Chinese investment fund the Zhongguancun Development Group has found some initial partners for its startup incubator in Ottawa, Invest Ottawa announced on Wednesday.
The centre will support four local companies – GREenergyTEC, iNano Medical Inc., Viscore and CanShielding – with doing business in China.
“The ZDG Incubation Centre will help these four companies — and many others in the months and years to come — fast-track their technologies, and get a leg-up on their international competitors by having better access to the Chinese market,” Bruce Lazenby, the CEO of Invest Ottawa, said in a press release.
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ZDG, owned by the Beijing government, is also negotiating a US$1-million investment in iNano Medical.
The announcement comes about a year and a half since Invest Ottawa, one of the City of Ottawa’s economic development arms, announced the incubator would be setting up shop in Ottawa.
Invest Ottawa presented about 30 companies to ZDG during that time in an effort to find a few the incubator would be interested in partnering with, Mr. Lazenby told OBJ last October.
The centre is the only one of its kind in Canada. The only other one in North America is in Silicon Valley.
“The fact that ZDG sees Ottawa on par with Silicon Valley speaks to the strength of our high tech companies and of their remarkable capacity for innovation,” said Mr. Lazenby.
