Meet the Summer 2022 Hub Incubator Cohort

Posted on Friday, June 24th, 2022

Written by John F. Wood Centre

This summer we are thrilled to be working with 14 student and alumni led start-ups. We have an exciting mix of industries represented all with the mission to improve life. When the Wood Centre started out on this journey to support student and alumni led start-ups back in 2014 we had no idea how incredible this community of entrepreneurs would be. Each week we gather to learn some foundational skills and have the opportunity to connect with mentors and peers.

This semester we are excited about all the ideas presented including a company that is re-purposing unwanted yarn products and another who is working on transforming organizations to be disability inclusive using digital aided assistive technologies.

New this cohort we are working with the Wood Chair in Entrepreneurship, Felix Arndt, who is overseeing Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship capstone course. These graduate students are joining in the hub each week and working alongside a founder as they go through the program. This is an exciting journey for us as we begin to work with local founders by matching them with student supports.

If you are interested in getting involved with this program as a mentor or with a startup idea connect with us!

Accessible AI

Accessible AI aims to leverage the latest advancements in AI technology such as text-to-speech and chatbots to improve the accessibility of websites, media, and services for consumers while helping businesses improve their ability to meet customer needs. Our products will first and foremost help end-users consume digital content to achieve their goals. We believe that the future will hold a more natural way of interacting with our environment and we will strive to be leaders in this space.

omochu.studios

At omochu.studios, we're giving secondhand yarn another life. Turning them into one of a kind tufted rugs and crochet flowers, these will make the perfect addition to your homes or as gifts to friends and family.

Ropera

Selling items to strangers is not always easy. You have to trust the buyer and have to have easy access to them. Also, for many people, communicating with strangers is not always easy. But in many cases, you might have a colleague who wants the item you're selling. So why sell to strangers? Ropera is an app for Slack in which you can sell stuff to your colleagues with more trust. It creates local marketplaces inside your company's Slack workspace, in which you can post things to sell/buy.

Website: https://ropera.market/

Slack app store: https://ropera.slack.com/apps/A033SHE95C3-ropera

BluffsGear

The Scarborough Bluffs are a gorgeous cliffside located in Scarborough Ontario on the shore of Lake Ontario. BluffsGear is looking to give people the ability to purchase quality clothing that represents this beautiful landmark. Whether you are coming for a visit or are a seasoned Bluffs resident, there is something for all. We offer various quality clothing options with unique designs that represent the Scarborough Bluffs. Locally started, designed, and sold, BluffsGear eats, sleeps, and breathes all things Bluffs. With BluffsGear, we encourage everyone to Live Life Elevated!

Instagram: @bluffsgear

Facebook: @bluffsgear

Website: bluffsgear.ca

Femme Botanique

Femme Botanique is a functional, non-alcoholic gin beverage that is one of the first of its kind. As a women-owned company, and 4 nutritional sciences students, we are very aware of the health detriments associated with consuming alcohol. We wanted to provide an alternative, that still includes all the flavour and social aspects associated with alcohol. Our beverage also contains 2g of oat fiber per serving, which qualifies as a source of fiber by Health Canada, meaning our product also has an additional health benefit! We want to make not drinking fun and have ourselves a #SOBERGIRLSUMMER.

Moral Eats

We are improving the lives of farm animals by delivering ethically sourced animal products from our online store. Customers will increase the demand for animals to have an amazing life and farmers can be rewarded for giving their animals an amazing life. We are using supply and demand to make a difference in the lives of farm animals.

Shaka Vibes

Shaka Vibes has a mission to enhance the human experience. We operate in the vegan food industry with our two smoothie shops where we sell smoothie bowls, smoothies to drink, snacks, and coffee. Our three core values are the environment, experience, and excellence. We aim to be recognized as the number one company in the vegan world with the quality and precision of our products and services.

Rocky Road Granola Company

Rocky Road Granola Company creates tasty products for health-conscious consumers to incorporate into their everyday diet. The product line includes a variety of blends, from free flow gold coast granola to a powerhouse nutrient dense food topper. Each blend is carefully crafted with the finest natural ingredients, combined to offer convenience in a one stop, go-to, feel good boost.

ZeroHeat

At ZeroHeat we hate losing energy. Our job is to create very thin, light, and water-proof heat insulators for home and industrial use. Using Aerogel and Nanotechnology, we designed an innovative product with many applications. We are currently researching the production of insulator paints too. The next time you paint your wall, you will save energy too! Our product has many other applications too. We can create membranes for water treatment purposes. Our membranes can separate water from oil (any kind of oil) with nearly 100% efficiency.

UD+ Workplaces

UD+ Workplaces builds universally designed organizations. It will transform organizations to be disability inclusive using digital aided assistive technologies. More than half of the people with disabilities don’t work in Canada and there are clear talent shortages in many industries. Employers' apprehensions regarding hiring and retaining talent with disabilities will be changed by transforming organizational facilities, processes, and policies towards digitally enabled universal designs.

AUR Collective

As You Are (AUR) Collective is an integrative online platform that fuses together the potentiality of yoga, body literacy, and community, to provide an inclusive, revolutionary, and comprehensive space for every body to feel safe to move. We encourage users to show up for themselves and come “as you are”. The journey of freedom first begins with the combination of yoga (including meditation and breathwork) and body literacy, with the possibility of integrating other forms of movement in the future. Body literacy can be defined as - our ability to read and understand the language of our own bodies and is an important part of finding a movement practice that will result in lasting health.

Find A Farmer

Find a Farmer is an e-commerce platform that aims to provide a more convenient experience for Canadians in locating and purchasing fresh produce directly from the farm. With Find a Farmer, you can locate farms, have real time access to product availability, place orders, and get your groceries delivered. All while reducing the carbon footprint and supporting the community and local farmers’ businesses.

DigiTrack

DigiTrack systems is a corporate startup company based in Kingston. It is a tech startup company working on food supply chain to improve recall process using a cloud base software. The main goal is to make recall process fast and efficient by process digitalization.

LIBOBERRY

LiboBerry will assist the scientific content provider in auditing their references and avoiding plagiarism. As a result of the AI assistant, content writers can easily maintain their documents with plenty of references, adding and paraphrasing recommendations, preserving the source of the content. In addition, this service can save publishers a great deal of time in publishing their articles on time, not just for researchers. Additionally, our product allows authors to publish their content/documents in the most appropriate venues, such as PubMed journals, with the help of our AI agents. With this feature, the authors could post their ideas/works without taking any risk of rejection from publishers!