Lazaridis Institute Announces Second Scale-Up Cohort

Tis’ the season for technology scaling programs to select their coveted new enrollees and get the ball rolling on fresh ideas.

The Lazaridis Institute at Wilfred Laurier University has announced their 10 selections for the second ever Lazaridis Scale-Up Program. The program brings together promising technology companies with high-potential and provides mentorship and advice from experts who have scaled growth past national borders to around the world. The Lazaridis Institute will cover all the costs for the program, which begins October 19.

Still, to grow internationally, you must grow domestically, and Lazaridis is here to help. Difficulties that hinder growth include a lack of senior talent, accessing capital and the vision and model needed to expand outside your founding city. The Scale-Up Program will provide connections, networks, knowledge and more to create maximum value in Canada then share that growth with the world.

The 10 companies selected are listed below:

These companies are all at pivotal stages and now stand at important inflection points to further grow their reach. The diversity among these Lazaridis selections is important as well, spanning coast-to-coast with four of the companies either being founded by women or having women hold C-level executive positions.

“We are so impressed with the depth of talent, the passion and the ambition of these 10 Canadian companies,” said Kim Morouney, managing director of the Lazaridis Institute. “They all have the potential to be global leaders in their industries. We’re looking forward to working with them over the next year—and beyond—to help them overcome their barriers to scale.”

These 10 companies were selected as part of a competitive nationwide process. A panel full of venture capitalists and industry leaders reviewed applications then short-listed names. Those were then interviewed over video and the final companies were chosen.

Looking back on the first Scale-Up Program cohort, many of the companies saw significant growth in revenue while also improving their workflow efficiency. Other integral aspects of scaling a startup also improved, from operations to product and talent management.

“Our participation in this program has been invaluable as it is one of the very few initiatives seeking to help companies navigate the turbulent waters of rapid market growth,” said Dominique Jodoin, CEO of NoviFlow, a company in the first Scale-Up Program cohort. “In the year since we started the program, we’ve grown our revenues by 300 per cent – a good result, but one that presented its own set of challenges. Now, I’m pretty confident we’ve put the elements in place to allow us to grow 10 times bigger.”

Another company in the first cohort, Tulip Retail, recently closed a $40 million Series B funding round.

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