One of Ottawa’s hottest cleantech enterprises and one of OBJ’s local tech firms to watch in 2020 are among 26 Canadian startups that will take part in a prestigious mentorship program in Silicon Valley later this year.
GBatteries and GoFor cracked the coveted list of high-potential tech startups invited to C100’s 48Hrs in the Valley program slated for Oct. 6-7 in San Francisco. The two-day event gives entrepreneurs a chance to network with other startups and benefit from the mentorship of seasoned tech executives.
Originally scheduled for May 20 and 21, the event was postponed to the fall in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“We are keenly aware of the challenges many of these founders will face over the next three to six months and know that through our larger community we can make meaningful connections to peers, mentors and partners to help navigate these uncertain times,” C100 executive director Laura Buhler said in a statement.
The local members of this year’s cohort are already no stranger to the headlines.
GBatteries – which makes technology that purports to charge an electric vehicle’s battery as quickly as it takes to fill up a tank of gas – announced in February it will receive up to $3 million in funding through the Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada program. The initiative is backed by Natural Resources Canada, BDC and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund that aims to advance clean energy innovation in Canada.
GoFor, meanwhile, made a splash in 2019 when it won the AccelerateOTT pitch competition, taking home a $500,000 investment from Panache Ventures and Capital Angel Network. In January, OBJ named the company one of its four tech firms to watch.
GoFor’s construction materials delivery platform taps a fleet of on-demand drivers to enable suppliers to fill last-minute orders from contractors. The growing startup works with the likes of Sherwin-Williams, Home Depot and PPG to make sure that when a customer places an order, the supplier has the capacity to deliver.
A privately funded, non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, C100 bills itself as “an organization dedicated to helping Canada’s most ambitious entrepreneurs.”
The 48Hrs program offers promising early stage startups access to peer-to-peer workshops, investor meetings and networking opportunities in a bid to help them scale up. Alumni of the program include downtown Ottawa software firm Klipfolio, which took part in the event in 2015.
