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CanHack: Why young innovators should consider a future in cybersecurity

COVID-19 and the talent shortage in cybersecurity skills

If changes in technology, growing risks of data overload, and increased usage of Cloud platforms have not already overwhelmed organizations’ IT and cybersecurity teams, they certainly will now. 

COVID-19 has forced a large portion of Canadian employers, from government departments to private sector companies, to make a sudden switch to a remote working model (and for some, a permanent switch). The transition to operating in a remote format has brought about new implications for how organizations will maintain cyber safety since employees are now working in absence of companies’ usual security measures (firewalls, safe IT systems, etc.)

Furthermore, it has highlighted the greater need for more cybersecurity skills in the workforce. Talent shortages have long existed in the cybersecurity landscape, and we can only expect these skills gaps to widen even further as the new reality of remote working sets in. 

CanHack 2019
Our solution: CanHack

At the DMZ, it’s our job to not only help startup founders accelerate their business growth but to also empower Canada’s next generation of innovators who aspire to make a real difference. We develop and execute initiatives like CanHack, our student cybersecurity competition organized in partnership with RBC, to promote cyber literacy and to also address digital skills gaps in the labour market.

DMZ is launching CanHack for a third year. Thanks to continued support from RBC, the program will continue to redefine how secondary education engages with cybersecurity skills and will introduce a brand new cohort of high school students to the challenge. As both partners leverage their strengths to break new ground together, the overarching goal will be to encourage more students to think about pursuing a future career in cybersecurity and computer science. This year, instead of the fall of 2020, the program will begin in Spring 2021 to give teachers more time to onboard their students. (continue reading for more details regarding the new 2021 program date).


How CanHack works

CanHack leverages PicoCTF technology, an online open-source computer security platform established by the Carnegie Mellon University Cylab Security & Privacy Institute. This game-based learning experience creates an interactive and engaging experience where students are tasked with addressing cybersecurity challenges faced by Canadian financial institutions.

The competition and program format allow young innovators to be immersed in a fun and stimulating environment where they gain critical computer security skills, work with experts in the cyber field and compete for cash prizes. Best of all? The program is completely virtual and no prior experience in cybersecurity is required to participate. 


CanHack’s accomplishments to date

Since launching in 2018, CanHack has already:

  • Helped over 4000 high school student participants gain valuable knowledge and experience in cybersecurity
  • Worked with 91 schools in 2019, and 76 schools in 2018
  • Distributed $6500 in competition cash prizes to students and $9500 to schools to help integrate more technology into student lives

CanHack 2019 winners of cybersecurity skills competition
What’s to come? CanHack 2021

As partners, DMZ and RBC have forged a number of firsts in the Toronto tech community over the course of this relationship. CanHack 2021 will be a natural next step for this partnership in empowering a stronger, more vibrant cybersecurity landscape within Canada.

“Cybersecurity has become a major and critical element for all organizations with the acceleration of cybercrime, and the evolving threat landscape.  Expansion of digital services driven by the challenges of COVID-19 and need for the mass enablement of a secure remote workforce, cyber skills have become a key resource to nurture and invest in,” said Matthew Tim, VP Cyber Technology Office at RBC. “By partnering with DMZ and sponsoring initiatives like CanHack, RBC is investing in the future of cybersecurity by encouraging greater participation and interest from the young adults in high schools across Canada. We would like to promote greater involvement and interest in cyber as a career to narrow the skills gap.”

In an effort to increase program accessibility Canada-wide (and plan around COVID-19), we’re taking CanHack virtual this year with all workshops and sessions available online for students and teachers to engage with. In coordination with proper health and safety guidelines, we anticipate running in-person and virtual info sessions and workshops in Fall 2020. The CanHack Challenge Launch Event for PicoCTF will then take place in March 2021.

Besides offering programming to students coast to coast, CanHack 2021 will also be special in that DMZ will run female-only workshops on a number of cybersecurity topics to support females in STEAM and work with organizations like Hackergal to inspire and recruit more female participants to the challenge.


Hear from CanHack participants

A student’s perspective

“CanHack 2019 was very enjoyable for me. I got to learn more about cybersecurity and the different specializations within it, and technology in general. The competition gave me a good chance to compete with my friends and it was actually fun to play the game, see the campus of Ryerson as well as the downtown area. During the cyber expo day, I learned a lot about other people’s experiences and why each company was partnered with the event. I learned that as companies move into a more digital world, they need a good cybersecurity foundation, especially since there is more and more criminal activity around the cybersecurity field. I also listened to a 16-year-old entrepreneur and how she is using technology to change the world. Overall, CanHack was a great program to play in and I hope they can continue to do what they do in the future!”

– High school student from Middlefield Collegiate Institute

An educator’s perspective

“For the last two years, Clarkson Secondary School has taken advantage of the amazing opportunity provided by the Ryerson DMZ and RBC to learn about computer securities. This program has become a mandatory component of the computer science courses for students in grades 10 and 11. Prior to taking part in this event, students in my classes would have had very minimal exposure to cybersecurity or even a linux shell; now students get a full two weeks where they are exposed to this content. There is no way that I would have been able to create anything close to the PicoCTF competition on my own, and it is only through the partnership with the Ryerson DMZ and RBC that Clarkson Secondary School students get this experience.

CanHack allows students to develop a set of skills that goes behind technical know-how: teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills. Additionally, students have become significantly more aware of the impact that cybersecurity has on their daily lives. While the obvious benefit is to students who will study computer science and computer engineering once they leave high school, even students who will major in social sciences are now looking at laws and ethics around computer technology and cybersecurity. I want to personally thank the Ryerson DMZ, RBC, and their sponsors for allowing the students at Clarkson Secondary School to take part in this event over the last two years. Students now come into my classes asking when the competition will start every September.”

– Matthew Arduini, Curriculum Head – Mathematics, Computer Science, and Business, Clarkson Secondary School

CanHack 2019 helping youth get cybersecurity skills
With RBC’s diverse support and DMZ’s relevant programming, combined with the growing demand to bolster digital literacy in cybersecurity among Canadian youth, CanHack 2021 will be positioned to be a top challenge in Canada.

For high school educators across Canada who are interested in bringing more cybersecurity education and opportunities for students into their schools, you can learn more about the format of the program by reaching out to us at dmz@torontomu.ca.

For high school students looking to gain knowledge and experience in the areas of cybersecurity and computer science, stay tuned for more information on CanHack 2021!

Our commitment to creating an equitable future for Black founders

Last week, I released a statement voicing the DMZ’s support for the Black community and our commitment to strengthening Black entrepreneurship in the tech ecosystem.

To enact real change for an equitable future, it is our responsibility as leaders in this space to do more than just express our support. We must action it.

