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For both founders and angel investors, attending programs like Elevate and its associated angel sessions not only accelerates individual growth, but also reflects the overall vitality of the innovation ecosystem. These programs create an environment where quality founders consistently receive robust support, enabling them to build and scale high-impact ventures. Year over year, the ecosystem shows measurable progress in attracting stronger entrepreneurial talent and fostering greater capacity for accelerated learning. The goal: achieving higher rates of follow-on investment backed by competitive milestones.
Crucially, these initiatives empower more people to participate, inviting new women investors, both angel and VC, to contribute their time, capital, and expertise. The result is a more diverse and deeper relationship-based network, where events, transparent mentorship, and honest conversations help align the moving pieces of the ecosystem so founders can navigate each stage without taking on the angel education process themselves, for example. Experienced investors and founders deliver the programming, coming from a place of experience to level set what founders may experience. Nurturing trust through repetitive, consistent delivery, these programs lay down the infrastructure for long-term collaboration and collective advancement, making Canada’s tech foundation stronger and more resilient with each successive cohort.
The Elevate Women+ Program’s latest cohort offered far more than a splashy final stage announcement; it made a crucial, clear statement about the transformative power of investing in technology ventures led by women and gender-diverse founders. Developed in partnership between Elevate and The Firehood, and fueled by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, the program set its sights on closing persistent gaps in the Canadian funding landscape by offering investor readiness go-to sessions, direct access to the most active networks and the crucial capital deployed for these underrepresented founders.
This year’s investment thesis leaned heavily into hard tech, deep tech and climate action, a choice affirmed by the outstanding quality and ambition of the founders in the room. From incubation to the festival finale, this program wasn’t about building just another app. Take ventureLAB's Accelerated Growth Program company, Serenity Power Inc., led by CEO and co-founder, Aleisha Reese Cerny, a prime example of sophisticated, IP-driven innovation. Serenity’s solid oxide fuel cell technology, targeted at decarbonizing sectors like mining, energy and data centers, captured the $100K Pitch Prize from The Firehood Angels and then went on to win at Startupfest, a signal to the market that angel capital genuinely values deep-tech solutions to industrial emissions. These kinds of bold, science-first companies, alongside BryoSphere Biotechnologies in climate action, Tydra Labs, a ventureLABInvestment Readiness portfolio company, transforming crustacean waste into bioproducts, and Maman Biomedical championing maternal and infant health, underscore how deeply this cohort is tackling the most complex problems with serious technical skill.
The journey through the program was intentionally structured to maximize real-world fundability. During a rigorous virtual incubator, 35+ women-led startups honed pitch decks, strengthened investor relations, and prepped robust (and clean!) data rooms. The results speak for themselves: more than half of the founders in each cohort have successfully closed their pre-seed rounds. At the same time, the program invested in the pipeline of angel investors, running a hands-on Women+ Investor Incubator to demystify angel investing and foster a more inclusive, confident investor community. This parallel pillar means women founders experience a capital ecosystem that is truly more accessible.
Bringing this cohort to the festival’s main stage was not just ceremonial; it was a calculated strategic opportunity to give these founders momentum and visibility. Whether being interviewed by industry leaders or pitching to an audience of thousands, the founders were positioned squarely at the crossroads of activity, with supportive infrastructure and a strategic path forward.
There are several clear takeaways for founders everywhere from this program’s impact. First, as Serenity Power’s trajectory proves, tackling deep technical problems with strong intellectual property, will set a venture apart and build enthusiasm and interest from angel investors. Founders should aim for technology that delivers on high-impact, high-barrier challenges. Second, momentum matters. Each strategic milestone or prize signals traction and helps reduce perceived investment risk down the line. It tells investors, the time is now, or you may miss out #fomo. Last but not least, the power of the network cannot be overstated. Through connections made in the program, companies like Tydra Labs have secured further funding and widened their reach, reinforcing that sometimes the doors opened are as valuable as the prizes won.
The Elevate Women+ Program isn’t just an awards event; it’s an enduring investment engine, designed to give Canada’s most promising diverse founders the access, skills, and capital necessary to compete and thrive on the global stage.
Naturally, our Elevate winner, Serenity Power, carried that momentum straight onto the global stage at GITEX Dubai the very next week.
