Kicking the summer off right, this month we saw new tech funding rounds, growing partnerships with our higher education institutions and more.
Here are the top stories from May 2022:
Faire raises another $416M
Fast Company’s Most Innovative Retail Company, Faire, has just announced a massive raise worth $416 million – now valuing over $12 billion – which they plan to use for product development and building a world-class team. Faire operates an online wholesale marketplace that uses machine learning to connect independent retails and suppliers.
With offices located in Waterloo and San Francisco, Faire has helped small retailers effectively compete against larger chains like Amazon, ensuring they have a platform to grow and brand their businesses.
New MedTech Centre of Excellence in Waterloo
Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX) is pleased to announce an innovative partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development, through the Skills Development Fund, to strengthen the provincial health innovation and medtech ecosystem, build successful domestic medtech companies and ensure the talent, IP and solutions developed in Ontario can succeed while staying in Ontario.
How does Waterloo produce so many founders?
The University of Waterloo produces nearly twice as many tech founders as any other Canadian school and about 18.6 percent of all the technology founders in Canada, according to a 2019 report from the Impact Centre at the University of Toronto.
UWaterloo’s historic strengths in mathematics, computer science and engineering are part of the reason Waterloo produces so many tech founders.
OpenText, Clearpath Robotics, Intellijoint Surgical, Able Innovations, ApplyBoard, Arctic Wolf and Snapcommerce are just a few names on a list of more than 1,000 ventures, large and small, whose founders got their start in labs, classrooms and incubators at Waterloo.
API partners with the University of Waterloo
Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API), a not-for-profit life sciences organization partnered up with a team of scientists from the University of Waterloo to develop broad-spectrum small molecule therapeutics against coronaviruses. The group focuses on conducting research in finding promising therapeutics and drugs for the treatment and prevention of future and current variants of coronavirus.
Clearpath Robotics launches TurtleBot 4
Waterloo-based manufacturing company Clearpath Robotics has launched the TurtleBot 4. TurtleBot 4 is a low-cost, fully expandable mobile robotics platform with improved sensing, increased payload capacity, ROS 2 support and auto-docking capabilities for educators, researchers and developers.
Waterloo Region welcomes a new Creative Industries campus
Joining forces with Conestoga College, the City of Kitchener announced a plan to invest up to $15 million in the expansion of the School of Creative Industries in the city’s downtown core.
This partnership with Conestoga College will help address the shortage of creative talent by investing in more resources and opportunities for innovation to bloom.
UWaterloo competes with Germany’s best universities
The University of Waterloo is known for its world-renowned engineering and computer science programs, which have compared favourably to some of the best tech schools in America. But how does UWaterloo compare with the best engineering schools Germany has to offer? Our newest 5 Charts article looks at student employability, employer reputation, research capabilities and more.
Q&A: Waterloo EDC’s Maria Suarez on helping manufacturers grow
Home to Canada’s largest automotive manufacturer and largest robotics and automation cluster, Waterloo is a manufacturing powerhouse. Waterloo EDC’s Maria Suarez specializes in helping manufacturers from all over the world expand to our community. In this Q&A she highlights Waterloo EDC’s efforts to help manufacturing companies grow.