Spring Activator’s first-ever Canada-wide Impact Investor Challenge is launching in April and they’ve announced the Top 20 companies still in the running for a $100,000 impact investment.
Spring received over 150 company applications from across the country and of the Top 20, nine of the ventures are founded by women, eight are BIPOC-led, and one is Indigenous-led. As concerns, industries, the variety spans over seven areas including cleantech, education, medtech, e-commerce, food innovation, agtech, and circular economy.
What’s next?
At Pitch Night on April 20th, these companies will pitch to the program’s investor cohort and the narrowing down will begin. Once a Top 5 are selected, the venture cohort—the companies that will complete the core program alongside the investors—will be announced.
At the National Impact Investor Challenge Finale on June 17, the newly trained impact investors will award $100,000 to one winning company.
Here are the nine B.C. companies that were named to the Top 20:
Audette, Victoria
Audette is a software marketplace that connects large property groups with the funding necessary to get to carbon neutral. Our platform enables users to build a project-by-project roadmap for their entire portfolio and receive funding offers from incentive providers, government grants, and impact financiers. Our mission is to turn every commercial building upgrade into a carbon reduction project, the climate crisis demands nothing less.
Chiwis, Squamish
Chiwis is a company dedicated to making 100% natural snacks that taste amazing and do wonders for the body. Chiwis has a focus on the kiwi, a fruit that is highly underused in the snack aisle, but carries a nutritional punch that is unparalleled in healthy snacks. As a company, Chiwis is focused on sustainability, using only upcycled kiwis for their kiwi chips.
LABORA, Surrey
LABORA is fintech for temporary foreign workers. The company helps farm owners securely and efficiently pay their agricultural workers and benefit from the streamlined money transfer process from Canada back home. LABORA also assists workers by filing their tax returns and providing online services to farm owners and workers to keep their information (T4, payroll stubs, tax returns, contract, ROE) up to date at no cost.
Moment Energy, Vancouver
Moment Energy is a cleantech company creating sustainable energy storage systems (ESS) for microgrid, commercial and industrial customers. Their solution helps C&I customers with peak energy demands and can be paired with any renewable source to solve energy intermittency and increase energy reliability in remote areas.
Origen Air, Victoria
Origen Air’s smart living air purifiers make investments into health and safety programs profitable for enterprises operating within public spaces. Through fleet leases and digital ad revenues, they supply and maintain air purification hardware, software, and air quality data. Their clients use Origen Air to build consumer trust and confidence within their facilities and operations.
RainStick, Kelowna
RainStick’s vision is to allow people to live a sustainable lifestyle without compromise. RainStick’s first product is a high-flow shower system that saves 80% energy and 80% water through point-of-use recirculation and proprietary filtration, making water clean and clear. The company is supported by MaRS and SheEO, has waitlist orders in place, and is getting ready for its big launch in early 2022.
Raven Reads, Kamloops
Raven Reads is an award-winning Indigenous subscription box that connects global subscribers with authentic Indigenous content and cultures. Utilizing their extensive network of Indigenous entrepreneurs, Raven Reads curates books and giftware from Indigenous authors and entrepreneurs from across North America and ships to thousands of subscribers around the world from their warehouse and fulfillment centre in Kamloops.
Speakbox, Vancouver
Mental health is a critical component of our overall health. Yet, a lack of accessible care and fragmented data causes daily harm and impedes millions of people from living happier, healthier lives. Speakbox enables any independent mental health clinic to become a collaborative practice capable of effortlessly sharing health information with their clients while optimizing their administration to save time, money and increase clinical capacity.
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