Event: entrepreneurship@UBC (e@UBC) celebrates Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) with a showcase of its companies, mentors, milestones and more.
Date: Friday, November 21, 2014
Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Location: David Lam Learning Centre – DL009 and DL005, Sauder School of Business, 6326 Agricultural Road http://tinyurl.com/l3nz3rr
Parking: West Parkade http://tinyurl.com/mdane7y
Note for editors / reporters: Media are invited to attend and connect with UBC’s entrepreneurship community. e@UBC companies, mentors and spokespeople will be available for interviews, including Andy Talbot, e@UBC’s Executive Director.
Highlights include a showcase of 10 companies that have completed the e@UBC Accelerator program – an intensive five-week workshop for new ventures – including:
- Arbutus Medical (link includes video), a designer of a sterile covering that serves as a low-cost alternative to expensive surgical drills;
- Extem, which uses a new method of bone marrow extraction to provide bone marrow and stem cells; and
- Illusense, a developer of imaging-based technology for the oil and gas industry to detect and prevent pipeline leaks.
For a complete list of exhibiting companies, please visit here.
Background
entrepreneurship@UBC (e@UBC) is a unique program that combines education, venture creation, mentoring and seed funding to maximize the number of commercial and social ventures coming out of UBC. It features a range of easy-to-access learning opportunities for UBC students, faculty, alumni and staff. e@UBC partners with other units at the university, with industry and with other organizations. For more information, please visit entrepreneurship.ubc.ca
“Entrepreneurship is a central theme at UBC. Our investment in the entrepreneurship@UBC program helps build a UBC and community ecosystem that enables the translation of excellent research and great ideas into successful startups,” says Pascal Spothelfer, Vice-President, Communications and Community Partnership at UBC.
Key milestones include:
- More than 240 new ventures have registered with e@UBC since its inception; 150 have participated in the Accelerator program.
- Venture teams have come from the UBC faculties of Applied Science, Science, Arts, Medicine, Land and Food Systems, Sauder School of Business, and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The teams cover a range of industries, including biotechnology, clean technology, consumer goods, healthcare and gaming/digital media.
- The e@UBC seed fund has made nine investments, ranging from $25,000 to $200,000. Funded companies have raised $11 million in additional funding.
- More than 40 mentors and three Entrepreneurs-in-Residence have donated their time to support new ventures during the past year.
Global Entrepreneurship Week, which runs Nov. 17-23, celebrates “innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.” For more information, please visit gew.co