Here are the first steps we’re taking to uphold our promise to our action: 

  • Recruit more Black founders: We pledge to recruit 30 new Black founders by May 2021 through our Black Innovation Fellowship (BIF) Program (up from 10 BIF founders last year).
  • Expand programming and resources: Since launching the BIF program in May of 2019, we have identified opportunities for widening our programs to support aspiring Black entrepreneurs that have not yet established market traction. Yesterday, we launched a free two-week bootcamp open to pre-incubator stage Black founders around the world to get their tech-business ideas validated. Full details and the application for this bootcamp can be found at dmz.to/BIF.
  • Giving back to the community: Each year, DMZ staff are encouraged to spend up to 40 hours volunteering in the local community in lieu of regular work hours. Starting today, we are asking staff to take paid time off to volunteer with the Black community on initiatives that will drive impact on things such as racial justice, equity, supporting Black owned businesses and many more. 

A prosperous economy is one that fosters diverse perspectives and actively removes barriers for those hindered by systemic discrimination. 

Black founders, we pledge to help level the playing field and clear the pathways to your entrepreneurial success.

Abdullah Snobar
Executive Director, DMZ
CEO, DMZ Ventures

Organizations that prioritize 2SLGBTQIA+ initiatives throughout Pride Month, and beyond

It’s June – Pride Month – and although this year’s celebrations are inevitably looking a little different due to a worldwide pandemic, that doesn’t change the fact that 2SLGBTQIA+ communities around the globe are coming together virtually to celebrate the freedom they have to be themselves. Both Pride Toronto and Ryerson, among several organizations, have moved annual activities to a digital format.

At the same time, Pride this year also comes at a time where cities around the world are protesting the death of George Floyd, police brutality and systemic racism, reinforcing the connection of both movements and the importance of intersectionality. It serves as a reminder of Pride’s roots of protesting inequalities, and also as a time to acknowledge the historical roles that Black activists played in the fight for gay rights. 

DMZ pride flag

Equity over everything

At the DMZ, our number one value is equity over everything. While diversity in Canada’s tech ecosystem is improving, it has a long way to go. We reinforce our commitment to equity and inclusion by levelling the playing field for diverse founders coming into our programs. Not everyone begins at the same starting line, which is why we provide tailored support to ensure every founder who walks through our doors succeeds – regardless of their sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, gender or ability. 

“At the DMZ, our focus is on the people behind the products and helping them successfully build their business. We recognize the experiences and challenges that 2SLGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs have are unique, meaning those individuals may require different approaches or types of support” explains Vanessa Shiu, DMZ’s Manager of Administration, Diversity & Inclusion. “When we develop our programs and services, our team consistently asks the question, ‘how do we make sure we are being inclusive’ and ‘how can we break down barriers for diverse founders’. Above all, we make sure we listen to our founders’ experiences and their feedback to inform us how we can help with their unique challenges.”

From day one of our programming, we also support our startups in making diversity a priority across all areas of their own business – from recruiting talent to building product offerings. We’re proud to see the value that diversity carries amongst the startups that come through our programs.

Off2Class, a DMZ alumni startup that combines interactive ESL lesson content with the power of a student management system, is a great example:

“Diversity for us is a business imperative. We service clients in 100+ countries. If our workforce wasn’t diverse, we simply wouldn’t be able to scale to the extent we have.” Kris Jagasia, Founder of Off2Class explains. “Our team is made up of newcomers, LGBTQ+ individuals, females, Muslims, Hindus and white males! We also show our dedication to diversity and inclusion by representing diverse individuals on our blog.”

We reached out to our greater community to ask organizations about their ongoing initiatives supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community – and not just during Pride month, but also year-round.

The Fasken Pride Network

Fasken, a DMZ Professional-in-Residence (PiR) and full-service law firm with offices in Canada, the U.K., South Africa and China, is committed to diversity in the workplace year-round. Diversity is a key element in the success of the Firm, helping to foster inclusiveness and encouraging innovation. Overseeing this effort is the Firm’s Diversity Committee. In recognition of its importance, the Committee is co-chaired by the Firm Managing Partner.

The Fasken Pride Network was established to encourage internal, client, and prospective client development of 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion and community development. Fasken openly encourages Firm members, clients, friends and any interested community members to attend and participate. Every June the Firm hosts an award-winning educational and networking event to bring the community together – it’s the highlight of the month, one that everyone looks forward to.

“Diversity and inclusion are our strength, and we welcome talented professionals from all backgrounds, races, origins, beliefs, and orientations to be part of our community,” says Marc Rodrigue, Partner and member of the Pride Network.  “Though we recognize Pride especially in June, with the support of our clients and staff, we support our shared Pride all year.”

Goodmans



In 2015, DMZ PiR Goodmans was the first major law firm in Canadian history to enter a float in Toronto’s annual Pride Parade, an event witnessed by millions across the country and around the world. As a firm, they’ve never looked back.

Goodmans is committed to showing their True Colours, always.

“Whether it’s showing sector leadership as a founding member of the Law Firm Diversity and Inclusion Network (LFDIN), to upping the ante with the firm’s annual Pride celebrations, throughout the year, Goodmans collective love and support for the LGBTQIA+ community and culture of inclusivity is at the core of everything they do.” – Goodmans

While 2020 plans have now evolved to a virtual experience, Goodmans will be celebrating throughout June with special Pride events that can be accessed by all members of their community, including their families. These Pride events include children’s activities; a Drag Queen story-time and a Pride related science lesson, themed virtual cooking master classes, meet-ups framed within a virtual day in the life of Pride, and unique video initiatives. 

Venture Out

DMZ has partnered with Venture Out (VO) on events and initiatives to celebrate Pride and bring awareness to the tech startup ecosystem. VO is Canada’s largest tech non-profit organization connecting members of the LGBTQ+ community with the expanding technology sector, including entrepreneurs, start-ups, role models, career opportunities, and professionals. 

“VO’s commitment to the LBGTQ+ community means presenting content beyond the sanitized Diversity & Inclusion narrative that often permeates these spaces and exploring more impactful, unignorable topics, such as the intersection of race and class, climate change and surveillance capitalism.” 

The organization’s annual tech conference, which has been a success over the last three years and has grown to attract over 650+ attendees, 45+ sponsors and 10+ community partners, was postponed due to COVID-19. 

VO is participating in several Pride month activities, including:

  • June 22: TechProud – Small Business & Digital Skills Week in collaboration with Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft | Register here
  • June 26: Pride 2020 – Designing for all: Why Accessibility Matters in collaboration with General Assembly 
  • TBD:  Senior LGBTQ+ Leadership in collaboration with Venture Out’s parent organization, StartProud, and RBC 

Learn more and find out how you can participate here.

Earlier this year, VO also hosted “Let’s Talk Employee Resource Groups” and an LGBTQ+ Career Fest for students and professionals.

Through the eyes of an entrepreneur

Andrew Wells is the CEO of Pinch Financial, a DMZ alumni, tech founder and member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community – he explains he’s been fortunate to have felt supported by employees, investors and commercial partners throughout his entrepreneurial journey. “There is a strong kinship amongst LGBTQ founders in Toronto as we appreciate the privileges we have are the result of the hard work that was put in by those that came before us. There’s a sense of shared responsibility that comes with this and we do what we can to support one another as a result.” Andrew explains. 

