurate condition assessment of dense or immoveable materials, such as concrete and steel, without the need to suspend operations. The process, essentially a portable CAT scan for industry, allows decision makers to see inside a closed or inaccessible system without tearing them apart so they can make critical infrastructure decisions.

Their portable, non-destructive imaging technology has attracted the attention of municipal, provincial and state governments for inspecting civil infrastructure, such as drainage culverts and water pipes, to determine whether to repair, replace or defer maintenance. The oil and gas industry has also taken an interest in Inversa’s technology after trial projects with some of the world’s largest companies. Inversa’s Strategic Technology Alliance Agreement with EM&I Stantec is introducing the company to new opportunities around the globe.

Based in Fredericton, Inversa Systems incorporated shortly after the discovery of its exclusive Backscatter Computed Tomography (BCT) technology at the University of New Brunswick with a Student Entrepreneurship Prize and venture capital from NBIF.

Micro-milling Alpaca yarns for garment production

Alyson Brown
Co-Founder

Year invested: 2007 Investment: $25,000 Industry: Industrial Fabrication Founded: 2007

Legacy Lane Fiber Mill is an exotic textile manufacturing company that caters to the exotic farmers looking to transform animal hair into specialized, high quality textiles, a service not offered by larger mills. The company’s specialization is derived by its combination of fiber processing machines into a mini fiber mill. This scaled-down, innovative mill operation is the first of its kind in New Brunswick and is capable of processing both large and small batch orders.

The owner-operators of Legacy Lane are two sisters backed by four generations of farming experience in rural New Brunswick. Production Manager Alyson studied weaving and textiles at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. Business Manager Amy studied business at the New Brunswick Community College. Together they have found a way to keep their family farm viable by diversifying into yarn production and fiber processing – a natural fit for their training, passion and expertise.

We made our first investment in Legacy Lane Fiber Mill after Allyson and Amy won our 2007 Student Entrepreneurship Prize. Their success spurred follow-on investment and the company continues to grow.

Nova Scotia

An online platform allowing food processors to quickly generate and manage food safety plans.

Nova Scotia

An online platform allowing food processors to quickly generate and manage food safety plans.

Nova Scotia

An online platform allowing food processors to quickly generate and manage food safety plans.

Nova Scotia

An online platform allowing food processors to quickly generate and manage food safety plans.

Nova Scotia

An online platform allowing food processors to quickly generate and manage food safety plans.

Nova Scotia/British Columbia

Educational technology that gives more than 45,000 students a reason to read, leveraging the power of each learner’s voice to create interactive storybooks that promote global stewardship in the classroom and at home while improving reading skills.

Newfoundland

Evidence-based algorithms for better employee retention.

New Brunswick

A fintech solution for streamlining the Purchase To Payment cycle within organizations, resulting in significant time and money savings from adoption of its innovative SnapAP processing approach

Newfoundland

An expertise management platform for distributed engineering teams that leverages collective project experience to increase proposal wins and profitability.

Clanz developed the first and only audio-based solution to keep human interactions secure, in at-risk environments, like the fast-growing long-term care industry. It recognizes abnormalities and generates real-time alerts that could indicate adverse events, and conditional alerts such as burnout among caregivers, high-tension sites, exceptional stress, lack of specific training, and more.

TokenX is an Asset Tokenization Platform. Using the power of Blockchain, we help you tokenize any of your assets in a few simple steps (with the highest levels of security and compliance). Thus helping you Raise capital faster, easier, at a lower cost. The built-in Smart Contracts add power to your Asset-backed Tokens ( ABT ). You can easily distribute them globally, to a wide pool of accredited and eligible investors.

The initial focus of TokenX will be on Real Estate, ART and Mining Repository Assets.

A.I.-enabled surveillance software

James Stewart
EhEye Inc. CEO

Investment: $300,000 Industry: Cybersecurity Founded: 2016 Exit: January 2019

EhEye specializes in public safety and video surveillance by using analytics and artificial intelligence.

The company’s surveillance recognition software automatically detects suspicious or aggressive behaviour, objects, and people, and then provides real time alerts. It uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to analyze footage, and then differentiate between normal and abnormal activities.

Exit: March 2017

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Ian McLeod
Envenio CEO

Investment: $512,698 Industry: ICT Founded: 2016 Exit: November 2018

Envenio is a software company that provides a far more efficient solution to what currently exists on the market. Their customers benefit from simulations that compute at a quicker speed (up to 10x faster) and are thus more efficient and capable to run additional modeling scenarios. The company does this with their new and innovative way of running their models in parallel and by processing the models with Gaming Processor Units (GPUs) vs. the industry standard CPU. Whereas most models are left to run overnight with existing CFD software, Envenio users can run multiple models in the same day.

Exit: March 2014

Exit: December 2017

Real-time customer opinion monitoring

Marcel LeBrun
Radian6 CEO

Industry: Social Media Founded: 2006 Exit: March 2011

Radian6 helps companies listen to what people are saying about them online and engage in those conversations across the social web. From blogs and comments to multimedia, boards, forums and communities like Twitter, Radian6 gathers the discussions happening online and gives businesses the ability to analyze, manage, track, and report on their social media monitoring and engagement efforts.