After spending seven years helping international students apply to study abroad with Kitchener-Waterloo EdTech unicorn ApplyBoard, Martin Basiri has set his sights on a new challenge.
The ApplyBoard co-founder and former CEO’s new startup, Passage, aims to help fill Canada’s skilled labour gap.
Founded this year and armed with $40 million CAD in initial seed funding led by Ohio-based Drive Capital, Passage is building a software platform designed to match international students and immigrants to Canadian workforce needs and connect them with financing.
Whereas ApplyBoard enabled international students of means to apply to study abroad more easily, Kitchener-Waterloo’s Passage aims to help skilled folks in foreign countries who lack financial resources secure the funding required to learn and work here—a barrier that prevents many from coming to Canada in the first place. It will target both job seekers and people looking to apply to school.
In an interview with BetaKit, Basiri noted that ApplyBoard caters to international students who can already afford to attend post-secondary school in a new country. “On ApplyBoard, you must have money. At Passage, we say, ‘Hey, if you don’t have money, it’s okay, go apply.’”
Through Passage, Basiri hopes to help smart, prospective immigrants looking to study and work in in-demand fields like science, technology, engineering and mathematics, cybersecurity, and health care, but can’t afford to migrate.
“With thousands of jobs sitting unfilled in the economy, affecting goods and services Canadians need, Canada is facing a socio-economic crisis that must be addressed,” Drive Capital partner Nick Solaro said in a statement. “Martin and his talented team are doing just that.”
Drive Capital previously led ApplyBoard’s Series C round. Basiri declined to disclose the other investors in Passage’s seed round but claimed it also saw support from other previous ApplyBoard backers.
ApplyBoard most recently raised $375 million CAD in Series D financing led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in 2021 at a $4 billion valuation.
Basiri quietly departed as ApplyBoard’s CEO last summer and was replaced by his brother Meti in a move that the company didn’t officially announce until early 2023.
For international students and immigrant workers, coming to Canada can be expensive, and accessing loans and other forms of financing are often particularly difficult. “Only the top one percent of wealthy people can afford to come here and [take] this life-changing opportunity,” said Basiri. “But what if the financial barrier wasn’t an issue?”
Basiri initially left ApplyBoard last summer and launched a charitable foundation to help tackle this issue, but said he soon realized the problem called for another strategy. “The scope of the problem is bigger than just one charity,” he argued. “We need a platform.”
Basiri launched Passage in February, and closed this seed round shortly afterwards, in March. Beyond the top-line amount, the Passage founder and CEO declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Passage plans to take into account a variety of factors, such as target school, field of study, degree type, skillset, city, profession, and job market, in order to evaluate candidates’ future earning potential. “Everything we do is with data, data data,” said Basiri.
With this approach, Basiri expressed confidence that Passage will be able to find backers willing to support its vision and lend to new Canadians.
Passage plans to use this seed funding to develop its software and build out its operational capacity, as it looks to bring on its first batch of students in 2024. The startup also intends to execute its first pilot project, designed to help over 100 female-identifying students from Afghanistan access education in Canada with clear paths toward fields with worker shortages.
Basiri acknowledged that given the state of the economy, it is an “extremely tough time for lending businesses.” But the CEO said he embraces the challenge. “If I make Passage work at this time, it will work for any time,” he said.
An American biotech company is acquiring Cyclica and Valence Discovery, two Canadian startups in the artificial intelligence (AI) drug-discovery space.
Recursion, a drug-discovery company based in Salt Lake City, will buy Cyclica for $53.4 million CAD ($40 million USD), and Valence for $63.4 million CAD ($47.5 million USD), and expects both acquisitions to be completed in the second quarter of 2023.
Cyclica calls itself a neo-biotech company. The Toronto-based startup has built two products in the digital-chemistry space. One is an AI deep learning engine that carries out drug design. The other is an AI prediction model used to describe molecules.
Cyclica focuses on three therapeutic areas: cancer, diseases of the brain, and inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.
Toronto is home to Recursion’s largest office outside of its headquarters. The teams at Cyclica will be fully integrated into Recursion.