Andrew also explained initiatives that have truly made a positive impact in the community. “When I worked at RBC, we had an incredibly impactful LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG). In addition to creating a sense of community and togetherness, the ERG was also responsible for creating awareness throughout the organization of matters that were important to our community.  What made the ERG efficacious was its access to senior leadership. Change within any organization requires top-down leadership, so having the ear of RBC’s c-suites made all the difference.”

Can the DMZ help amplify the diversity and inclusion work your organization is doing? If you’re a partner or DMZ alumni, reach out to us at dmz@torontomu.ca.

Cinchy helps healthcare and financial service industries accelerate response to COVID-19

DMZ alumnus, Cinchy, is using Data Fabric technology to help Canadian banking and healthcare sectors unlock IT efficiencies and address the immediate impacts of COVID-19

Congratulations to the company on their recent announcement of securing $10M in Series A funding to support growing demand for Data Fabric Technology!

Cinchy’s Data Fabric technology is being used to unlock efficiencies so that banks and healthcare providers can deploy real-time solutions with existing or even reduced IT budgets. How can the tech community and public sector work together to accelerate the delivery of new customer and employee solutions without compromising on data privacy? Keep reading to find out.

More applications mean more data silos

Today, there’s an app for everything – meaning there’s also a data silo for everything. Do you ever feel like your business is drowning in complexity? The proliferation of new applications poses huge problems for organizations of all kinds, across all sectors. As explained by Cinchy CEO, Dan DeMers, data integration can easily consume 50% or more of the delivery budget for new solutions. In an IT model where we are constantly doing this, data integration grows more and more complex over time, and this simply isn’t sustainable for organizations. It’s a waste of time and money.

How data should work

So, how does Cinchy’s technology solve this issue for organizations? Cinchy believes there is an inevitable future about how data should work, and it involves shifting to Data Fabric technology.

Cinchy is an enterprise-grade Data Collaboration platform that merges data management, data protection, and data governance capabilities under one umbrella. It is Data Fabric technology that delivers the data management layer, and it is used to connect data from apps, as well as new data created directly in the fabric, to form a sort of internet of data tables. One of the key benefits of this architecture is that it removes the need to make data copies (a.k.a. integrations) when launching new solutions. Instead, data is “linked”, and this process actually gets faster and more efficient as the fabric powers more solutions. Think of the Data Fabric as generating a network effect for IT delivery where more projects translate into faster and cheaper delivery, not rising costs and complexity.

Why has Data Fabric been gaining so much traction recently? The reason is that organizational leaders are being asked to deliver solutions faster than ever before without being given additional budget or headcount. Therefore, they have been searching to find technologies that increase both speed and efficiency while not putting data privacy and protection at risk. As you might guess, the list of software categories capable of delivering all of these outcomes is short; Data Fabric technology has quickly risen to the top of the list.

Connect, protect, collaborate

Society is moving to a future where data owners, whether individuals or businesses, will demand more control over how their data is used. With conventional approaches, data is effectively managed by making a lot of copies, and, once copied, full control is simply no longer possible. All this changes with Cinchy’s Data Fabric design, where data owners (whether employees, customers, or supply chain partners) are able to grant access permission to fellow fabric users to see, change, approve or delete their data. With no copies of data to chase and protect, these controls become universal in nature and can be set all the way down to a single cell of data.

For large, highly-regulated organizations, the fabric acts as the secure, real-time engine for the delivery of unlimited new solutions with embedded data protection. Again, this not only enables secure, cross-team collaborations but actually accelerates and improves the organization’s IT delivery process. That’s the way it should be.

COVID-19: making a difference across industries in the months to come

During this time, organizations need to meet the sudden demand from employees and customers for new solutions to their needs. In the new COVID-19 world, it’s important that organizations not only address these demands quickly but find ways to do so that are hyper-efficient. For Cinchy’s enterprise and public sector customers, their platform supports this incredible challenge and even provides a competitive advantage when business returns to a focus on growth.

Helping Canada’s financial sector do more with less

All areas of financial services heavily rely on data as a key asset in the delivery of their digital transformation strategies: from paperless banking and accelerated loan approvals to remote staff management and increased service personalization.

There is now more data, and more types of data, than ever – making it more difficult to manage. This is where Data Fabric technology will play a key role in helping the financial sector respond quickly to new demands from customers and employees alike. Banks will need to harness data in the most effective way possible to accelerate the delivery of new solutions for remote workers, secure office spaces, and the and fully-digitized customer experiences. Canadian banks can leverage Cinchy and reap the benefits of its Data Fabric design to achieve data centricity and accurate data extraction for successful decision-making. Data Fabric will be the answer to helping the economy bounce back.

Powering secure, real-time healthcare solutions

The ongoing healthcare crisis raises important questions about the use of personally identifying information (PII). For example, should citizen GPS and Bluetooth location data be used to help augment contact tracers in their incredibly important work to track viral transmission and reduce spread? How can the technology community and public sector work together to respond to the current situation and help society be more proactive when addressing future outbreaks?

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for public health agencies to move beyond legacy data management systems based on Data Sharing/Data Integration and explore new approaches such as Data Fabric technology that improve data protection and IT solutions delivery. These new approaches will support the rapid delivery of large scale solutions ranging from augmented contact tracing to intelligent PPE inventory management, front-line worker support, and secure vaccine research collaborations.

Click image to see expanded infographic.

Cinchy’s Healthcare Data Command Centre solution uses Data Collaboration and Data Fabric technologies to help healthcare providers leverage data from sources like legacy healthcare systems, hospital apps and databases, mobile phone apps, laboratory research, third party PPE inventory systems and more. By drawing this data into a central, secure Command Centre where owners retain full control of how their data is used, public health agencies can quickly develop the data models required to deploy the real-time solutions that are so urgently needed in order to address the crisis.

Cinchy believes that it is imperative that public and private stakeholders join forces in order to take advantage of connected Data Fabric design – a made-in-Canada innovation that can be used to help address a global problem without compromising on data privacy or data protection.

Interested in learning how your organization can benefit from Cinchy’s platform? Reach out to the Cinchy team and book a demo here.

5 questions for tech entrepreneurs

Our world has fundamentally changed, and the future of business has changed with it. As entrepreneurs, our biggest concerns from eight weeks ago, such as “How do I manage my dilution?”, have been replaced with “How do I survive the next month?”

Then, capital was freely available and we had a good handle on customer behaviour. Now, investors have sidelined themselves to take care of their companies and customers have done a complete 180. We no longer operate in the old state of normal, and there’s little point in looking back.

If you’re a tech startup founder, this might well be your first economic crisis – even your first market cycle change. Stress levels are high and difficult decisions need to be made every day.

What is an entrepreneur to do? Where to focus efforts? What questions should be asked? To survive or even thrive in the new normal, entrepreneurs must be asking themselves five questions:

1) What is my legacy approach and how is it hindering me?


