Seven promising startups have been selected to comprise the inaugural cohort going through the Mobility Unlimited Hub initial acceleration program.
The Hub, powered by Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District and the Toyota Mobility Foundation, will work to foster innovation by offering a path to commercialization, serving as a bridge from early-stage to mass market, providing resources such as marketing and public relations support, funding opportunities, and access to partnerships.
“We are thrilled to help the Mobility Unlimited Hub cohort accelerate their innovations and bring transformative mobility solutions to market through our partnership with the Toyota Mobility Foundation,” stated Alison Nankivell, chief executive of MaRS Discovery District.
The seven startups—of which one hails from B.C.—were chosen from more than 50 who applied.
“It’s inspiring to see such strong interest from startups eager to tackle pressing mobility challenges showcasing the Canadian spirit of innovation and determination to create impactful solutions,” Nankivell noted.
Selected startups are diverse and include Axtion Independence Mobility, Deaf AI, and Trexo Robotics. Out of B.C. hails Seleste Innovations.
Named a diamond in the rough by NVBC in 2023 and one of 2024’s B.C. startups to watch by Techcouver, Seleste has developed smart glasses for the blind and visually impaired.
Features of the Seleste product include Call a Friend, which grants someone remote the ability to see through the glass camera what the blind person is looking at.
And even without a person on hand, AI can still help navigate the physical world with scene description, object recognition, and text reading.
According to Statistics Canada data from 2022, 27% of Canadians aged 15 years and older had one or more disabilities that limited daily activities, with nearly one-third of Canadians with disabilities reporting unmet needs for assistive devices.
“For the Toyota Mobility Foundation, we prioritize people over technology,” says William Chernicoff, who functions as head of research and innovation at the Foundation. “This is why we emphasize ‘active mobility,’ which is more than getting a person from A to B.”
Active mobility, as Chernicoff explains, “is helping a person develop, retain, or regain the autonomy of movement that allows them to be independent and live a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling life.”
The Mobility Unlimited Hub was launched with the support of several community members, including Access to Success, ClusterBridge, George Brown College, Global Startups, Linamar iHub, KITE UHN, Sheridan College, Sixty Degree Capital, Toronto Global, Ontario Home Health, University of Toronto, and Woven Capital.
The Toyota Mobility Foundation was established in 2014 by the Toyota Motor Corporation to contribute toward a “society in which everyone can move freely.”
MaRS provides direct support for more than 1,200 ventures and fosters Canadian innovation across 1.5 million square feet of lab and office space.
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