In its quarterly filing, Recursion reported that it completed a prospective, blinded evaluation of Cyclia’s software against its internal programs, which gave Recursion deep confidence in the power of Cyclica’s tools. Recursion said this reinforced its belief that Cyclica’s team could accelerate Recursion’s work across its pipeline and partnerships by rapidly advancing the discovery of novel molecules that could become drug candidates in the future .
Valence Discovery, housed in Montréal’s Mila AI research institute, came out of stealth mode in 2021 and announced $10.9 million CAD ($8.5 million USD) in funding.
The startup partners with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies, using AI and machine learning to support their drug-discovery efforts.
Joining forces with Recursion’s deep learning research office in Montréal, Valence will become an AI and machine learning research center to be led by Valence co-founder Daniel Cohen with continued advisory from Mila founder Yoshua Bengio.
The small team at Valence has led a massive open-science movement with a network of academic collaborators at the forefront of machine learning, chemistry, and other fields, Recursion noted in its quarterly filing.
Valence’s current and future technology will accelerate Recursion’s across many fields, the acquiring company stated. Valence gains access to Recursion’s wet-lab facilities as well as the company’s extensive datasets. These will help the team with ongoing work building foundation models, large language models, and other approaches that use active learning.
Recursion uses machine learning algorithms to analyze its proprietary biological and chemical datasets. This allows the computer to search for trillions of meaningful relationships among biological and chemical substances while minimizing human bias.
Recursion owns and operates the powerful BioHive 1 supercomputer and claims it is uniting technology, biology, and chemistry to advance the future of medicine.
The strategic acquisitions of Cyclica and Valence will give Recursion “the most complete, technology-enabled drug-discovery solution in the biopharma industry,” said Chris Gibson, co-founder and CEO of Recursion.
The sale of Cyclica and Valence to an American company follows a familiar pattern in Canadian technology. Three-quarters of the patents held by venture capital-backed Canadian startups involved in recent takeovers are now in foreign hands, according to 2021 research by the Innovation Economy Council. Ownership of more than 200 promising young companies, along with a trove of valuable intellectual property, has left the country since 2017, mainly to the US.
Benjamin Bergen, President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, told BetaKit that founders need to weigh many factors when deciding to sell the company they’ve built.
“I’m in no position to second-guess the management team at Cyclica and Valence,” Bergen said. “However, as a country we see this pattern all too often, and policymakers should look to understand why so many promising tech companies choose to sell themselves, rather than scaling up into Canadian juggernauts.”
Cyclica has a staff of around 60, with some 50 programs spread over its three main focus areas. Cyclica has previously raised a $4.65 million CAD Series A made up of an initial $2.25 million in September 2016 and a $2.4 million follow-on in July 2017.
Cyclica received a $2.4 million CAD ($1.79 million USD) grant in 2022 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discover new contraceptive options. The startup hopes to develop new, non-hormonal contraceptive drugs, and said the grant enables it to apply its artificial intelligence-enabled drug-discovery platform to the problem.
Recursion said the purchase price in the acquisitions will be payable in the form of shares of Recursion Class A common stock, shares of a subsidiary of Recursion exchangeable for shares of Recursion’s Class A common stock, and the assumption of certain outstanding Valence and Cyclica options.
In certain limited circumstances, Recursion may pay nominal cash consideration to Valence and Cyclica shareholders in lieu of such exchangeable shares or Recursion Class A common stock. Recursion expects no material change to its cash runway as a result of these acquisitions.
CCAA collaborates with Keiretsu Forum to launch the Global Plan for Chinese Entrepreneurs, providing continuous opportunities and channels for high-quality Chinese entrepreneurs to expand their businesses globally.
“The Global Plan for Chinese Entrepreneurs” is a collaborative project between CCAA and Keiretsu Forum, providing international entrepreneurship opportunities and services for Chinese entrepreneurs. The program consists of four stages: recruitment and selection, overseas acceleration, domestic incubation, and achievement showcase, aiming to help Chinese entrepreneurs achieve international business expansion, promote cross-border innovation and entrepreneurship cooperation.
Through this program, Chinese entrepreneurs participate in the Canadian Start-up Visa Program (SUV) federal entrepreneurship project and obtain entrepreneurial opportunities. The program is designed to attract and support innovative and entrepreneurial talents from around the world, allowing eligible international entrepreneurial teams to conduct their entrepreneurial activities in Canada. CCAA and Keiretsu Forum will provide comprehensive support and guidance to eligible Chinese entrepreneurs.