Think back to when you started your company. Was it you and your cofounder working around a kitchen table? That’s when your legacy approach was first formed. How you made decisions together, how you defined your priorities, how you structured your company. Then you grew from a team of four to eight to 16. Your organizational structure was solidified, and your early culture was born. As you went from your series A round to your B round, you gave investors different rights and you established different classes of shares. All of this defined how decisions would be made and who had a seat at the table.

Now is the time to reassess this legacy approach and consider how it might be hindering you. Does it take a week to get a decision from your board when it should only take a day? Is your reporting structure causing needless frustration? Do some stakeholders have too much say in your day-to-day? Are you handcuffed by a certain process? All of these issues can bog you down and get in the way of decision-making.

Time is in short supply. It should be measured in days, not weeks or months. All your time should be spent on anticipating the future, preserving optionality and extending your runway, not on dealing with old issues that don’t serve the new normal.

2) How can I increase my speed and agility?

Entrepreneurs that come out of this crisis intact will take time now to increase their speed and agility.

In the absence of a crystal ball, the best thing they can do is maximize their ability to turn on a dime. Swiftness and flexibility will also help you maximize your cash runway and give you optionality – two critical factors that will determine who survives and thrives.

Don’t forget, many great iconic companies were born in times of crisis – General Motors, General Electric, Google, Apple, Microsoft. These companies weren’t created during market highs, but times of extreme stress. They knew that by staying speedy and nimble, they’d be able to go where the puck was headed.

3) What stays and what goes?

COVID-19 is already forcing society to question what’s essential and what’s not. It’s shown us our dirty habits and wastefulness. We’re wondering whether norms developed decades ago, like maintaining a sprawling office instead of allowing employees to work from home, are still relevant.

Now is the time to adopt a lifeboat strategy: Take what you need and leave what you don’t. As we paddle to safety, we have a unique opportunity to jettison what was bogging us down – to clean up our balance sheets, look at our options, extend our runways, reassess our table stakes. 

4) How should I use the time now to think through the next wave of innovation?

Governments have acted quickly to help Canadian companies extend their cash runways. They’ve given entrepreneurs time to think through next moves. This is a big opportunity for Canada’s tech sector: Although we punch above our weight class in discovery and innovation, we’re well below where we could be in terms of commercialization.

Difficult as is it, this crisis will lead us into a new economy founded on innovation. This will create enormous opportunities in emerging industries, such as telemedicine, patient-centred digital health, AR/VR and digital experiences, online learning and education, business continuity technology and virtual event management.

Looking to the future, we should expect that there will be more crises of this scale. Another pandemic is possible, even likely. The impacts of climate change will continue to be felt. Our world is changing rapidly and now is the time to think big and innovate fast.

5) Who can I turn to for good advice?

For the past 11 years, we’ve been living in a bull market cycle – for many entrepreneurs, the only cycle they’ve experienced. The new normal can be intimidating.

Now is the time to find the right advisors. Someone who can be a true sounding board and co-pilot. The best advisors may not default to existing board members since investors can sometimes make suboptimal decisions in order to protect their slice of the pie. Entrepreneurs should look for people who have gone through difficult market cycles before, people who understand how not to cling to the bubble. Seek out support that you think will move your company in the right direction.

In conclusion, now is the time to take action. Not tomorrow — today. If you don’t make hard decisions now, your company might become a victim to another – one that’s faster or more agile. Right now, clinging to the past is your biggest boat anchor. It may be hard to see, but the future is your biggest opportunity. You can do this. And where you can’t, the right people can help you through it.

How PocketHealth is fueling healthcare innovation, attracting investment and scaling company growth despite COVID-19

PocketHealth’s patient-centric product introduces a new way of thinking in healthcare and has been instrumental in keeping hospital departments afloat during the current COVID-19 crisis.


The company recently announced a $9.2M raise in funding – while it seems hard to believe a startup could be pursuing growth and attracting investment in this environment, PocketHealth isn’t at all surprised that demand has skyrocketed.

Healthcare institutions have traditionally been slow to embrace innovation. However, Rishi Nayyar, Co-Founder & CEO of PocketHealth, explains that many have had no choice but to adopt new technology in hopes of relieving burdens on resources.

PocketHeath has completely modernized how sensitive medical imaging is shared between hospitals, imaging clinics, doctors and patients. The platform has stopped patients from making unnecessary hospital trips and being exposed to potential risk, and given institutions more resources to deal with COVID-19 screening and other related activities.

We caught up with Rishi to pass along our congratulations on the company’s raise and to learn what’s next in store for the company given the news – which includes big plans to scale.

Check out our Q&A with Rishi below.

Tell us about how you and your brother co-founded this business together.

The idea for PocketHealth began with a simple experience that my brother, Harsh, had while he was working in the Bay Area in Silicon Valley. He was playing tennis and sprained his ankle quite badly. He was required to get an MRI and an X-ray, and when he was done with that MRI, he was handed two CD-ROMs.

The thought of receiving CDs back then, which was in the mid-2010s, was quite absurd – especially considering the work he was doing in the Valley. At that time, he was an early engineer at a startup that eventually got acquired by Google. He was working on app virtualization: streaming large quantities of data to mobile devices all around the world, gigabytes of data. Meanwhile, in healthcare, hospitals and imaging centres had these small image files being placed on a CD-ROM to give to a patient. This patient was, by definition, sick. They’d have to come to the hospital, pick up the CD-ROM and then drop it off at their doctor’s office to continue their care. Harsh thought, why is this a primary way that imaging records are released? That’s something that stuck with him. He called me and said, “Look, this is a problem and we can build the tech to solve it.”

Time passed. The startup he was working at got acquired by Google. He eventually left Google and I left my job where I was working in banking. We saw an opportunity to create a cloud platform that would completely change the healthcare industry, and that’s when we started PocketHealth.

Can you tell us more about PocketHealth’s product?

PocketHealth is a cloud platform that allows hospitals and imaging clinics to share imaging records virtually with patients, physicians, and other hospitals and clinics. From the patient’s perspective, PocketHealth allows them to access and control their medical imaging records in the palm of their hand, in full diagnostic quality, and then share it with any physician in the world – instantly.

What has PocketHealth’s journey looked like since graduating in 2018?

The DMZ helped us ensure we had the systems in place to grow responsibly. We were surrounded by companies at the same stage of growth, and we were able to learn from these companies and the mentors. When we hit hyper-growth upon graduating, we were prepared.

We grew our product scope, significantly enabling hospitals to not just share with patients, but to also receive imaging inwards. Those products made a great impact in the market. It allowed us to grow our client base significantly – to the scale we’re at today.

In the early days of this pandemic, did you have any worry that it could negatively affect your company?

No, we knew from the beginning, especially working in health care, that COVID-19 would dramatically increase demand for PocketHealth. Burning CDs was no longer an option. COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the need for hospitals and clinics to modernize the way they share medical imaging. There are still patients who need imaging, who need to undergo diagnosis, who need treatment, and they require a copy of their exam to further their care. However, requiring patients to come on-site to pick up a CD is just not possible anymore.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for a product like PocketHealth?

