CDL-Atlantic 2021 2022: Year Five

Atlantic Toronto Montreal Wisconsin

Rockies Vancouver Seattle

Atlanta

A Message from our Site Lead and Director

Five years ago CDL-Atlantic launched at the Rowe School of Business at Dalhousie University with the intention of being a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship in Atlantic Canada. In the beginning, we were one of only five CDL sites that at the time were all based in Canada. As the smallest location we were committed to proving that we could deliver results just as well as our counterparts in Ontario, Alberta, BC and Quebec! We are now part of an ever expanding global network of 12 sites that also includes three locations in the US and four in Europe.

The evolution of our program since 2017 has been beyond our original expectations. At the conclusion of our five-year milestone, we are tremendously proud of the impact that CDL-Atlantic has had on our region. We have provided mentorship opportunities to 158 startups; helping Atlantic Canadian based companies to grow and scale, and introducing companies from outside our region to everything we have to offer. Our mentorship pool has doubled from 51 to 107, providing meaningful engagement between the university and the business community. We launched a specialty stream focused on oceans, which has connected us to the best international mentors and ventures in this sector. Perhaps most significantly our cumulative equity value creation is now just over $800 million, with the amazing $1 billion mark within our sights in the near future!

As you will see in the following pages, the 2021-22 program year had several exciting highlights.

Since our inception, we have been committed to ensuring our site represents all of the Atlantic provinces. We were delighted to be able to finally return to in-person sessions in May 2022, and to celebrate we hosted the events in collaboration with Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This was the first time in five years that we took CDL-Atlantic on the road to another location. We have developed strong connections with

JEFF LARSEN

—Site Lead, CDL-Atlantic AVP, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dalhousie University

stakeholders across the region, and the success of our Newfoundland sessions has reinforced the value of hosting events in each province. Next year we will continue with this focus, taking our spring session to the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

Another highlight was our partnership with Ocean Visions Launchpad to support teams developing ocean-based carbon removal solutions, as part of the $100M XPRIZE competition funded by the Musk Foundation. We were thrilled when the competition announced that one of our CDL-Atlantic oceans ventures Planetary was awarded one of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Milestone Awards valued at $1 million. Read more about what they are doing in our venture stories.

We are always striving to increase diversity at CDL, and this year we were proud to work with our colleagues at CDL-Montreal and CDL-Rockies on a pilot program for Female+ Founders. Our sites developed and delivered three pieces of additional programming with a gender-equity approach that provided our female+ technical founders additional growth opportunities. There is still more to be done, but we are committed to educating our stakeholders and empowering change by mobilizing the community to break down barriers.

If the first five years are any indication of the success CDL-Atlantic is having in our ecosystem, we can’t wait to see what is in store for the future. We are grateful for the support of our community, which has allowed us to build something massive in Atlantic Canada.

LESLIE MCNABB-KYRITSIS Director, CDL-Atlantic

Jeff Larsen

Leslie McNabb-Kyritsis

CDL–Atlantic

The first five years

CDL is an objectives-based mentorship program that aims to help seed stage science- and tech-based start-up companies become massively scalable businesses.

CDL-Atlantic offers two cohort streams for venture founders, Prime (tech agnostic) and Oceans. We showcase Atlantic Canadian companies and their innovations to the world through the Prime stream, and we introduce Atlantic Canada to the world as a centre of ocean excellence through the Oceans stream.

Super Session Featured Ventures

Wittaya doubled its client list during its time at CDL. The company now has clients in 15 countries.

Wittaya also found the lead investor it was looking for. The venture is in the late stages of raising a USD $3 million seed round, which it expects to be oversubscribed.

OCEANS

Wittaya Aqua International Inc. (Wittaya) is a software as a service company that assists aquaculture operations, feed manufacturers and feed ingredient suppliers use data to make better decisions. Its mission is to help increase global seafood production in a sustainable and ethical manner. Wittaya does this with two main software tools: AquaOp Farm and AquaOp Feed. Their customers consist of small-to-medium-sized enterprises and multinational corporations in the ingredients, feed manufacturing, and farm sectors, as well as some R&D facilities.

Evan Hall, Co-Founder & CEO, Wittaya

PRIME NovaResp Technologies Inc. (NovaResp) is a medical technology company that is developing the world’s first AI-enabled predictive and preventative continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. CPAP therapy is used to treat respiratory conditions such as obstructive sleep apnea. NovaResp’s proprietary cMAP software can be integrated into any existing CPAP machine and uses low-pressure therapy which requires less energy, allowing the venture to develop its own CPAP machine that can be battery-enabled, wearable, more comfortable and portable than existing solutions.