As the designated authorized agency of the Canadian federal government, Keiretsu Forum is qualified to issue letters of support to international entrepreneurs. As a member of Keiretsu Forum, CCAA can recommend projects to Keiretsu Forum, invest in them to support project development, and assist project members in obtaining letters of support.
For projects that have passed the review, China Canada Angel Alliance will provide landing support for overseas enterprises, including but not limited to enterprise establishment, incubator or address selection, financial and tax law, 1V1 visit and intercommunication of member enterprises, financing, talent recommendation, local business network connection, North American listing consulting services and other entrepreneurs/entrepreneurs.Moreover, the project will provide opportunities for entrepreneurs to establish connections and communicate with local investors and entrepreneurs in Canada, promoting cross-border innovation, entrepreneurship cooperation, and development.
In summary, The project will provide comprehensive support and guidance to eligible Chinese entrepreneurs, aiming to help them expand into international markets, enhance their cross-cultural communication and collaboration capabilities, and obtain resources and support from overseas and domestic sources. Under the plan, China Canada Angel Alliance will provide support letters to 50 Chinese start-up projects annually.
The program is aimed at experienced Chinese entrepreneurs who are interested in expanding their business to the North American market. The program requires project founders to have a global vision, innovative spirit, and an exciting business plan and vision suitable for conducting business in Canada and expanding to global markets. Other mandatory requirements include that project founders and all core team members must meet the standard requirements for the IELTS score, and that all applicants must have a clean criminal record.
The background of the collaboration between CCAA and Keiretsu Forum to launch the Global Plan for Chinese Entrepreneurs Program is that both organizations are committed to promoting investment and entrepreneurial cooperation and recognize the enormous business opportunities between China and Canada. As a global angel investor network, Keiretsu Forum has a large network of investors and abundant investment resources, while CCAA focuses on providing resources and support for Chinese entrepreneurs to help them establish businesses in Canada. The collaboration between the two organizations aims to fully leverage their respective strengths and resources to provide more support and opportunities for Chinese entrepreneurs, and to promote business cooperation and cultural exchange between China and Canada.
The significance of the Global Plan for Chinese Entrepreneurs Program builds on that it provides a supportive and collaborative ecosystem to help Chinese entrepreneurs succeed in the North American market. By providing a range of support and resources, including assistance with the Canadian SUV program application, investment opportunities, business consulting and training, and business cooperation opportunities, the program can help Chinese entrepreneurs expand their businesses, enter the North American market, and promote investment and entrepreneurial cooperation between China and Canada. At the same time, the program can also promote business connections and cultural exchange between China and Canada, creating more opportunities for sustainable business relationships between entrepreneurs from the two countries. Against the backdrop of the Canadian government’s strong support for entrepreneurship and innovation, the Chinese Entrepreneurs Program provides a more convenient way for Chinese entrepreneurs to enter the North American market.”
Cyclica receives a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to apply its AI-enabled drug discovery platform to discover new therapeutic options for multiple low-data biological targets with the goal of expanding the range of accessible non-hormonal contraceptive choices for women in developing countries.
TORONTO, CANADA — November 15, 2022:Cyclica Inc., a neo-biotech that is unlocking the protein universe to discover the medicines of tomorrow, is developing new, non-hormonal contraceptives for low-data biological protein targets with support from a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The CAD$2.4M grant enables Cyclica to apply its validated, AI-enabled drug discovery platform towards the discovery of expanded contraceptive options that can give women and girls the ability to better plan their families and their futures.
Historically, hormone-based contraceptives are known to cause wide-ranging side effects that reduce their appeal. A widely available non-hormonal contraceptive would provide an additional safe, effective choice for women and girls looking to take charge of their reproductive health. The grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports Cyclica in enabling women to make informed choices about contraception.
To date, research on discovering non-hormonal contraceptive agents has been hindered by a dearth of validated and enabled drug targets. While there are a small set of targets with sufficient supporting biological data and technical feasibility to warrant substantial investment, there are a set of less mature and emerging targets where the availability of new chemical starting points would enable novel robust target assessment and biological investigation. Here, Cyclica aims to have a dramatic impact, since its platform is optimized for drug discovery against low-data drug targets.