We’re having Directors of medical imaging and CEOs of hospitals calling us saying, “We needed this yesterday”. We’ve increased the number of sites deploying on our platform by over 300 percent monthly as imaging clinics and hospitals across North America grapple with this problem.

We’ve been advantaged: one, we have a product that is extremely strong in the market and is patient-centric, and two, we’re built for rapid deployment. We’ve been able to go live at a hospital in days or even hours. From an I.T. perspective, it’s unheard of – to completely switch how you perform a job function or a data-release function in such a short amount of time.

It was recently announced that PocketHealth secured $6.5 million USD ($9.2 million CAD) in funding. What does this first round of funding mean for the company?

This capital will allow us to scale our team significantly. We are hiring across all teams: customer success, sales, marketing and engineering. We’re hiring a mission-driven team to achieve our expansion goals. We want to reach out to the millions of patients that we haven’t touched yet, as well as thousands of hospitals and clinics where we aren’t deployed yet.

What does the future look like for PocketHealth? What are the company’s next milestones?

We’re trying to attract top talent in all of our roles who care about the problem that we’re trying to solve. We know that we have a platform that is unique in the market, that has this amazing ability to resonate with patients and with the providers. We’re driven to expand PocketHealth beyond the scope where it already is. We’ve been able to get this far as a mission-driven, but bootstrapped, company. We’re excited to see what the next phase brings. We think it will bring more patient centricity, more patients who are empowered and involved in their care, and hospital departments that aren’t burdened with the inefficiencies of slow and outdated imaging release systems.

We have some exciting deployments outside of our traditional geographic markets that will be announced soon. This is definitely a global issue. We know that patients’ desires to be in touch with what’s going on in their bodies are universal. It transcends geographic and political boundaries. The product and infrastructure we’ve built it on is designed to scale globally very quickly.

What advice would you have for founders who are riding out the current pandemic?

Focus on the fundamentals. If you’re around right now, there is some value to your product. In bull markets, there can be a tendency to run a lot of experiments and expand your scope beyond your typical value proposition, but I would advise you to get to the basics. Think about why people purchase your product. How does it make them feel? How does it change their lives? Double down on that. That’s where you’re going to get the highest return. Look inwardly and create a focal point for your team to work towards. That will give you the best shot of weathering this storm ahead.

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If you have the skillset to help PocketHealth advance their mission, they want to hear from you! Take a look at PocketHealth’s website to learn about the benefits of working for this high-growth company and the current job openings available.

Questions? Let us know at dmz@torontomu.ca

Evrlinx announced as #HackTheCurve winner

Congrats to Everlinx for taking home the grand prize! 


It goes without saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every single Canadian in one way or another. Within the first weeks of the pandemic emerging and intensifying in North America, the DMZ realized that our country could lean on its ecosystem of tech innovators for help in flattening the curve.

That’s why we launched #HackTheCurve – a platform that challenged teams to develop a solution that could alleviate some of the greatest difficulties being faced by front line workers, small businesses, and everyday Canadians as a consequence of COVID-19. 

Despite a tight application deadline, we received more than 200 applications representing over 400 individual participants coast-to-coast. After a busy two weeks consisting of 11 expert workshops and virtual events, DMZ mentor check-ins, strategy meetings and around-the-clock prep for the final pitch, we are excited to announce that Evrlinx is our #HackTheCurve winner!

Evrlinx (formerly Infinite Supply) took home the $15,000 cash prize and $200,000 business services package. The team will also receive membership in the Biomedical Zone, in addition, to Entrepreneur-in-Residence support from the DMZ. Read our interview with the winning team below.

Thank you to our partners who made #HackTheCurve a success: Innisfil Accelerates (Financial Partner), Moneris (Payment Provider Partner), as well as several other contributing partners, including Logan Katz, Goodmans, Fasken, Involve Design, Founded, Heroku, Twilio, Hubspot, and AWS.

Evrlinx

We asked the team some questions about their winning solution and the process they took to achieve success.

Tell us more about Evrlinx.

Evrlinx is an online B2B marketplace that connects buyers and suppliers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across Canada. Our goal is to ensure all our front-line workers in Canada have access to the PPE they need. With global supply chains becoming more unreliable, we created Evrlinx to strengthen our Canadian supply chains and help keep our frontline workers safe. 

What issue related to COVID-19 was your team trying to address?

Our team is concerned with the lack of safe, cost-effective and certified PPE available for all types of frontline workers in Canada. Why are there perceived shortages? Why are frontline workers receiving low quality PPE? How many countries are blocking the export of PPE to Canada?

Briefly explain the process your team went through in two weeks to establish your business solution.

First, our team conducted a very comprehensive brainstorming session to discuss the pain points we were observing in the PPE market. We wanted to figure out what problems needed attention and broke the problems down into their pieces to get to the root cause of the problem. Once we established the problem we were trying to solve we became experts on the subject through comprehensive customer interviews, which gave us the information to build our first MVP and future app prototype.

Did your team take advantage of DMZ’s supports throughout the duration of #HackTheCurve? 

Our goal was to attend every workshop, decipher what material was pertinent and see how we could apply the information to our business. Since there was too much to do, we used the divide and conquer approach. For each of the workshops, we sent one or two teammates to take notes while the others worked on our solution. As a group, we decided which elements we should implement. 

Why do you think your team was able to succeed in this challenge?

We had amazing team dynamics and were motivated to see our solution out in the world. Every day we would meet virtually and work on making our business better.  

Does your team have plans as to how you would like to use the money you’ve won?

We are investing the prize money back into Evrlinx. The funds will be allocated to platform development and business setup costs. We need Evrlinx to be out in the world. 

Do you have any advice for other innovators who want to succeed in developing/pitching a new business for challenges like #HackTheCurve?

We have five key points:

  1. Cohesive and dedicated teams win challenges. Create an open environment with easy communication and guide your team to think beyond the challenge. 
  2. As a team, early on, define the problem you would like to solve within the competition and stick with it! You will refine, iterate and pivot around the problem throughout the challenge.  
  3. Work on your pitch/slides as you’re working not at the end. Pitch decks can help guide your thinking. 
  4. Do your research! Talk to users, stakeholders and industry experts. Use the information to iterate.  
  5. Practice and prepare for your pitch over and over again. Get feedback on every slide and be prepared for all possible questions. 

Questions for Evrlinx? Reach out to the team at hello@evrlinx.com and check out the website here


Thanks again to everyone involved in making #HackTheCurve a success. 

Questions? Email us at dmz@torontomu.ca

Ashu and Andrew met in DMZ’s first Sandbox cohort in 2018. Now, they’re revolutionizing the mortgage industry.

Ashu and Andrew's headshots

Andrew Wells (Pinch, CEO and Founder, pictured left) and Ashu Syal (Pinch, Director of Product, pictured right) met in the DMZ’s first-ever Sandbox cohort in 2018.