Mentors pushed NovaResp to refine its business plan so that it can accelerate getting to market while emphasizing the value of the company. NovaResp is now ready to raise a seed-plus round of USD $2 million and has already received interest and commitment from investors, including from investors in the CDL network.

Hamed Hanafi, President, NovaResp Technologies

Stream Highlights

PRIME frenter is a B2B SaaS rental platform for consumers and businesses. Current technology for businesses who are looking to advertise their rental products and for consumers who are looking to contribute to the sharing economy are outdated, lack point-of-sale (POS) integration, and don’t collect relevant data to improve the business. Frenter’s platform acts as the “Shopify for rentals,” providing tools such as its quick-listing, AI-powered software for owners and renters to easily become a part of the circular economy.

“Zach (frenter) is a very motivated entrepreneur and is only 16 years old. Throughout his time at CDL, Zach was able to learn and soak up every bit of knowledge, and apply it immediately. Since he started at CDL-Atlantic, Zach built a functioning platform, found their first group of paying customers (and grew the customer base each session), closed a funding round, and has expanded their team.”

Sarah Murphy Partner, Pelorus Venture Capital Ltd. CDL-Atlantic Associate

OCEANS

Planetary Technologies is a cleantech company developing a highly-scalable, cost-effective negative emissions technology that permanently removes carbon from the air and stores it safely within ocean chemistry. It aims to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change through carbon removal while providing value-added carbon-negative or carbon-neutral products to industry.

Planetary Technologies was 1 of 15 winners of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Milestone Award for its accelerated carbon transition platform.

In essence, the prize says “we believe that these solutions have the ability to go the distance.” It shows confidence, based on deep diligence, that carbon removal technology will scale and that these companies can be trusted. That’s the big impact of the XPRIZE.

“ When it comes to investment, the ocean can be a high-risk and challenging place to do business. But the growing market opportunity to generate strong financial returns while making a positive impact on the ocean and planet is too great to ignore.”

—Eric Siegel Oceans Stream Executive in Residence

Investing in ocean start-ups provides triple bottom line returns

On The Rock

Ten days before CDL-Atlantic was scheduled to host a session in St. John’s, Newfoundland the world shut down. Finally in May 2022, for the first time in over two years, we were able to host an in-person session again, so we took it to “The Rock” to close out the 2021/22 program year in Newfoundland!

“ Being back in person for CDL after two years of Covid two weeks ago in Montreal and last week in St. John’s — reminded me of how special Creative Destruction Lab really is and what a game-changer it’s been for Canada.”

—Chris Neumann CDL-Atlantic Associate, Prime Stream

Venture Showcase

We were excited to feature four Newfoundland based CDL-Atlantic alumni companies in a Venture Showcase on the first night of our St. John’s sessions. Mentor Cathy Bennett moderated a panel with the founders of CoLab Software, Granville Biomedical, MYSA, and SucSeed to highlight the amazing things happening in the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem of Newfoundland and Labrador.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Cathy Bennett, Joshua Green (MYSA), Crystal Northcott (Granville Biomedical), Adam Keating (CoLab Software), and Emily Bland (SucSeed)

“Nothing beats personal interactions, senses are heightened, attention is undivided, feedback is instantaneous; of course having the narrows of St. John’s harbour as your backdrop for the day is undeniably gorgeous.”

Stephen Jones Chief Business Development Officer, Ashored Inc. Oceans Stream Venture

Student Engagement

“ I am grateful that the MBA program helped connect me to CDL where I felt like I could use my educational backgrounds in science and business to make an impact on growing startup companies.

After completing an 8-month work term with CDL as part of my MBA, I knew this is where I wanted to start my career: working directly with entrepreneurs who are driving massive innovations in sectors that hit close to home.”

— Carly Corkum

Real World Experiences

CDL applies an experiential learning approach where students (MBAs, Commerce, Executive-MBA, etc) are matched with ventures enrolled in the program. Students get the opportunity for first-hand immersion in the startup ecosystem by taking part in the life of a startup, working on key business development projects for CDL ventures for class credit and developing their entrepreneurial mindset.

This year we had over 40 MBA students participate in the CDL Course from four Atlantic Canadian Universities Dalhousie University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of New Brunswick, and Cape Breton University

Turning a Student Work Term Into a Full Time Career

For the last five years, CDL-Atlantic has hired a Dalhousie MBA student for their 8-month corporate residency. During this work term, the MBA student gets to work in a variety of areas, including program planning, event execution, research, and recruiting.

