Tonight the Technology Impact Awards (TIAs) marked their 30th Anniversary announcing 9 companies as award winners and inducting 8 leaders to the Innovators Hall of Fame at the annual awards show.
“BC Tech is proud to have played a part in the journey of so many BC tech icons and success stories across our 30-year history,” shared Jill Tipping, CEO of BC Tech. “Tonight we were honoured to celebrate the achievements of our Hall of Fame inductees and the 2023 TIAs award winners, showcasing the key role of innovation to BC’s economy.”
Hosted live at Parq Vancouver to a sold-out crowd, the awards show presenting partners included Province of British Columbia and Amazon.
Vancouver’s Blanka was named Company of the Year – Startup. Founded in 2021 by Kaylee Astle, Doug Long, and Adam Chuntz, Blanka allows anyone to launch a new beauty brand in under an hour, for less than $200. Blanka recently raised a $2.7 million seed round and is a Top 10 finalist in the New Ventures BC Competition this year.
Fatigue Science received the Company of the Year – Growth award. Fatigue Science is a leader in providing predictive human performance data around sleep and its Readi platform is used to protecting workers and improving productivity across elite sports, military and heavy industry.
Aspect Biosystems was the only company to take away two pieces of hardware with the Company of the Year – Scale and Gamechanger – Ambition awards. The UBC spinout was most recently in the news thanks to a collaboration with Novo Nordisk to develop bioprinted tissue therapeutics designed to replace, repair, or supplement biological functions with the aim of delivering a new class of treatments for diabetes and obesity.
Matching the TIAs’ 30 years is this year’s Company of the Year – Anchor recipient.Vancouver’s STEMCELL Technologies, Canada’s largest biotechnology company, celebrated its 30th year of accelerating research into cancer and other diseases this year.
Earlier this year Svante was named the Scaling Venture of the Year at the BC Cleantech Awards and continued that momentum with the Gamechanger – Climate Leadership award last night. Svante has been headquartered in Burnaby since 2007 and has made sizeable advancements in the global carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) space.
Vancouver biotech anchor AbCellera was presented the Excellence in Industry Innovation award. AbCellera is building a state-of-the-art biotechnology campus that will include a new preclinical development facility, creating more than 400 highly skilled jobs, as well as new training opportunities in life sciences and biomanufacturing.
CheckingIn is a mental health and well-being platform that empowers teams with a simple, fast, and approachable tool to assess and respond productively to their feelings. The Vancouver startup received the Gamechanger – Diversity & Inclusion award.
The Excellence in Company Culture honors went to global identity verification leader Trulioo. Less than two years ago Shradha Mittal was appointed Trulio’s People & Culture lead and clearly her work on employee retention and engagement, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and professional development has paid off.
In addition to the company awards, eight individuals were inducted into BC TECH’s Innovators Hall of Fame. This year’s inductees are Judy Bishop, Kathy Butler, Andrew Harries, Don Mattrick, Firoz Rasul, Shannon Rogers Roy (1968-2023), Geordie Rose, and William (Bill) H. Thompson (1922-1986).
Minister Brenda Bailey took the stage to acknowledge the inaugural inductees to the Innovators Hall of Fame.
“It’s an honour to celebrate all of the finalists and recognize the legacy of the trailblazers who we will forever remember in our hearts, and now officially in B.C.’s Innovator’s Hall of Fame,” shared Minister Bailey. “Thank you to everyone who is part of B.C.’s amazing tech community, and a huge congratulations to all of the winners and inductees tonight.”
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