Hamilton, ON – February 15, 2015 // Innovation Factory is excited to announce that we’ve welcomed a new cohort of ventures to The Forge accelerator! The Forge is a campus-linked accelerator for early-stage startups, developed through a partnership between McMaster University and Innovation Factory.

As an accelerator, The Forge will work hands-on with entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas or startups from ideation and validation to growth.

This collaborative partnership will allow both Innovation Factory (iF) and The Forge at McMaster to offer startups with a more comprehensive suite of resources and support.

Furthermore, this is a great opportunity for iF to develop events and workshops to help incoming businesses connect with a broader range of mentors, investors, and other entrepreneurs. It is a great way to help entrepreneurs at any stage of business growth build valuable relationships, and gain insights into the latest trends and best practices in their industries.

We invite you to learn more about companies currently in The Forge by reading about them below!

 

Blue Orchid Care Inc.

Blue Orchid was founded on a simple principle: to create innovative yet uncomplicated solutions for the challenges caregivers face each day. The company’s mission is to develop assistive living products aimed at improving quality of life for both patients and caregivers, and which enable patients to maintain their independence for as long as possible. The company’s first line of products will focus on mitigating the loss of mobility from aging, and will provide affordable, simple solutions with regards to lifting, moving and handling the patient in their own home.

 

Brüha

Brüha is a new platform connecting you to local events and venues in your area. Whether you are a tourist or a local resident, Brüha offers a fast and easy way to find out what’s going on in any town, city or region. The home screen loads a map-interface highlighting events and venues. Creating a Brüha account is free, and customers can create their own event and venue content at no cost. As such, Brüha is also a marketing gateway for local artists and promoters.

 

Chipsetter Inc.

Chipsetter Inc. has developed a low-cost pick-and-place machine for the assembly of printed circuit boards. Thanks to the novel design, which features removable feeders, the Chipsetter machine is 10x more cost-effective than existing entry-level machines while also faster and more user-friendly. The minimal capital required means that small electronics design firms, community workspaces, and individuals will now be able to assemble batches of 25-500 printed circuit boards per week without breaking their budget.

 

Educredu Corp.

There are few tasks less gratifying than having to gather and submit the necessary evidence to maintain and update credentials. And yet, millions of people worldwide must do this on a regular basis, keeping track of the credentials they have and those they still wish/need to earn. Educredu Corp, and its “educredu” software/app, makes this process a breeze. How? Think of Educredu as a highly plugged-in software assistant, complete with a calendar and user-friendly database to track all of your professional credentials and events.

 

HARvEST

HARvEST focuses on providing a suite of heat recovery technologies to an emerging commercial market through a rental based business model. The firm’s first product is the Pizza Oven Waste Energy Recovery (POWER) system. It repurposes wasted thermal energy from a conventional pizza oven’s exhaust gases to generate electricity, provide heating for hot water tanks and HVAC units, and conserve natural gas. The core technology is a thermal electric generator, enabling the system to be self-powered.

 

Ideabeat

Ideabeat is an innovative diabetes healthcare company that has developed a creative all-in-one glucose monitor device, which is coupled with a smartphone case. The “fred” device is a Bluetooth paired glucose monitor housing a lancet and storage for test strips. The design of the “fred” device is sleek, and at just 6.5mm thick, it can comfortably fit in your pocket, eliminating the need for any kind of diabetic carrying case.

 

Metacloud

Metacloud is a software firm based out of Hamilton, Ontario that strives to blend art, engineering and science into product design. The company specializes in iOS and Android applications and has a great deal of experience with modern web frameworks. Metacloud is currently focused on the upcoming release of its two flagship products “Foldr” and “UWallet.”

 

 

 

Nix Sensor

Nix Sensor Ltd. brings colour measurement into the 21st century! No longer do you have to lug around bulky, expensive fan decks that are plagued with accuracy problems. Printed pieces of paper can easily fade, get soiled or rip. In addition, they are significantly affected by ambient light/shadows. Enter the Nix Color Sensor, a smartphone peripheral about the size of a ping-pong ball. Nix blocks out all ambient light and provides its own calibrated light source for unparalleled accuracy and ease of use in pinpointing a colour.

 

QReserve Inc.

QReserve is a public database of research equipment, services and experts built to connect researchers and encourage the use of available research resources. They help universities and colleges catalogue tools and services to encourage resource sharing and to attract industrial collaborations.

 

Ranggo

Ranggo is an all-in-one tool for restaurants, enabling them to easily monitor customer feedback and boost retention. Customers can rate their restaurant experience at the menu item level using their smartphones and get instant e-coupons encouraging them to come back. The check-in process broadcasts on users’ social networks, expanding restaurant exposure. Ranggo also offers search functionality that will allow users to find the best menu items in their area. The app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.

 

RotaNovus

 

RotaNovus is a human-centered design firm focused on reimagining and improving upon out-of-date or ineffective products. The company’s first product, Joovo, offers a fresh take on elderly mobility devices called rollators, which currently fall short in meeting customer demands. Taking a biomechanical approach to design and improvement, RotaNovus’s Joovo brings a new level of safety, ergonomics and aesthetics to assistive mobility devices.

 

Second Floor

Second Floor Software is a boutique software firm operating out of Hamilton, Ontario. Leveraging the diverse background of their team, which includes both experienced programmers and serial entrepreneurs, the firm looks to rapidly expand its operations and portfolio.

 

Start the Cycle

Start the Cycle is a social entrepreneurship venture promoting active mobility for youth. In short, it facilitates a non-profit ‘bike share’ program for school aged children between the ages of 5-15 based on the same for profit bike share model used in cities across Canada and the United States. The 2015 Pan American games Cannon Street bike path project provides an ideal opportunity to form a pilot project for Start the Cycle, as it coincides with available funding and new infrastructure plans already underway.

 

Thrive Games

Thrive Games, an independent video game development studio based out of Hamilton, Ontario, is looking to meet the demands of a growing gaming market. The firm is currently working on their debut project: Dragon of Legends – a cross-platform 2D MMORPG.

 

 

Tribute Tree

Tribute Tree is the only mobile-friendly software as a service (SaaS) platform for funeral planning. It educates clients about funeral planning and helps them collect and organize important information, storing it securely for future use. It also acts as a hub to help friends and family connect at the time of death and beyond to provide grief support, relay funeral information, order flowers, share condolences and celebrate the life of the deceased. For funeral homes, Tribute Tree helps streamline client data collection and efficiently connect with the family of the deceased.

ABOUT INNOVATION FACTORY

Innovation Factory is a business accelerator, dedicated to helping Ontario-based businesses launch, scale, and succeed. We provide start-ups, and scaling companies with advisory services, training, mentorship, and strategic connections to help bring disruptive technologies to market, leverage intellectual property, increase revenues, attract investment and create jobs. Innovators can also access sector-specific resources including exclusive smart transportation test environments and data; and a formal life science and health innovation ecosystem.