Andrew was an enthusiastic new DMZ founder and Ashu was a newly hired DMZ Program Lead. This duo is now working together at Pinch Financial (Pinch), a DMZ startup that is utilizing AI to revolutionize the mortgage application process. Pinch is a digital platform that makes applying for a mortgage fast, easy, and secure. The platform connects people directly with lenders, taking brokers out of the equation to empower users to make their own decisions. Pinch’s blog makes real-estate insider knowledge accessible for everyone.

We sat down with Andrew and Ashu to learn more about Pinch and the journey that led them to develop the partnership of a lifetime. 

Pinch company logoWhy did you start Pinch?

Andrew: I had just graduated and was working at a bank as an account manager. I hated it. I saw first-hand how awful and inaccessible mortgage applications are, the process is a disservice to hard-working people. I knew there had to be a better way, so I started Pinch.

Broker’s wages have gone up by 400% in the past 12-15 years, but the everyday person’s income has not. I’m not saying all brokers are bad, but the system is broken. I started Pinch to shine a light on the toxicity of the whole process.

Pinch advertisingCan you tell me more about Pinch’s time at the DMZ?

Andrew: We joined the DMZ’s Sandbox program in 2018 with two staff members. Ashu was our Programs Lead and together we created Pinch’s first prototype, raised our first seed round, developed our MVP and then graduated to the Incubator program. We demoed at the 2019 Collision Conference in Toronto (Pinch team pictured on the left with Collision Conference’s Pinch feature TTC ad) and that really sparked important investor relationships at major banks.

We hired our first engineer, then two more engineers and then a designer, currently half of our current staff came directly from relationships we made while part of the DMZ community.

No one has ever done what Pinch is doing. The DMZ understood the gravity of that and gave us all the space, knowledge, and resources we needed to build our business, the right way.

Banking and real estate are both highly regulated industries. How did Pinch break in?

Andrew: It’s true, the mortgage process has not changed since 1997…This makes pitching new tech to banks uniquely hard. Our EiRs (Entrepreneurs in Residence) taught us how to find the right bank executives, stakeholders, and investors and speak their language… we needed that insider knowledge available to founders at the DMZ to successfully break in.

Andrew, what led you to approach Ashu to join your team full time?

Andrew: Everything was going well, but there was this disconnect growing among our marketing, financial and tech development teams. We needed someone who spoke each of our languages and could bring us together. Our best work always happened at the DMZ with Ashu. We knew he was our guy. 

Ashu, why did you want to join the Pinch team?

Ashu: My wife and I had just started applying for a house when Andrew approached me. It took us more than a month to get a mortgage. We went to open houses and people were outbidding us before we even walked through the door. The whole process felt impossible. It was so stressful. I have a lot of empathy for what mortgage applicants go through.

Pinch is creating new startup practices and utilizing old ones where necessary. They are setting people-centred standards not just for the homeownership industry, but for how we build technology in general. Pinch’s mission really aligns with my own values, I’m really excited to be here.

Team working togetherWhat’s next for Pinch?

Andrew: We are launching our product in a new and big way, with big bank partners. It is going to change the way people approach homeownership. It is a fundamental shift in how someone can get a property.

This (buying a house) can be the most important decision of someone’s life. Our team does not take that lightly. I started Pinch to make sure buying a house was accessible and secure for people. That human-centred mission will continue to always drive every decision we make. 

Whether our company is successful in 10 years or not…what we have done is pushed bank executives and mortgage brokers to truly grapple with this topic for the first time ever, and we are really proud of that.

Team chatting over coffeeAshu, what are you most looking forward to in the future?

Ashu: I wouldn’t be where I am today without the right people telling me to stop building my ideas in a basement and come into an incubator space… Making sure that pathway is open to others, particularly for those who historically have a hard time coming into this industry will always be important to me, will forever excite me, especially because of my time at the DMZ. 

DMZ startups like Pinch not only get the tailored support they need to become world-leading businesses but get access to the DMZ’s thriving talent pool of driven industry innovators. 

Learn more about DMZ Sandbox here.

Stepping up during COVID-19: How DMZ startups are finding tangible ways to support those affected by the pandemic

By now, most of us have felt the impact a global pandemic can have on our everyday living. Individuals, small businesses and global economies alike are already feeling the amplitude of the repercussions that have come with the COVID-19 virus.

Despite the chaos this virus has created, several DMZ companies (current and alumni) are pushing their traditional boundaries and devoting additional time, money and resources to help those in need. Some startups are cutting platform subscription fees for small businesses, while some are forming charitable partnerships within the community. Others have staff working around the clock to build new functionality to save customers millions of dollars. 

Kudos to these DMZ companies who are placing values before profit during this time:

AirMatrix

Drones are becoming a major part of our transportation system. AirMatrix provides the infrastructure technology to help cities effectively navigate drones in the sky. The startup’s platform gives enterprises and local governments a layered grid system by building precise highways in the sky to create safe, scalable and efficient transportation systems in high-dense areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought urgent use cases for drones in cities around the world, meaning AirMatrix’s technology will be integral in enabling and scaling drone operations needed to combat the spread of the virus in Canada. The company has already mapped and developed a significant network of skyroads in the downtown core of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. AirMatrix is working with government to deploy their technology, which will be critical in flattening the curve and stopping the spread of infection.


Clout Jam

Clout Jam is a business management platform that specifically serves independent influencers, equipping creators with the right tools to prosper in business and thrive in life. In response to the current COVID-19 crisis, co-founders Trevor Mengel and Samantha Cutler have jump-started a unique campaign, #CloutForGood. This new initiative is designed to connect all types of influencers with pro-bono opportunities to help raise awareness of many Canadian charities, particularly those on the front line of the fight against COVID-19. Already, #CloutForGood has received notable attention from the community! Several charities have jumped on board to partner with Clout Jam, including Food4Kids, Foodbanks Canada, and UNICEF Canada, with new non-profits joining daily. Canadian influencers participating in #CloutForGood include: @drea_wheeler, @sashaexeter, @caleighfit, @carlingliski, @haylesbeth, @bylaurenp, @alessiasculpt and (of course) @thefitfatale, run by co-founder Samantha.

Get involved! Influencers and registered non-profit organizations can participate in #CloutForGood by signing up at cloutjam.com/cloutforgood or contacting trevor@cloutjam.com.

Crowdmark

Crowdmark’s collaborative grading and analytics platform helps teachers more effectively evaluate student work. With the abundance of school closures taking place as a result of COVID-19, Crowdmark has recognized the impact this will have on their community of students and educators.

That’s why Crowdmark has decided to offer FREE access to its grading and analytics platform to any institution that needs to move exams and homework online – even if the institution is not currently a customer! The company has also created a web page of resources available to educators, which will help institutions move exams online with Crowdmark.

