When it comes to Atlantic Canada, the cat is out of the bag. The region has been quietly developing some of the country’s most promising technology. Now, investors’ heads are turning to Nova Scotia-based companies, such as Verafin which was acquired for 2.75 billion USD just weeks ago. With groundbreaking ideas and impressive growth, more and more companies are proudly calling the province of Nova Scotia home. Check out our list of startups that we’ll be keeping an eye on in 2021.
Talkatoo
Talkatoo is a dictation software for veterinary professionals. The company’s product offers an intelligent medical dictation solution. “We’re doing all of it because we truly hate keyboards,” said Shawn Wilkie, founder of Talkatoo to the Chronicle Herald last year before adding “We don’t think that they have a place in the future.”
In 2019, the Halifax-based company announced a $700,000 seed round to help launch the software. In February 2021, Google announced that Talkatoo is one of 10 North American companies to participate in the first Google for Startups Accelerator: Voice AI. The 10-week program will surely help the company reach new heights.
Nxtgen Care
Nxtgen Care is a business intelligence platform for Seniors Care Operator management. The company was founded in 2017 by David Burke and Dan LeBlanc. The platform they developed helps operators manage their facilities by accessing data and insights that would otherwise be unavailable. The platform also delivers a new example of healthy ageing care for seniors, improving engagement and the meaningfulness of care.
The company is headquartered in Dartmouth NS, currently serves senior care operators located in the USA and Canada.
Hanatech
Hannatech IoT collects and analyzes data to help businesses improve business performance. With customized IoT Solutions, the company allows various industries including farming and industrial draw actionable insights from their operational data.
In response to COVID-19, the Halifax-based company launched an integrated smart social distancing and contact tracing solution.
VineView
VineView is a provider of crop health diagnostics for vineyards. The company is changing the way growers monitor crop health using aerial-based spectral sensors and a cloud-based image processing service. The cutting-edge technology helps agricultural operators monitor the health of their crops.
The solution promises sustainability, better quality crops for reduced costs and decreased inputs. In 2018, the company announced a merger with Canadian company SkySquirrel Technologies. Since then, VineView has been hitting one milestone after another.
Ashored Innovations
Nova Scotia has its special place in Canada because of its location on the Atlantic Ocean. And so it comes as no surprise, that some of the most innovative companies are in the ocean tech niche. Ashored Innovation develops sustainability-enabling technologies for the commercial fishing industry. Ashored is currently developing a fishing system to minimize the risk of whale entanglements and trap loss while allowing fishers to fish in zones closed to fixed fishing gear.
Ashored is also addressing the issue of lost fishing gear which can ghostfish for years costing the aquamarine ecosystem of the ocean as well as fishers to replace the gear. The solution is called ATLAS, an intuitive suite of software and hardware that tracks the location, connection, and ownership of a user’s fishing gear. The ATLAS+ software will also be able to automate and display the information in an actionable manner for users.
Note: Venbridge had no financial relationship with any of the companies featured at the time the article was published.
