Simon Fraser University’s VentureLabs® is receiving $3 million in funding from Western Economic Diversification to establish a scale-up and soft-landing centre within its Vancouver business accelerator.
VentureLabs’ scale-up program will support resident ventures and the broader community, and address knowledge gaps, share best practices, expand business networks, help companies drive revenue growth, facilitate talent recruitment, and prepare participating SMEs for growth stage financing.
The funding was announced yesterday by the Hon. Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. The funds are part of a $3.7 million announcement aimed at supporting initiatives that will help western Canadian entrepreneurs and companies access tools that will help them thrive.
Virginia Balcom, VentureLab’s acting executive director, says the funding will go a long way to support VentureLabs in extending and engaging its entrepreneurial community, including investors, Executives-in-Residence, and industry partners to deliver intensive scale-up programming for high-growth potential science and technology-based SMEs.
“This significant investment is a vote of confidence in SFU VentureLabs’ business acceleration programs,” said Balcom. “This funding will help us to support the pipeline of companies, from creating ideas to developing business plans and building products, and scaling revenue and expanding to international markets. We look forward to collaborating with B.C.’s entrepreneurial community to help companies scale on every front.”
VentureLabs was recognized as the 2017/2018 Top Challenger in North America by UBI Global, the world’s most extensive benchmark study of university-linked business incubators and accelerators.