2018 Innovation Expo

Meet innovative companies from across Southern Ontario!

About the Expo

This event will showcase 100+ recipients of Innovation Guelph’s Fuel Injection & Bioenterprise’s Seed Funding programs.

See the exciting developments that are happening in Agri-food, Agri-Tech, Manufacturing, Social Innovation, Sustainable Technologies & more!

About the Program

Since 2015, over one hundred innovative startups & small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from across Southern Ontario have received seed funding awarded through a partnership between Bioenterprise Corporation & Innovation Guelph, with financial support provided by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario).

This program has provided seed funding, mentorship and support to help companies commercialize innovative products & services, create jobs, attract follow-on investment & more.

The Innovation Guelph Fuel Injection Seed Funding Program supports business scale-up projects of start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in southern Ontario. Fuel Injection facilitates enterprise growth through generation of new jobs & revenue; attraction of follow-on private investment; the launch of new products or services; and cost savings through energy, water or waste innovations. Through this program, Innovation Guelph provides specialized industry business advisory services and seed funding to innovative enterprises in the following sectors: manufacturing; sustainable technologies; agriculture/agri-food; and social innovation.

Innovation Guelph’s Fuel Injection program provides seed funding on a one-to-one matching basis up to a maximum of $30,000, and provides support services including mentoring/coaching, market and competitive analysis, financial and marketing strategy, investment preparation, and introductions to strategic partners.

Bioenterprise is participating in a program funded by the Government of Canada to provide non-repayable seed financing, coaching, and mentorship to assist start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture and agri-food sectors, as well as sustainable and environmental technologies, to grow through generation of revenue and attraction of follow-on private investment.

Bioenterprise’s Seed Funding is a matching program that provides eligible enterprises with:

• $30,000 in seed funding (to be matched by recipient enterprise)

• Coaching/mentorship support services (e.g. market intelligence, investment preparation and access to Bioenterprise global network)

Our Keynote Speaker

Jon Duschinsky

Founder of bethechange – Social Impact Consultancy

Jon is a social innovator and thought leader who helps CEOs increase their brand value to sustainably grow revenues.

What underpins all his work is the understanding that purpose and profitability are now two sides of the same coin, and you cannot have one without the other. In fact, as he never gets tired of saying, purpose-driven companies outperformed the S&P 500 index by 10x over the last decade.

Jon has worked in more than 60 countries, with some 200+ organizations. His most recent venture, Oreka Solutions, is harnessing the power of insects to drive sustainability in agriculture. Jon’s energy and passion shine through in his insightful and personable leadership style. He was recently voted the world’s second most influential communicator in social innovation (second only to Bill Clinton) by a group of his peers, and he has shared speaking platforms with leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Kofi Annan and Steve Wozniak. He is the author of two books, “Philanthropy in a Flat World” (2008) and “(me)volution” (2012).

Jon challenges the status quo, gleefully sparking disruptive change and re-writing intra-organizational narratives by supporting changemakers to tackle the well-worn story of profits over people.