Crescendo 

Crescendo is helping business leaders run remote teams of staff in a meaningful way. Crescendo’s goal is to make Diversity & Inclusion learning personalized, accessible, and measurable – and that doesn’t stop just because teams are working remotely! The tech startup empowers its customers to improve diversity and inclusion outcomes through scalable software and a personalized D&I learning Slack integration. Marginalized and vulnerable populations will inevitably be the hardest hit by effects of COVID-19, so Crescendo has made its D&I learning platform FREE for the next 6 weeks. This means businesses can be equipped with the right tools to scale their D&I strategy while enabling remote employees to practice inclusivity. Additionally, Crescendo has launched a comprehensive D&I guide for managers and employees.

Drizti

As a company that has set out to improve the supercomputing experience for innovators globally, it’s no surprise that Drizti is ahead of the game in supporting researchers who need it most right now. The speed and legitimacy of COVID-19 research is high-priority right now, and Drizti is taking actionable measures to help organizations such as endCoronavirus.org educate in order to end the outbreak. To show appreciation for the work that’s being done, Drizti has offered researchers their Supercomputing and High Performance Computing (HPC) expertise to help speed up the research and design of equipment. 

Embodia 

Embodia, Canada’s largest online education platform for Physiotherapists, has been a key leader during this global pandemic. With mass closures to physio clinics, Embodia’s tools are here to help practitioners continue serving their patients! The tech company has announced a FREE Telehab Solution, allowing Embodia members to keep their virtual office lights on and continue business as usual. This free solution pairs well with Embodia’s digital home exercise program software, giving patients an optimal at-home experience and path to recovery.

FitDrive

As social distancing has become the new norm for most people, the fitness industry has inevitably faced consequences. How do fitness trainers, who rely so heavily on close social interaction, adapt in times like these? Luckily, FitDrive has been in the remote training space for a long time! FitDrive’s software helps trainers and gym owners digitize their business via an app with easy-to-use client management tools and one-click workout sharing.

To help trainers go digital during COVID-19, FitDrive is making many of its services FREE, including one-on-one business consultations (booked through the website) and a 60-day trial of the app which allows fitness trainers to create, share and track workouts with clients at no cost. Additionally, FitDrive is hosting a webinar on March 30th that will help trainers leverage technology to keep clients engaged and revenue stable during these turbulent times.

GrowthGenius 

GrowthGenius helps small B2B companies source meaningful customer leads via a smart sales development technology and powerful database of over 200 million contacts. In light of COVID-19 self-isolation advisories, sales teams feel more challenged than ever – selling remotely is no easy feat. That’s why GrowthGenius is complementing its technology with additional support from its own expert team. The GrowthGenius team has created an Extrovert Support Line – the expert team is readily available to answer questions on how businesses can maintain relationships with customers and leads. GrowthGenius is helping customers put the ‘social’ back in ‘social distancing’!

Hopeful Inc.

Hopeful’s cost-effective platform supports non-profit organizations (NPOs) by providing a cost-effective, user-friendly tool that allows NPOs to track collected data, analyze social media engagement and receive actionable insights on marketing strategies. Between COVID-19 and a declining economy, Hopeful is seeing immense pressure on NPOs like never before. During times of economic hardship, people look to non-profits for services – and simultaneously, non-profits aren’t seeing as many donations. Due to increased social distancing, fundraising events, which are huge revenue drivers, are causing NPOs to turn towards online channels to raise funds. 

That’s where Hopeful can help! The company is using data analytics to help NPOs discover what social media strategies are working and create content that will lead to more funds. To help deliver on this, Hopeful is offering FREE access to NPOs that are at the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight for 60 days.

Inkblot

With the growing complexity of a global pandemic, it’s important to recognize that there will not only be implications on individuals’ physical health, but also their mental health. InkBlot’s platform, which connects clients to mental health professionals, has been essential in a world that is now depending on virtual services. Recognizing that people would be reaching out for additional mental health support, Inkblot has decided to waive its onboarding and platform access fees until June 30.  Inkblot counsellors are available as early as today. Beyond this, Inkblot is offering FREE 30-minute, fully-guided meditation sessions by video, which can be accessed via the company’s website.

Inkbox

Companies who aren’t typically in the business of creating healthcare products have been stepping up to the plate to provide frontline workers with materials to protect against contracting COVID-19. Inkbox, a semi-permanent tattoo startup, has been recognized as a true leader throughout this pandemic. The startup altered its operations to begin manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) for Toronto’s essential workers. To keep communities safe, Inkbox has already produced and donated 100 face shields – and is ramping up materials to begin producing 10,000 sheilds per week in May!

Beyond face shields, Inkbox is also manufacturing hand sanitizer, cloth masks and semi-permeable wound dressings, all of which have been in high demand from essential workers.

Layla Care

It’s common for people to have heightened feelings of stress or anxiety during a pandemic. As a mental health service, Layla Care wanted to do their part to help the community manage the negative emotional impacts of isolation. 

Over the next two weeks, Layla’s Supportive Counselling for COVID-19 Stress program offers a one-time, FREE of charge counseling service to support Ontario residents struggling with stress. Through phone or video chat, licensed therapists will consult with Ontarians in need on various topics ranging from anxieties driven by uncertainty around daily life and financials to worries about health or the health of loved ones.

LiveGauge

LiveGauge offers real world marketing ROI solutions to help brands and agencies analyze marketing spend via an automatic, consistent and objective measurement solution.

Using their own automated solution for passive population measurement, LiveGauge saw the opportunity to develop a COVID-19 tracker. The team has been working diligently to develop an app-based solution to help enforce social distancing, track the historical path of confirmed cases, and communicate who in the community may have been exposed to carriers.

LiveGauge’s first release of this contract-tracing app is set for the first week of April. Stay tuned for more updates! This digital solution will undoubtedly contribute to flattening the COVID-19 curve.

Nimbus

Nimbus is changing the way higher education institutions facilitate online learning. With custom-branded digital solutions to help administrators increase student engagement, the Nimbus platform allows universities and colleges to build, modernize and centralize tutoring and mentoring programs.

To serve higher education institutions and students during this time, Nimbus Learning will be offering FREE access to their online tutoring platform to all partners, old and new, throughout this spring and summer! Nimbus is welcoming educational organizations that are not already using the platform and could benefit from support in developing a campus tutoring program to reach out.

Off2Class

Education management company, Off2Class, offers an extensive ESL Teacher Toolkit for schools and individuals who want to teach ESL online. With the need to find virtual options for in-person classes and tutoring sessions, Off2Class gives teachers and students a place to interact for mobile learning while maintaining social distance. With the current state of COVID-19 in mind, Off2Class has announced they are re-activating FREE trials for anyone who has ever signed up for an account – within their 6-year history! ESL educators should feel more empowered than ever to build their online business.

OnCall 

OnCall Health helps healthcare organizations launch and scale their own virtual care programs, and has demonstrated its commitment to helping the community during the COVID-19 outbreak. In response to the ongoing healthcare crisis, OnCall has released a FREE COVID-19 Self Assessment tool for all providers to use with patients. By utilizing the Self Assessment tool, providers can ensure that they are taking the necessary precautions to keep patients and their communities safe during this time.