“While Cyclica builds and advances a commercial portfolio of drug discovery programs, it is part of our corporate ethos to work alongside nonprofit organizations to advance research for unmet medical needs,” said Naheed Kurji, CEO of Cyclica. “Among women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy, concerns about side effects are the most common reason they give for not using modern contraception. We are honored to have received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work towards discovering new, hormone-free contraceptives that will expand the range of contraceptive options available to women and girls.”
“Cyclica has a track record of success in the low-data target area for unmet clinical needs. We have the experience needed to tackle this currently undrugged, high-need opportunity, and progress it to the clinic on a faster and less costly trajectory than that offered by traditional methods,” said Mike Palovich, chief science officer of Cyclica. “I’m impressed by the level of domain expertise within the BMGF scientific team, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them toward this shared goal.”
Toronto, October 26, 2022: ACTO, the #1 learning platform in Life Sciences, has been recognized as a Trailblazer in Life Sciences Commercial Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Everest Group, a leading global research firm focused exclusively on strategic IT, business process, and engineering services.
In its “Start-ups Creating Buzz in the Life Sciences Commercial Technology” 2022 market report, Everest Group analyzed 47 technology start-ups offering proprietary Life Sciences Commercial Analytics & AI solutions focusing on their core capabilities and market impact. After a comprehensive evaluation, Everest Group shortlisted 17 vendors as high-potential start-ups. Of this group, only seven were recognized as Trailblazers, including ACTO – selected as a leader in the transformation of commercial operations in pharmaceutical and medical device organizations providing a Life Sciences-focused learning platform with built-in analytics and AI solutions.
“We are honored to be recognized by Everest Group for our innovation in Life Sciences software and as the only learning platform provider named a Trailblazer in this report,” says Parth Khanna, CEO ACTO. “This is an important acknowledgment of ACTO’s investments in analytics and AI, which include our recently launched AI-powered conversational assistant that helps pharma reps learn in the flow of work and our deep analytics that tie training to field rep performance.”
Analytics & AI solutions have immense potential to support sales and marketing teams analyze large-scale unstructured data, providing a much more comprehensive and impactful view. Commercial operations can also harness its capabilities to get real-time insights into improving the productivity of field sales, adapting to customer needs, and managing the changing market.
Currently, technologies in the commercial space lack real-time or data integration capabilities specific to the Life Sciences domain, making it difficult for organizations to get insights to attain the highest return on their commercialization efforts.
“Focus on delivering hyper-personalized customer experience is pushing Life Sciences enterprises to transform their commercial technology landscape. Interestingly, start-ups and niche commercial technology vendors are starting to gain significant mindshare with life sciences enterprises as they make targeted bets to address whitespaces in the commercial technology domain with their unique domain and experience-centric IP and value proposition,” according to Chunky Satija, Vice President, Everest Group. “ACTO offers a SaaS platform specific for Life Sciences commercial stakeholder training and learning management, focusing on intelligent content management capabilities and conversational assistant for learning support, thus getting featured as a Trailblazer in Life Sciences Commercial Analytics & AI Trailblazers assessment.”
AI and analytics have become imperative for competitiveness and effectiveness in commercial operations. The only way to overcome the challenge of managing colossal data is through harnessing the power of AI, which can lead to collecting valuable data and insights.
About ACTO:
ACTO, the #1 learning platform for Life Sciences, helps educate and engage learners through unified touch points and journeys, which reduces risk, improves efficiency and boosts the effectiveness. With ACTO, commercial and clinical leaders can draw deep, powerful insights to improve performance by consolidating learning into an omnichannel experience.
Gather innovative resources and link the industrial development of China and Canada. On October 27, the third event of the Canadian Station of the 2022 Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week — The China-Canada Technology Enterprise Exchange and Innovation Matchmaking Conference was jointly held in Beijing, Nanjing, China and Toronto, Canada. As an important part of the 2022 Overseas Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week.It aims to build a bridge for exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Canadian scientific and technological innovation enterprises and the government, embassies, investment institutions and industrial research institutes, pragmatically promote China-Canada scientific and technological innovation cooperation,entrepreneurial culture exchanges, promote and implement the smooth implementation of international projects.
