Part of $54M
program in partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence and the
Government of Ontario to boost
innovation in healthcare, natural resources, financial
services
TORONTO, Sept. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Today, IBM
(NYSE: IBM) in partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence
and the Government of Ontario
launched the IBM Innovation Space, a new startup hub in
Toronto to accelerate innovation
activities and investments in Ontario by helping businesses propel into the
global marketplace. The IBM Innovation Space is the first
initiative to launch under the IBM Innovation Incubator Project, a
$54 million dollar initiative funded
by a $24.75 million dollar
contribution from IBM and $22.75
million from the Government of Ontario's Jobs and Prosperity Fund.
Other partners include the SOSCIP Research Consortium and members
of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE).
The IBM Innovation Space will provide capacity, networking,
infrastructure, and a multitude of new IBM cloud and cognitive
business technologies to help entrepreneurs, startups, and
developers incubate and innovate ideas and more rapidly move their
business plans from research to commercialization.
IBM's Innovation Space will connect to the Ontario Network of
Entrepreneurs to support businesses with advanced IBM technologies,
including a range of cloud, mobile, analytics, and social
solutions. Experts from IBM and its network of collaborators will
offer mentoring, support services, education, and legal counsel to
assist startups in transforming some of Canada's biggest challenges in areas such as
healthcare, natural resources, and financial services.
"Access to the latest technology, including cognitive and cloud,
as well as these kinds of resources and support, are so often out
of the reach of start-ups – that's why we created this space," said
Dino Trevisani, IBM Canada
President. "We want to help them innovate, get to market and expand
more quickly to ultimately become the disruptors of tomorrow."
"OCE's partnership with IBM through the IBM Innovation Incubator
Project provides an ideal opportunity to bolster innovation across
the province and help companies scale-up to become creators of the
high value jobs that drive economic prosperity," says OCE President
and CEO Dr. Tom Corr. "By
establishing and leveraging incubator hubs like the IBM Innovation
Space, we can help turn Ontario's
big ideas into commercial success here in Ontario and around the globe."
"Today's announcement reinforces our commitment to fuel
home-grown innovation and leverage our world-class talents to
create jobs and economic prosperity," says Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development
and Growth. "The IBM Innovation Space demonstrates our commitment
to increase innovation in Ontario
by working collaboratively with the public and private sectors. We
are thrilled to work with IBM and Ontario Centres of Excellence
with foundational support from SOSCIP Research Consortium."
Several Ontario businesses have
already accessed the IBM Innovation Space to work with IBM to more
quickly incubate and commercialize ideas:
- Guelph-based LifeLearn used
IBM Watson to develop their flagship offering, Sofie, an
intelligent decision-support tool for veterinarians. Through the
IBM Innovation Space, LifeLearn is connected to a larger pool of
developers with global expertise that is often difficult to source
in smaller centres.
- Big Terminal, a Toronto-based
startup is using the Innovation Space to develop a search engine
powered by IBM Watson to aggregate, consolidate, and analyze an
abundance of financial data from around the world in one easy,
navigable location.
- With IBM resources in the Innovation Space, Orenda is creating
an intelligent software solution powered by IBM Watson to gather
online data that helps businesses interpret what people are saying
about their brands.
- Toronto-based IAmI runs its
security application on IBM Cloud to provide users of any
organization with unique identity accesses and identification
services to stop cyber intrusion and data breaches.
- 4D Virtual Space uses IBM Watson and Bluemix to transform the
real estate industry by turning floor plans into interactive and
immersive real-time 3D environments. The IBM Innovation Space
provided tools and resources that quickly and cost effectively
moved the startup from product development to a minimum viable
product within two months.
- Analytics 4 Life (A4L) is a medical information technology
company that uses advanced signal processing techniques to extract,
process, and analyze important data on patient health. A4L is the
first company to graduate from the IBM Innovation Space.
IBM invests in incubator ecosystems like the Innovation Space in
Toronto to help close the Canadian
innovation gap and nurture research and development projects.
Collaborative environments create a strong foundation for high
value job creation by providing startups and developers with the
expertise, resources and advanced technologies needed to grow their
business and compete on a global scale.
IBM is a cognitive solutions and cloud platform company backed
by over a century of business and systems innovation. IBM is
dedicated to world-changing progress and building new ways to
outthink challenges in a world where cognitive intelligence is
infused into the systems and processes that help improve business
and society. For more information about IBM's continued investments
in Canadian innovation, please visit:
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ca/en/canadian-innovation.html
Over the past 10 years, IBM has invested more than half a
billion dollars of in-kind expertise and related technologies to
establish a series of collaborative innovation hubs across
Canada. These include a
collaborative incubator space in Hamilton, in conjunction with Hamilton Health
Sciences, dedicated to advancing the development and
commercialization of innovative healthcare products and services.
Last year IBM launched the Toronto Bluemix Garage at
Ryerson University's DMZ –
one of Canada's largest business
incubators for emerging technology startups – to bring together a
strong network of international partners and in-house
expertise.
SOURCE IBM Canada Ltd.