Since 2017, CDL-Atlantic has had six CRMBA students, three of whom have returned for full-time employment.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Carly Corkum (Venture Manager), Hope Scheller (Venture Manager), Clare Cullen (Program Coordinator)

“The students were fantastic. They were prompt, organized, good communicators, intelligent and delivered us exactly what we needed. We could see all three of them working for us given the work product they provided. We endeavor to stay in touch with them well beyond the CDL program. From our point of view, this was a highlight for us, and with regards to the MBA program, with no area for improvement, it went extremely smoothly and to our liking.”

Eric Hubacheck Venture Founder, Turboplay

Enhanced Programming

Virgil Group Founder Celeste Leroux was impressed with the creativity of the students participating in the oceans module. She receiver over 45 suggested names for her seafood traceability software.

CDL strives to provide experiences to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and encourage individuals to challenge themselves and current statistics. Women represent 51% of the population yet continue to be underrepresented in technical studies and careers, women-led startups, and only 3% of all venture capital is deployed to women. Through its commitment to educate and empower change, the CDL community continues to work towards breaking down such barriers through its enhanced programming.

CDL Apprentice Program

The purpose of the CDL Apprentice Program is to address the gender gap in STEM. This is an online, multi-module program for women-identified individuals including two-spirit, transgender and non-binary people of 14-18 years of age. Individuals will have a curiosity for STEM-related topics and a keen interest for how science and technology is transforming the world and the opportunities available to the next generation of leaders.

This year the Apprentice Program offered 7 site-specific technological themed virtual modules to over 225 students representing 10 different countries.

For the Oceans Module, in February 2022, CDL-Atlantic welcomed 6 mentors and 2 Oceans tech company founders to lead discussions with students on the importance and challenges concerning Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Students also participated in a product branding & marketing exercise for a seafood traceability software.

Female+ Founders

This year over 80 participants from Canada’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem participated in a new initiative to support CDL female+ founders.

A collaboration between CDL-Atlantic, CDL-Montreal, and CDL-Rockies, this pilot program aimed at providing technical female+ founders access to additional educational and growth opportunities.

CDL-Atlantic took the lead on the delivery of CDL-Max, the final event in the pilot program designed to showcase and connect female+ led ventures from the three locations to mentors outside their home site.

One of the CDL Max venture founders from CDL-Rockies commented “I was happy to be able to connect with mentors that I had not yet been in front of. I thought the feedback was in valuable and it is great to see support for women lead ventures.”

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Fireside Chat Exploring attributes of successful founders and the role of gender perceptions.

Featuring CDL Mentors Shannon MacDonald and Gary Griffiths.

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

CDL Learn for Mentors on the Gender Gap in VC Sensitizing the mentor community on investing in female-led businesses. Guest speaker Shelley Kuipers from The 51.

APRIL 13, 2022

CDL Max

A showcase of 6 female+ founder led companies connecting them to CDL mentors from other sites for additional investment and support.

CDL Max Participant, Rafaela Andrade, Founder, Myomar Molecular (CDL-Atlantic)

Mentors

Mentors are exited entrepreneurs, successful operators, angel investors, and venture capital partners

Mentor of the Year Award

This annual award was created to recognize and thank a selection of our mentors for excellent contributions to CDL ventures, students, peers and the broader community. These awards were announced at the beginning of each program year.

Bill Barrett Co-CEO, Barrett Corporation FELLOW

Cathy Bennett Partner, Sandpiper Ventures

Marlon Lewis Prof. Emeritus / Senior Ocean Advisor, Dalhousie / Cox & Palmer

Super Session Executive Briefers

CDL-Atlantic delivered Executive Briefings at Super Session for both the Prime and Oceans streams. Mentors Rhiannon Davies and Justin Manley provided an overview of the advances and commercial opportunities in their respective streams for this global CDL network event.

Rhiannon Davies Managing Partner, Sandpiper Ventures ASSOCIATE

Founder, Just Innovation ASSOCIATE SCIENTIST

Justin Manley

ASSOCIATE

Thank You

We are grateful for the support and engagement of the business leaders who were active mentors in 2021-22.