Du Xinfeng, Director of Achievement Transformation Service Department of Science and Technology Communication Center of China Association for Science and Technology; Yu Honghai, Deputy Director of Gulou District Government of Nanjing; Luo Benjin, Chief Scientist of National Technology Innovation Center of Yangtze River Delta; Cheng Yong, Director of International Department of Nanjing Association for Science and Technology;Wang Tong, Co founder of China Canada Angel Alliance, Mao Hai, Secretary General of the Angel Hundred The trade commissioner of the Canadian Embassy in China and the commercial commissioner of the Canadian Embassy in China in Beijing, Ontario, and other guests attended the meeting, together with representatives of Chinese and Canadian innovative technology enterprises, investment institutions, enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, and government parks. The event included many links such as the roadshow of China Canada scientific and technological innovation enterprises, the sharing of opportunities and challenges of China Canada scientific and technological cooperation, and presented a feast of China Canada innovation and entrepreneurship cooperation for the audience.
The Pictures: Beijing Special Session, Nanjing Special Session and Online Participants
Du Xinfeng said in his speech that since 2017, the Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week has successfully held more than 290 events in nearly 100 innovative countries, regions and cities around the world, with tens of millions of people being publicized and influenced. The China Association for Science and Technology has been actively carrying out international non-governmental scientific and cultural exchanges for a long time, promoting scientific and technological innovation to play an important role in promoting social and economic development. The Science and Technology Communication Center of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, as a directly affiliated institution of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology that undertakes important functions such as the dissemination of scientific spirit, the dissemination of technological achievements and the dissemination of innovative culture, is responsible for the construction and operation of the National Science and Technology Communication Center, and will also provide assistance and services for more international scientific and technological innovation exchanges and cooperation in the future. We hope to take this opportunity to promote China Canada scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship cooperation in a pragmatic way, and look forward to greater creative vitality and more innovative achievements through deeper, broader and stronger exchanges and mutual learning.
The picture: Du Xinfeng, Director of Achievement Transformation Service Department of Science and Technology Communication Center of China Association for Science and Technology, delivered a speech online.
Yu Honghai, Deputy Governor of the Gulou District Government of Nanjing introduced the basic economic and social situation of Gulou District, the development situation of scientific and technological innovation and the policy of scientific and technological innovation and talked about: With less than 1% of the city’s land area contributing nearly 12% of the total economic volume, Gulou District has formed a “three major and four special” industrial system led by “high-end commerce and trade, software information, cultural tourism” and featured by “shipping, science and technology, finance, and intellectual services”, which has been developing continuously. Since 2018, Nanjing Municipal Government has issued “Innovation No. 1 Document” for four consecutive years, striving to build a leading national innovative city. We hope that through this event, Canadian entrepreneurs will learn more about the Drum Tower and Nanjing, and be willing to come to Nanjing and visit the Drum Tower.
The picture: Yu Haihai, Deputy Governor of Gulou District Government, Nanjing, delivers a speech
At the event, Wang Tong, co-founder of the China-Canada Angel Alliance, Luo Benjin, chief scientist of the National Technology Innovation Center of the Yangtze River Delta/Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, shared the theme of “Opportunities and Challenges of China-Canada Science and Technology Cooperation in the Post-COVID-19 Era” and “Agglomeration and Cooperation of Overseas Innovation Resources for the Yangtze River Delta” respectively. Representatives of Canadian science and technology enterprises came to China for exchange. Ms. Luna Yu, founder and CEO of Genecis, shared a discussion on “New Opportunities and new Directions for Canadian Enterprises brought by growing Chinese technology Companies”.
