Startups in Oversubscribed L-Spark Incubator Seek Rapid Scale

February 26, 2016

The newest batch of founders accepted to the L-Spark Incubator are keen on growing their SaaS and cloud businesses—and there’s little time to waste.

The fast-paced four month program will see the startups and their teams navigate a slew of investor and corporate meetings, in addition to refining and executing a go-to-market strategy with the help of their mentor and L-Spark’s advisor network (disclosure: I work for L-Spark).

Over 175 companies applied to join the program, and just 14 were selected to present their companies at a Pitchfest last month. A maximum of eight companies were anticipated to join, but a selection panel that included representatives from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, Microsoft Canada and Real Ventures chose nine.

The latest batch of founders are looking forward to capitalizing on the program’s pool of mentors, advisors and resources in order to grow their software-as-a-service and cloud businesses.

Lindy Ledohowski, the co-founder and CEO of EssayJack, views the program as a major learning opportunity. Her career in academic spurred her to co-develop a web application that helps students with essay writing.

“Our core philosophy is the power of education, and we look forward to learning from L-Spark,” says Ledohowski.

Aaron Carr, CEO and founder of Friendefi, an audience engagement platform that helps companies motivate customers, employees or channel partners, says his participation in the Incubator will let him position his company for rapid growth within the employee engagement and motivation market.

Similary, founders of Optimity, an employee wellness and engagement platform, posit that L-Spark will position them to capture more customers.

“Our aim is to serve 30 per cent of the wellness market in the next 24 months, and L-Spark is crucial in accelerating and polishing our business for this type of growth,” says Jane Wang, Optimity co-founder.

Russell Coltess, CEO of Fitchek, says the L-Spark Incubator “stands to rapidly accelerate a few highly strategic initiatives for our company.” The Fitchek platform is a fully automated transactional marketplace that allows local health and fitness providers to connect with customers.

TitanFile provides a way for professionals to communicate and securely share files with clients. TitanFile CEO Chris Stoate is excited for L-Spark to boost his company’s presence internationally and help plan out the scaling of his business.

The other companies are:

Amplify is an online platform designed for member-based organizations, helping them to strengthen member engagement.

BidFoundry is an online retail and auction platform that connects buyers of investible collectives with trusted dealers and auction firms.

Buildmetric is a deficiency management platform that allows home builders to track and minimize the financial risks associated with construction related defects.