Pitch Competition

Application Period: June 29 - September 12, 9:00 a.m. ET

Finalists Selected: September 23

Orientation: October 5, 10:00-11:30am ET

Pitch Coaching: October 11-14 (time TBD) 

Mock Pitch Day: October 25, 10:00am-12:30pm ET (time subject to change) 

Pitch Day: November 9, 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET (time subject to change)

‍Companies must meet the following criteria to be eligible to participate in the HardTech Pitch Competition:

1. Developed or are developing a novel semiconductor, sensor, silicon-based IP or embedded system hardware product
2. You are an incorporated company in Canada
3. You have a business number (CRA)
4. You have 99 or fewer employees, and earned less than $5M in revenue in the last 12 months 
5. If you are not already located in York Region, you are committed to co-locate to York Region or at ventureLAB’s innovation hub for at least six months upon winning the prize (dependent on public health regulations). Note that this can be fulfilled through a ventureLAB membership, which will be provided free of charge to the winners
6. You are not a winner of a previous ventureLAB pitch competition (Made in York Region 2019 or 2020; HardTech 2021)
7. All finalists must be available to participate on the following dates:

• Orientation: October 5, 2:00-3:30pm ET
• Pitch Coaching: October 11-14 (time TBD) 
• Mock Pitch Day: October 25, 10:00am-12:30pm ET (time subject to change) 
• Pitch Day: November 9, 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET (time subject to change)

Eligible applications will be evaluated and scored based on criteria aligned with the challenge statement, which include:

1. Alignment with ventureLAB’s goals and priorities to develop embedded hardware products and/or chip innovations to enable the economic sustainability of the Canadian semiconductor industry and its broader ecosystem
2. Innovation: How novel, creative and/or improved the product/technology is, relevant to technological and economic growth
3. Feasibility: A clear vision of the product or service being built and application of a sound business model that has a compelling mission to grow a commercially viable business
4. Scalability and Market Opportunity: Demonstrates a potential for sustainability, scalability and growth of their product or technology‍
5. Financial Stability: A feasible plan to finance the product development and launch of their innovation

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Applications close on September 12, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. ET. Apply today. 

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Have a question?

For questions related to the application process, contact hci@venturelab.ca.

ventureLAB is a leading technology hub located in Markham in York Region, Canada’s second-largest tech cluster. At ventureLAB, we grow globally competitive tech titans that build-to-scale in Canada, with a focus on hardware and enterprise software technologies. ventureLAB has enabled thousands of tech companies to scale, and our portfolio of companies have created close to 4,000 jobs that have raised over $200 million in investment capital to continue their growth and scale. www.venturelab.ca

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Fund encourages innovation towards business continuity and business recovery efforts by supporting promising early stage start-ups, accelerators, incubators, and community partners.