Wang Tong said: At present, major threats to mankind, such as hunger and disease, are being overcome. The fields of artificial intelligence, life science, gene editing, material technology, space exploration and other fields have shown unprecedented scientific and technological strength. The trend of globalization is irreversible. We need to understand and tolerate each other, and we need to work together, learn from each other’s strengths, and cooperate for win-win results. Both China and Canada are one of the innovation centers in the world today, with many complementary advantages. China has a huge market, strong manufacturing capacity, and relatively sufficient capital. Canada has a lot of talents, technology and scientific research, has a good innovation system, and the two sides have a very good foundation for cooperation. China Canada Angel Alliance has worked hard in Canada for 7 years, invested more than 40 Canadian high-tech enterprises, and now has a Unicorn company with a valuation of 4 billion Canadian dollars. We hope to be a builder of cross-border ecology, and also hope to be an accelerator for innovative enterprises to move towards Canada or Canadian enterprises to move towards China. Looking forward to the future: First, we will continue to invest in innovative companies and help them grow. Second, we hope to build an innovative bridge of reliable mutual trust between China and Canada. Third, attract more partners to join the whole ecosystem.
The picture : co-founder of China Canada Angel Alliance Wang Tong shares for the event
Luo Benjin gave a detailed introduction to the construction background of the center and the functional positioning of the industrial technology innovation system of the Yangtze River Delta. He also said that the center is committed to introducing international innovation resources into the Yangtze River Delta by building two Bridges, namely “the bridge between science and industry” and “the bridge between the world and the Yangtze River Delta”. At present, CCIAC has set up a system of CCIAC research institutes in Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places, with 22 affiliated research institutes, 47 new R&D carriers and 15 R&D and transformation functional platforms. In addition, CCIAC has established joint innovation centers with more than 220 leading enterprises. Luo Benjin also introduced oversea cooperation modes and cases such as international cooperation capital pool plan and project manager plan of CCIAC in detail. Up to now, CCIAC has established strategic cooperation with more than 60 domestic first-class universities and institutions, and carried out extensive cooperation in joint research and development, talent training, technology achievement transfer and transformation, and in-depth cooperation with more than 70 overseas universities and institutions. And set up 7 overseas incubators and representative offices.
Photo and text: Luo Benjin, Chief Scientist of Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center/Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute
Yu Luna introduced her feelings of exchange and cooperation in China and said: “In the past two months, I have deeply felt China’s advantages in innovation introduction, innovation service efficiency and growth rate, especially in big data, artificial intelligence, biological science and other fields. I have also personally seen that many foreign enterprises have good development in China. For example, some foreign enterprises can go from conceptual design of products to the final market in six months. From cooperation, China has a strong supply chain Ying Chain, a vast market, a large number of scientific research institutes, and entrepreneurs from China and Canada can make mutual achievements in the market, means of production, and research and development. It is hoped that bioengineering enterprises like Genecis can quickly enter the market with the help of Chinese resources and channels in the future.
The Picture : Yu Luna, founder and CEO of Genecis shares
The meeting specially introduced 4 Canadian hard technology enterprises that are willing to land in the field, including Agri-Neo, a new generation of agricultural product safety exterminate technology company, TeTechS, a sensor platform based on terahertz technology, applied to the whole manufacturing process of plastic packaging industry, and MemPore, a new nano filtration membrane technology project applied to high viscosity materials such as oil. DDS, a new sensor project that provides digital output without analog signal conversion.
Most roadshow enterprises have strong R&D teams and continuous R&D capabilities. For example, Agri Neo uses organic active mixtures to eliminate pathogens, viruses, molds, yeast and other microorganisms and other harmful organisms, while maintaining the natural and prosperous nutrition and quality of food; MemPore core technology was developed by Oleh Kutowy, a former senior scientist of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), commercialized the nano osmosis membrane technology that has been researched and developed for more than 30 years, and established a set of systematic production lines for waste oil regeneration; TeTechS can save resin for enterprises in real time during the production process and automate the quality control process to reduce production waste and improve labor productivity; DDS eliminates the traditional analog output conversion circuit mode, provides “direct to digital” output, makes the sensor category cheaper, requires no calibration, uses almost zero power and is very robust.
The Pictures: Group photo of guests at Beijing and Nanjing venues
In the future, the China Canada Angel Alliance and China-Canada Joint Venture Camp will cooperate with our partners to regularly organize docking activities for Canadian science and technology enterprises, so as to build a bridge between the government and industrial research institutes for overseas outstanding enterprises to land in China, and promote overseas enterprises to enter the Chinese market more quickly.
