Two companies started by University of Waterloo graduates are the first to receive funding from Ontario’s new Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund (LSSUF). Intellijoint Surgical Inc. and Vena Medical, part of Velocity Health, will share a total of $1.9 million aimed at boosting manufacturing capabilities, expanding internationally, and promoting their healthcare technologies.
Vena is included in the Velocity Health stream, which helps early-stage startups validate and commercialize medical and health-related innovations. Although not directly under Velocity’s umbrella, Intellijoint often works closely with Velocity and the broader Waterloo innovation community.
“As one of Canada’s leading health-technology commercialization platforms, it’s wonderful to see our Velocity founders making significant progress in enhancing healthcare delivery,” says Moazam Khan, managing director of Venture Scale and Strategy at Velocity. “Investments like this are vital for supporting emerging health-tech companies on their journey to market.”
The $24 million LSSUF forms part of the Government of Ontario’s larger strategy to bolster the province’s biomanufacturing industry, speed up innovation, and draw more investment into life sciences.
“Ontario has a rich history of driving research and development for groundbreaking breakthroughs and life-saving technologies that have greatly influenced patient care both here and around the world,” said Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “With the Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund, our government ensures that entrepreneurs based in Ontario have what they need to grow their businesses, expand globally, and stay competitive during this era of innovation.”
Both Vena Medical and Intellijoint Surgical were established by graduates from Waterloo Engineering as extensions of their fourth-year Capstone Design projects with financial backing and advisory support from the university specifically aimed at nurturing students’ entrepreneurial goals.
Intellijoint Surgical is a top provider of orthopaedic medical technologies that has assisted over 80,000 hip and knee replacements worldwide. Co-founded by alumni Armen Bakirtzian (BASc ’08), Andre Hladio (BASc ’08, MASc ’10), and Richard Fanson (BASc ’08), it will receive $450,000 to incorporate artificial intelligence and automation into its production processes. This funding will sustain 34 existing positions while adding three new skilled roles.
Vena Medical specializes in intravascular imaging technologies used by doctors during stroke treatments as well as real-time diagnostics. The company has been awarded $1.5 million from the LSSUF to launch its new Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in Kitchener. This financial support will maintain nine jobs while creating 13 additional skilled positions.
Vena Medical co-founders Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper
“Our team has engineered a highly complex, microscopic medical device, and now we have the state-of-the-art cleanroom and manufacturing infrastructure to build it at scale,” says Phillip Cooper (BASc ’17), co-founder & COO of Vena Medical. “With the backing of the LSSUF, we are scaling our manufacturing right here in Kitchener. We are ready to take this Kitchener-Waterloo-born innovation to the rest of the world.”
This week, Vena announced that it has received regulatory clearance from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Vena Micro Angioscope System for use in peripheral vasculature procedures.
Velocity serves as Waterloo’s main incubator offering mentorship opportunities along with funding as well as access to Canada’s largest tech corridor network designed to help innovators transition ideas from labs into markets. Since 2008, Velocity has supported over 500 startups which together surpass $40 billion in enterprise value.
Source link
Source link
