Volta Welcomes New Residents and Celebrates Community Success
Volta continues to grow our community of technology startup founders with the addition of two new Resident companies and official welcoming of five startups as part of the Volta Cohort program.
Halifax-based startups Side Door and Cribcut joined Volta as Residents. Side Door is an online booking and ticketing platform, giving audiences instant access to intimate and unique events happening in their neighbourhood. Cribcut has developed a software-enabled marketplace for mobile hairstylists.
“Being a part of the Volta Community was the right move for Cribcut,” said David Howe, CEO and Co-founder of Cribcut. “For a young but growing company like Cribcut, access to the resources and mentorship Volta provides is invaluable for the stage we’re at.”
In addition to new Residents, Volta officially welcomed five new Volta Cohort companies that were selected at a pitch event in May. The Cohort companies include Speakr, a digital platform for helping people communicate more effectively; GreyLit, an online publishing company for front-line health research and information; ColourSmith Labs, a company developing direct-to-consumer contact lenses reducing red-green colour blindness and saturating colours; Talem Health Analytics, a startup creating software for physiotherapists and orthopedic specialists to track, analyze and predict treatment regimens; and UAV Control Tower, an IT company that has developed a drone monitoring system used by air traffic controllers to approve, manage and record drone flights.
Volta also announced that runner-up from the second Volta Cohort Pitch Event, eOceans Research and Consulting Inc. will join the Cohort program. The decision was made after a previously selected startup chose to decline acceptance into the program and instead seek support from Volta in other ways. eOceans uses citizen science to describe social, ecological, environmental, policy and economic trends of marine animal populations and human use patterns by combining citizen science data with other information to fill essential data gaps.
The celebration took place at Volta’s new 60,000 square foot space during a Champagne Welcome event, supported by LaBarge Weinstein. Over 40 of Volta’s community members gathered to welcome the companies and Jesse Rodgers, Volta’s CEO, spoke at the event, recognizing the recent achievements by several of Volta’s community members.
“This year is shaping up to be a great one for the Volta community,” said Rodgers. “Volta has experienced tremendous growth over the past five years, and we are seeing an increase in the impact our community has on the Atlantic Canadian startup ecosystem as a result. From Volta’s expansion, to Woodscamp’s recent acquisition and multiple funding round announcements from our Resident and Alumni companies, I’m incredibly proud of our community’s accomplishments.”
Volta Alumni company, Woodscamp announced in late-June that they were acquired by the American Forest Foundation, marking the third exit by a Volta Alumni since Volta was established. Other funding announcements from Volta’s Alumni companies include, Introhive raising a US$15.2 million round and Proposify raising a significant, undisclosed funding round that brought the company’s valuation to around CAD$30 million. Volta Residents have also been busy the first two quarters of 2018. Harbr, Bereda Training and Side Door have all announced funding over the past few months.
Interested in being a part of the Volta community? Learn more about how you can get involved here.
Originally published at Volta.