Seoul, South Korea and Toronto, Canada – Samjin Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (“Samjin”; CEO, Yong Ju Choi) a pharmaceutical company devoted to develop innovative drugs to treat diseases with high unmet medical needs, and Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance arobust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline announced today a co-development agreement for drug discovery.
Under the co-development agreement, Samjin will propose novel protein targets for drug discovery to Cyclica, and Cyclica will work to discover drug candidates to the proposed targets using its proprietary, AI-enabled, drug discovery platform. Samjin will carry out the experimental validation and take the lead in further developing/commercializing the most promising drug candidate compounds.
Photo: Samjin-Cyclica Collaboration Agreement for AI Drug Discovery; Left) Naheed Kurji (CEO of Cyclica), Right) Soo Min Lee (Head of Samjin Pharm Research Center)
Soo Min Lee PhD, Head of Samjin Pharm Research Center, said “We can rapidly expand our drug research pipelines and lower the cost and time required to develop a new drug by utilizing Cyclica’s AI-based drug discovery platforms from this research collaboration. We will continue expanding our network of research collaboration with other companies or research institutes in order to develop innovative drugs efficiently.
“Cyclica’s unique ability to advance drug discovery programs for targets across the entire proteome, in combination with Samjin’s expertise in proposing novel targets, has tremendous potential. We look forward to progressing this exciting collaboration, collectively working to drug the undruggable” says Naheed Kurji, CEO, Co-Founder and President of Cyclica.
Cyclica has partnered with multiple biotech and pharma companies worldwide and have recently been named by Business Insider as a top biotech company set to take off in 2022.
InventionShare announces a new partnership with Innovative Products Resources Inc. (IPR) located in Montreal, Canada. IPR is an R&D incubator specializing in mechanical & electrical engineering projects. InventionShare will provide monetization services for two classes of invention from IPR. The first is “Direct-to-Digital Sensing” which is a revolutionary new approach to strain, force, pressure and vibration sensor design. The second is a family of Structural Health Monitoring devices, or SHM, which is a category of sensing technology that is capable of monitoring and assessing the loading history and fatigue damage in aircraft, buildings, bridges machinery and vessels. “IPR is a world leader in the area of ultra power-efficient, small-size sensor technology” said Greg Waite, CEO of InventionShare. “We are very pleased to be partnering with IPR to increase the structural safety of products, public infrastructure and transportation systems” said Mr. Waite.
Gather innovative resources and link the industrial development of China and Canada. On September 1, the Canadian leg of the 2022 Overseas Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week — The second China-Canada Technology Enterprise Exchange and Innovation Road Show docking activity was successfully held.
The second Road Show for China-Canada Technology Enterprise Exchange and Innovation was successfully held
The event includes the offline venue in Nanjing, the online venue in Toronto and the online venue in Beijing, aiming to introduce the innovation and entrepreneurship policies of Nanjing Gulou District and the general situation of the National Technology Innovation Center in the Yangtze River Delta, and promote the effectiveness of the joint construction of the overseas collaborative innovation Center between China and Canada.
Online and offline special events in Nanjing
Zhang Li, Director of the Science and Technology Bureau of Gulou District, Nanjing, Wang Liang, Deputy Director of the Overseas Cooperation Department of the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center/Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, Wang Tong, founding partner of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, China Canada Angel Alliance, Mao Hai, Secretary General of the Angel Hundred People’s Association, and other guests attended, together with relevant representatives of the Canadian Embassy in China, representatives of Canadian innovative technology enterprises, representatives of domestic and foreign investment institutions, and representatives of enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta, Representatives of government parks and others participated.
Zhang Li, Director of the Science and Technology Bureau of Gulou District, Nanjing, introduced the basic economic and social situation, scientific and technological innovation development and scientific and technological innovation policies of Gulou District. Zhang Li said that Gulou District contributes nearly 12% of the total economy with less than 1% of the city’s land area. Since 2018, Nanjing Municipal Party Committee and Government have issued the “Innovation No. 1 Document” for four consecutive years, striving to build a leading national innovative city. Zhang Li focused on the resource endowment, innovation strength, global innovation and the layout of building urban silicon lanes in Gulou District, and introduced the “Zijin Mountain Talent Pioneer Plan – High level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talent Project” to overseas entrepreneurs in combination with this activity.
