Calling all entrepreneurs, join The Forge!

Grow your novel & scalable startup at our Business Incubator program!

Get seed funding, mentorship, access to makerspace & investment opportunities! 

Cohort begins: Monday, September 13, 2021

On June 9, 2021, the Hamilton-based startups Admass and Axcessiom Technologies Inc., were selected as finalists in Innovation Factory’s “LiONS LAIR Pitch Madness” competition. AdMass, The Forge client, offers a quick way for companies to connect with creators who help increase sales and trust in their brand. Axcessiom Technologies, The Forge alumnus, has developed an advanced driver assistance system that uses facial gesture recognition technology to provide drivers with disabilities a safer, simpler, and more affordable way of driving a vehicle. The premier pitch competition is celebrating its 11th anniversary in 2021 and will give up-and-coming entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business to a panel of Hamilton’s top business experts and investors on September 23, 2021. Read more.

On June 15, 2021, The Forge alumnus, QReserve, the scheduling software company, rolled out their new reservation scripting language, called sneq. This new feature will revolutionize the way users manage their resources. The addition of sneq will provide unprecedented options for how resources can be reserved and requested, by providing an option to write custom scripts in a language similar to Python, one of the most widely used programming languages worldwide. QReserve scripts written in sneq gives users the ability to define complex, finely-tuned access rules beyond those already available in QReserve for endless possibilities. QReserve provides smart scheduling solutions for businesses with customers in the life sciences, research, government, entertainment, property, and space management sectors. Read more.

On July 12, 2021, Obie received 17 more awards from G2 for Summer 2021 and was recognized as a “Leader” in productivity bots software by G2 for Summer 2021. The Forge Alumnus leverages AI to capture knowledge from silos and deliver answers where questions are asked. G2 is one of the world’s leading tech marketplaces and software review aggregators, that scores products and vendors based on reviews gathered from users and data aggregated from online sources and social networks. In the last quarter, Obie’s success has been driven by customer-centric feedback, launching two notable features in June: intelligent content previews (for Confluence and Obie Wiki) and a robust tagging system for their native knowledge formats that accelerates workflows to a new level. Read more.

On June 3, 2021, ToeFX Inc., a Hamilton-based healthtech startup and The Forge alumnus, announced that it has been selected for the 2021 Capital Access Advisory Program from The Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®). OBIO CAAP operates downstream from existing entrepreneurship programs and focuses on accelerating technology commercialization, post-seed financing, and strategic partnerships. The program is in its ninth year and has selected eight startups to join OBIO CAAP cohort. The startups will work with OBIO and their expert advisor network over the next year to achieve key goals and objectives that will position them for successful financing. Read more.

On June 21, 2021, Yuri Kaplan, CEO and founder of Admass and The Forge client, was featured on The Startup Talk Podcast on TorontoStarts. AdMass offers a quick way for companies to connect with creators who help increase sales and trust in their brand. The Startup Coach, Craig Major, interviewed Kaplan discussing how AdMass is bringing content/influencer marketing to businesses for as little as $1-$9 per post. AdMass has a unique business model, as the only creator marketing platform with a pay-per-post plan. Listen to their conversation covering sales, social media, content creators/influencers, and how the startups’ innovative technology is being leveraged to help drive sales and grow businesses. Listen to the podcast on TorontoStarts website.

On July 15, 2021, The Forge hosted another successful Investor Spotlight event where 14 clients and alumni of the business incubator pitched their innovative startups to 23 angels and venture capitalists. The virtual event matched each investor with startups that were aligned to their investment philosophy. The Forge partnered up with PitchPages.io providing each founder with a user-friendly platform to create an interactive “one pager” for the event. Read more.

In June and July, our fierce Startup Survivor competitors have wrapped up Challenge 2 (Hunt and Gather: Ideation, Business Models, and the Solution Interview) and Challenge 3 (Start a Fire:

Rapid Prototyping). The results are in, and it is shaping up to be a tight race. Stay tuned each month for ranking updates and follow the results hot off the press on our social media. Anything can happen in Startup Survivor!

Mark your calendars! The Startup Survivor Tribal Council has announced the date for the final challenge where only the top five startup survivor challengers will compete.

You're invited to join us at the Startup Survivor Pitch Competition taking place on Thursday, October 7 (4PM-5PM). Stay tuned, registration will be opening up soon!

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