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Trailblazing Eastern Ontario startups take centre stage at AccelerateOTT

June 13, 2025

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From Nick Quain’s vantage point, the 11 companies taking part in the Startup World Cup regional competition Thursday at Lansdowne Park represented almost a perfect microcosm of the Eastern Ontario tech ecosystem. Enterprises vying for $50,000 in non-dilutive cash grants ran the gamut of buzzworthy innovations, from carbon-capture trailblazer TerraFixing to rising biotech star NuvoBio, whose AI-powered platform that aims to develop better treatments for cancer and other diseases has attracted the attention of investors such as legendary entrepreneur Michael Cowpland. In the end, the $25,000 grand prize went to Kingston-based mDetect, which is developing groundbreaking “liquid biopsy” blood tests designed to track the spread of cancer and help oncologists create effective treatment plans more quickly. Two Ottawa companies, biotech startup Loon and semiconductor equipment maker Szimpla, also landed on the podium, with Loon capturing the $15,000 second prize and Szimpla taking home $10,000 for finishing in third place. The wide range of industries on display at the pitchfest organized by San Jose-based Pegasus Tech Ventures was clearly a point of pride for Quain, who serves as vice-president of venture and entrepreneurship at Invest Ottawa. “The Ottawa startup ecosystem is on fire,” Quain told Techopia after the winners were announced at Lansdowne’s Horticulture Building. “It’s as active as it’s ever been.” MDetect will now go on to represent the Ottawa region and compete for the US$1-million grand prize at the Startup World Cup finals in San Francisco in October. Keira Frosst, a scientist at mDetect who presented the startup’s four-minute pitch to a panel of judges on Thursday afternoon, said the chance to rub shoulders with other leading entrepreneurs from across the U.S. and other parts of the world represents a massive opportunity for her and her company. “I’m really excited to go to California and pitch our technology to the world,” she said. “For us, this is huge. We really want to get this technology out to cancer patients around the world, and to get our technology in the hands of patients is just going to be so impactful to help change lives.” The Startup World Cup capped off a jam-packed day of activities at the Horticulture Building, where Invest Ottawa hosted its annual AccelerateOTT conference.

'Tight-knit community'

The day-long event drew more than 500 attendees, including some of the biggest names in Ottawa tech such as Fullscript co-founder and CEO Kyle Braatz. Braatz kicked off the conference by telling the crowd how he built Fullscript, one of the world’s largest healthtech platforms, into a billion-dollar business. Other presenters included California-based startup adviser Jonathan Lowenhar, whose two sessions focused on ways to create more effective pitches and the 28 questions every founder must be ready to answer from prospective investors. For Szimpla founder Atilla Varga, his $10,000 third-place cheque from the Startup World Cup was like the icing on the cake after a day of making valuable connections and soaking up wisdom from some of the leading lights in local tech. “There are so many startups … and cool companies that are based in Ottawa,” said Varga, whose company is in the midst of raising a $200,000 pre-seed round to finance production of its design-to-fab semiconductor manufacturing technology. “Ottawa is such a tight-knit community, especially on the business investor side, that seeing all the familiar faces, meeting all the new ones, is the biggest takeaway.” AccelerateOTT marked the climax of the inaugural Ottawa Innovation Week organized by Ottawa Unlimited, a partnership between Invest Ottawa, the Ottawa Board of Trade and Ottawa Tourism. The week began Monday and featured more than 80 events that brought leaders from tech, arts, sports, education and other sectors together in an effort to spotlight the achievements of local entrepreneurs and spark more collaboration between industry leaders. Quain said the success of events such as AccelerateOTT speaks volumes about the strength of the local startup community. “I think Ottawa is in a really healthy space in terms of founders helping founders – the way the ecosystem comes together, the way you see people giving back,” he said. “People who were on the panels (at AccelerateOTT) who are busy founders hung around for the rest of the day because the next generation of founders wanted to talk to them, and they remember what it was like (to start a company). We have this real virtuous circle going on in Ottawa.”