Zhang Li, Director of Science and Technology Bureau of Gulou District, Nanjing
Wang Liang, Deputy Director of the Overseas Cooperation Department of the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center/Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, introduced the Center and the Institute and said that, up to now, the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center has more than 70 overseas research partners and representative offices in the world, and four are located in Canada. In Canada, the National Innovation Center has reached more than 10 cooperation with relevant Canadian organizations and teams, and has helped many North American technology companies and teams, including Canada, successfully settle down and develop in China. In the future, more advanced technology enterprises are welcome to cooperate and develop here.
Wang Liang, Deputy Director of the Overseas Cooperation Department of the Yangtze River Delta National Technology Innovation Center/Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute
The second China Canada science and technology enterprise exchange and innovation activity introduced four Canadian hard science and technology enterprises with the intention of landing. It includes Halion, an advanced enterprise of low power consumption and color changeable nano ink materials, MG, a camera based hand tracking and gesture recognition software project, Mosaic, a leader in new generation 3D printing applications, and Qidni Labs, the world’s smallest and most advanced hemodialysis equipment.
Mosaic, a leader in new generation 3D printing applications, and Qidni Labs, the world’s smallest and most advanced hemodialysis equipment.
Most roadshow enterprises have strong R&D teams and continuous R&D capabilities, extensive application scenarios, and have established cooperative relationships with many internationally renowned enterprises. For example, the gesture recognition enterprise MG has cooperated with OEMs in more than 25 industries, including automotive, digital signage, electrical appliances, mobile, retail, healthcare, home automation and other fields, including Bosch, Samsung, Toyota, Hyundai, LG and other internationally renowned enterprises. For example, Mosaic, a 3D printing company, launched its SEME patented technology in 2014 to achieve multi material 3D printing at affordable prices. Now it has become the most widely used multi material technology in the market.
Subsequently, the China Canada Angel Alliance and the China Canada Joint Venture Camp will cooperate with China Canada partners to regularly organize Canadian science and technology enterprise roadshows and docking activities, build a bridge between the government and industrial research institutes for overseas excellent enterprises to land in China, and promote overseas enterprises to enter the Chinese market more quickly.
TORONTO, ONTARIO, August 4, 2022 – Genecis Bioindustries Inc. (“Genecis“) announced that it has raised US$7 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures and BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice. The round includes participation from Gullspang Re:food, with returning investors such as AME Cloud Ventures, IT Farm, and Heinz Group.Genecis has also secured a US$3 million credit facility from Silicon Valley Bank, subject to customary closing conditions.
Genecis is a biotechnology company making compostable plastics from waste materials. PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) are recognized as the only biodegradable polymers that can mimic the useful functional properties of petroleum plastics. Genecis’ unique approach to biomanufacturing PHAs with alternative feedstocks is low-cost, widely applicable, and rapidly scalable. Their recombinant bacteria platform converts zero-cost food waste into tunable PHAs, and piggy-backs onto the existing infrastructure of biogas plants. Genecis is a graduate of the Y Combinator incubator program in Silicon Valley, and has won multiple international awards, including 1st place in the 2020 Extreme Tech Challenge.
The investment is expected to accelerate the launch of Genecis’ 1st set of products onto the market with their partners, while completing the 1st integration of their technology with the StormFisher biogas plant in London, Canada. Together these milestones will allow Genecis to secure key market vantage points in the sustainable materials market.
“We are thrilled to welcome Khosla and BDC Capital as our newest investors and appreciate their confidence in our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable plastics.” said Luna Yu, CEO of Genecis. “The funding will allow us to advance in our commercialization efforts and bring forth the next generation of sustainable plastics.”
About Genecis Bioindustries Inc.
Genecis is a Canadian biotechnology company developing microbes and a fermentation process to upcycle waste into high-value materials, such as bioplastics. Genecis’ biological processes convert food waste and carbon sources destined for landfill into valuable materials. Genecis is on a mission to drive the world towards a circular economy, where major brands utilize eco-friendly PHA plastics in packaging, food services, agriculture, textiles and many other areas to reduce the 18 billion pounds of plastic polluting oceans every year.
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