Feds boost growth in KW Region tech biz
EP&T Magazine
Automation / Robotics Electronics Engineering IoT FedDev funding government innovation IoT KW-Region MiovisionFedDev Ontario invests $10M with three companies to fuel job creation, scale up innovation
Committed to investing in companies and entrepreneurs to create jobs and strengthen local economies, FedDev Ontario recently announced an investment of more than $10 million for three cutting-edge Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) tech companies: Miovision Technologies, Advanced Electrophoresis Solutions and Huron Digital Pathology.
Miovision Technologies is a leading Kitchener-based company that enables cities and towns to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions, while improving public safety through intelligent transportation solutions. With this $7.4-million repayable investment, through the Jobs and Growth Fund, Miovision will further develop TrafficLink and Scout, its traffic monitoring hardware and software, increasing the network by up to 100,000 intersections in North America by 2026. It will also further the transition into “Smart City” technologies, expanding its presence globally and adding 58 skilled-jobs.
“As cities and towns look for ways to keep people moving – safely and efficiently – the market for our products and services is growing, this funding will help us ramp up production in Kitchener to serve this growing demand,” says Kurtis McBride, CEO, Miovision Technologies.
Advanced Electrophoresis Solutions Ltd. is a Cambridge-based medical technology manufacturer that specializes in developing test instruments for pharmaceutical companies to analyze protein structures and interactions. This repayable investment of more than $1.7-million, through the Business Scale-up and Productivity stream, will allow the company to increase production of ready-to-use customized testing instruments and augment its sales and marketing team. As a result, the company will expand its market presence in Europe and Asia, and create 11 skilled jobs in Waterloo Region.
Expand production of its digital pathology scanners
“With the funding support from FedDev Ontario, we can now accelerate the development of our ready-to-use mass spectrometry coupling solutions with various methods and applications and help our existing and potential customers quickly deploy and use our systems and consumables and the growing success with our solutions will allow us to expand our market and services to other fields of life science research and pharmaceutical companies within the next few years,” says Dr. Tiemin Huang, CEO, Advanced Electrophoresis Solutions Ltd.
Huron Digital Pathology is a St. Jacobs-based medical equipment company that develops digital imaging solutions for the clinical, research and education markets in the pathology field. With this $1-million repayable investment, through the Business Scale-up and Productivity stream, the company will expand production of its digital pathology scanners and fast-track commercialization efforts. It hopes to revolutionize disease diagnosis by being the first company to bring to market an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled image search engine for use in the pathology field. As a result of this project, the company expects to significantly increase its productivity with the goal of producing more than 100 scanners per year, while creating up to 11 skilled jobs.
“Huron Digital Pathology is pleased to announce our support from FedDev Ontario to help expand our manufacturing capacity and create highly-skilled and well-paying jobs in Ontario,” says Audil Virk, president, Huron Digital Pathology.