#ICYMI: MaRS venture news for April and May 2015
Spring has arrived and with the warmer weather comes a lot of action within Ontario’s thriving startup community!
Here is just some of the news and media coverage about startups in the cleantech, information and communications technology (ICT) and health spaces from the months of April and May.
Capital news
- This was big news for the Canadian startup community: Toronto startup Verold was acquired by San Francisco tech giant Box.
- Investment management company Wealthsimple raised $30 million.
- InteraXon raised $10 million in a Series B funding round led by OMERS Ventures.
- MaRS Innovation’s Flybits raised $4.75 million in Series A funding.
- JOLT alumnus Taplytics raised $2.4 million in seed funding.
- Financial technology company Koho raised a $1 million seed round.
Notable news
- Cleantech venture Hydrogenics signed an agreement valued at over €50 million with Alstom Transport to develop and commercialize hydrogen-powered commuter trains in Europe.
- The C100 selected 20 startups for its next 48hrs in the Valley mentorship program. Congratulations to Bridgit, Borrowell, FundThrough and Wealthsimple.
- Synaptop appeared on “Dragons’ Den,” receiving high praise from the dragons and resulting in a deal!
Media coverage
Cleantech
- Stemming from a great weekend at the Green Living Show, Nanoleaf received some great news coverage, including on Global News and “CTV Morning.”
- SunFarmer was profiled in a CBC News article about the work the company is doing to provide solar power in Nepal.
- PlantForm was profiled in an awesome article on Motherboard.
ICT
- Rithm launched its music-streaming service and received a lot of news coverage.
- Forbes: “Rithm music streaming service stays on message.”
- TechCrunch: “Rithm music messenger transitions into a legit streaming service.”
- BetaKit: “Toronto-based Rithm melds music sharing and messaging.”
- Vanhawks was profiled on BNN.
- JOLT grads Cumulonimbus appeared on “CTV News.”
- Magniware was featured as one of five Canadian startups innovating right now by PanamericanWorld.
- InteraXon was featured on “HuffPost Live.”
- Nymi was profiled in the Globe and Mail.
Health
- Figure 1 received some great coverage in the United States in The Verge: “I’m addicted to the gruesome and beautiful photographs on Figure 1, an Instagram for doctors” and in CBS News: “Like Instagram for doctors, with many second opinions.”
- eSight appeared on “The Rachael Ray Show.”
- The Globe and Mail wrote a profile on Rip n Go.