MaRS Innovation celebrates $15-million funding extension

On September 9, 2013, MaRS Innovation held a reception to formally celebrate its successful $15-million extension from the Networks of Centres of Excellence’s Centres of Excellence for the Commercialization of Research program.

Guests included Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health; the Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation; and Wendy Tilford, Ontario Deputy Minister.

To contextualize why MaRS Innovation’s mandate is important to the province, Minister Moridi told the story of Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans, two Toronto-based entrepreneurs who played a critical role in the development of the light bulb in the 1870s.

He compared their story to that of Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent who worked with MaRS Innovation to seed their technology and launch Xagenic Inc. The pair was presented with the MaRS Innovation Trailblazers Award by Minister Moridi and Raphael Hofstein, CEO of MaRS Innovation, in recognition of their achievements.

The award included a cheque to help Kelley and Sargent fund employee training for Xagenic’s 22 employees.

[View the story “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Age of Networked Intelligence” on Storify]