Peekapak 

Peekapak’s e-learning platform primarily helps elementary students practice social-emotional skills. Through interactive gaming and personalized learning experiences, Peekapak’s leading curriculum teaches kids key social-emotional skills such as self-regulation, teamwork, and empathy. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the closure of schools globally, Peekpak wants families to feel supported during this time of uncertainty. Now, the company is offering FREE three-month access to their entire platform of resources to schools and districts impacted by closures. Additionally, the company has compiled a list of educational resources that will help students and families during this particularly difficult time. 

PheedLoop

COVID-19 has shaken the events industry – conferences, trade shows, and social gatherings worldwide have virtually come to a halt. PheedLoop, a company offering next-generation event management software, is acting fast to help event organizers power through the current crisis. Working in urgency to save the events industry, the company took on a challenge to accelerate the release of their new integrated live streaming platform, which is built into their robust event app, speaker portals and admin tools.

This newly launched live streaming functionality is now ready to be used by event organizers! In additional efforts to show commitment to the industry, Pheedloop is offering discounts to planners whose events have been directly affected by the COVID-19 spread.

PocketHealth

PocketHealth has seen an increased demand for its digital offerings since the start of COVID-19. Their product helps hospitals replace outdated systems of how medical images are given to patients. Formerly, hospitals like St. Michael’s in Toronto and Hamilton’s McMaster Childen’s Hospital would burn images onto a CD, which patients would then have to physically retrieve. This process was more demanding of the staff’s time and resources.

With PocketHealth’s platform, patients can now virtually receive and instantly access health records like MRIs, CT scans and X-rays. Since non-essential hospital visits have been limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, PocketHealth’s technology has needed now more than ever. Institutions are increasingly coming to recognize the need for this virtual method – so much that the company’s monthly deployments have jumped by more than 300 percent! As a result, PocketHealth has raised US$6.5-million in funding this month.

Portl Media

Portl’s platform delivers interactive content to rideshare passengers. Thousands of rideshare drivers for apps like Lyft and Uber have installed tablets to host Portl’s entertainment system, which doubles as an effective advertising platform. Marketers can benefit from highly-engaged consumers in this environment – the average ride time within a big city like Toronto is 17 minutes. During this difficult time, Portl has made changes that will allow advertisers to leverage the platform, but only for the greater good of making a difference during this pandemic. The startup is offering FREE ad space on screens throughout Toronto for all organizations that have a positive message regarding COVID-19.


REMITR

REMITR is a FinTech startup that offers small businesses a better alternative to bank wire transfers: a cost-effective, secure and non-stop global payment system.

REMITR has always championed entrepreneurs and small businesses, and they’re doing it again by offering all customers (existing and new) Zero-Fees for international AND domestic payments. All payments made via REMITR will be free of transaction fees up to April 30th. Click here to learn more and avail of this benefit.

Spiffy

It is inevitable that the restaurant industry will take a huge hit as operations are significantly scaled back to adhere to social distancing protocols. Spiffy’s modern e-learning platform helps small businesses in hospitality build more profitable operations via custom staff training modules, an engaging content library and robust reporting analytics. Spiffy recognizes that many of its customers will have difficulty weathering the COVID-19 storm. The tech company has made the decision to make their remote training platform FREE for the time being, encouraging restaurants to maintain productivity while still meeting health and safety guidelines.

Squiggle Park

Squiggle Park is a game designed to deliver content in a way proven to help kids master foundational reading skills. The Halifax-based platform is built by literacy experts and teachers to align with classroom curriculum – but is also designed to be fun for kids. While Squiggle Park’s content is designed for early learners aged 3 to 8, the company recently announced a new version of the game, Dreamscape, that is appropriate for kids aged 8 to 15.

Since COVID-19 has taken kids out of school, Dreamscape launched a partnership to get more kids excited and learning during an otherwise dreary time. The company partnered with Canadian Premier League soccer team, the Halifax Wanderers, to produce special content packs that feature stories about the team’s players, staff and club mascot. Kids can read the stories and are tested to earn rewards or receive the resources they need to improve their learning. The Wanderers’ players wrote the stories, which were then edited by educational experts to align with the Nova Scotia curriculum.


Trufan

Trufan’s leading social intelligence platform helps brands maximize the value they get from their audience and allows them to activate grassroots communities made up of super fans and micro influencers. As a purpose-driven startup, Trufan felt an obligation to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and provide whatever support they could to small businesses during this time – especially since consumer social media usage has gone drastically up.

To help brands leverage consumer engagement and grow online, Trufan has announced they will be offering a FREE 45-day trial on SocialRank, an audience segmentation tool, to startups and small businesses with less than 25K followers! Companies using Instagram or Twitter who would like to access the trial can get started by completing this short survey.

Ulula

For all types of organizations, measuring the health and well-being of employees can be challenging during a time like this. Ulula’s stakeholder management product connects businesses, workers, communities, and governments to de-risk operations and create value across global supply chains. To help organizations measure and mitigate the implications of COVID-19 on employees, Ulula has designed a tailored solution: the employee and worker impact assessment. This digital assessment tool will allow employers to take a rapid pulse on the workforce through indicators like worker mental health, perception of job protection, and more! Best of all, they’re offering the first assessment for FREE!

UXPLORE

UXPLORE’s platform helps organizations become more efficient and create economic value by augmenting human capabilities through automation solutions. The startup sees a future where rule-based and repetitive work tasks can be automated through an Intelligent Digital Workforce (IDW) that emulates human behaviour. UXPLORE’s IDW can be deployed as a practical solution for several use cases to improve efficiencies – including human resources, finance and accounting. Digital Workers can complete day-to-day repetitive tasks like managing and supporting customers, completing routine transactions such as order and ticket processing, and other time-consuming activities crucial for business continuity.

With the need for companies to work remotely due to ongoing physical distancing guidelines, UXPLORE is providing organizations with virtual capacity in the form of Smart Assistants and Digital Workers. UXPLORE recently announced they’re offering organizations FREE access to Maya, a new Smart Assistant built with AI technology that helps individuals find relevant and timely information related to COVID-19.

The DMZ wants to thank these startups who are stepping up to support others during uneasy times in the world. What is your business doing to support your customers or community? Let us know at dmz@torontomu.ca.

 

COVID-19 Response DMZ Free Virtual Workshop Series: Topics and Dates

We’ve created a virtual workshop series to help startups navigate tough business decisions and also recognize growth opportunities during a time of uncertainty.

You do not want to miss what these subject-matter experts will be sharing! All workshops are free to join and are intended for tech founders.

Upcoming workshops:

Stay tuned for new workshop announcements.

Note, once you register for a workshop the link to access it will be sent to you prior to going live.

In case you missed it:

Find all of our workshop recordings here.

Have a question? Email us at dmz@torontomu.ca

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