Bill Adams

President, JCove Holdings Limited ASSOCIATE

Steven Adler

CEO, Ocean Data Alliance ASSOCIATE

Andrew Anderson Director of Engineering, Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems Inc ASSOCIATE

Toby Balch Science Partnership Coordinator, DFO SCIENTIST

Rob Barbara Partner, Build Ventures ASSOCIATE

Bill Barrett Co-CEO, Barrett Corporation

FELLOW

Maren Hjorth

Bauer

Managing Partner, Fynd Ocean Ventures

ASSOCIATE

Cathy Bennett Partner, Sandpiper Ventures ASSOCIATE

Catherine Blewett

Chief Strategic Engagement Officer, Ocean Frontier Institute GUEST ASSOCIATE

Michael Brasseur Co-Chair, NATO Maritime Unmanned Systems Innovation Advisory Board

ASSOCIATE

Peter Bryant

Senior Program Officer Oceans, Builders Initiative ASSOCIATE, SITE FUNDING PARTNER

Kyle Campbell Founder, CTO.ai ASSOCIATE

CDL

-Prime, -Oceans

Chère Chapman CEO, Ardea Outcomes

ASSOCIATE

Fraser Clarke President & CEO, Massage Addict ASSOCIATE

Donald Clow

President & CEO, Crombie REIT ASSOCIATE

Matt Cooper Acting CEO, VOLTA GUEST ASSOCIATE

Wayne Crawley Partner, Venor GUEST ASSOCIATE

Todd Crescenzo

Founder & Managing Partner, Clear Creek Investments, LLC ASSOCIATE

Kate Danaher Managing Director, S2G Ventures ASSOCIATE

Sally Daub

Founder, Pool Ventures

FELLOW

Rhiannon Davies Managing Partner, Sandpiper Ventures ASSOCIATE

Adam de Sola Pool Partner, Blue Angels Investment Group ASSOCIATE

Mark Dobbin President, Killick Capital FOUNDING PARTNER, FELLOW

Gus Domel Investment Associate, Boost VC ASSOCIATE

Joe Dwyer Founding Partner, Manifold Group ASSOCIATE

Geoff Flood Tech Advisory Leader Atlantic Canada, MVP Corp ASSOCIATE

Thank You

Malcolm Fraser

President & CEO, Innovacorp ASSOCIATE

Spencer Fraser Business Development, Inocea Group of Companies ASSOCIATE

Oyvind FyllingJensen CEO, Nofima AS The Norwegian Institute of Food Fisheries and Aquaculture Research ASSOCIATE

Ted Graham

Principal, GM Ventures GUEST ASSOCIATE

Luke Halsey Partner, AiiM Partners GUEST ASSOCIATE

Jim Hanlon

Owner, Convergent Consulting ASSOCIATE

Erika (Montague) Heine

Chief Technologist, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners INVESTIGATOR

Paul Hill

Founder and Managing Director, Sparkasa Capital ASSOCIATE

Jim Horowitz

Senior Manager, Beresford Ventures ASSOCIATE

Chris Huskilson Former CEO & President, Emera Incorporated FOUNDING PARTNER, FELLOW

Richard Janega COO, Emera Inc. ASSOCIATE

Ted Janulis

Founder & Principal, Investable Oceans ASSOCIATE

Mark Jollymore President, Innovasea Systems Inc ASSOCIATE

Savior Joseph President, Breathing Green Solutions ASSOCIATE

Rangesh Kasturi President, L3Harris Maritime International ASSOCIATE

Patrick Keefe CEO, Neocon International ASSOCIATE

David Kelly CEO, Innovasea ASSOCIATE

David Koweek

Science Director, Ocean Visions SCIENTIST

Peter Larden

President, ExxonMobil Canada FELLOW

Eva Lau

Founding and General Partner, Two Small Fish Ventures ASSOCIATE

Nicole LeBlanc Partner, 2150 VC ASSOCIATE

Paul LeBlanc CEO, 7th Wave Capital ASSOCIATE

Marlon Lewis Prof. Emeritus/ Senior Ocean Advisor, Dalhousie/ Cox & Palmer SCIENTIST

John Lindsay Chairman, East Port Properties ASSOCIATE, SUPPORTER

Eric Lindstrom Chief Scientist, Saildrone SCIENTIST

Birgit Liodden

Founder, TOOL GUEST ASSOCIATE

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS

Atle Lohrmann

CTO, Nortek AS ASSOCIATE

Scott Loong

Partner, Panache Ventures ASSOCIATE

Michael Lyon

Chief Executive Officer, Lyon Capital Services ASSOCIATE

Jevon MacDonald

Co-Founder & CEO, Manifold FELLOW

Shannon MacDonald Managing Director, Accenture ASSOCIATE

Laurie MacKeigan

President, Backman Vidcom GUEST ASSOCIATE

Matt MacLellan

President, Atlantic Region, Rogers Communications ASSOCIATE

Leslie Magee

Principal Maytree, Developments

GUEST ASSOCIATE

Justin Manley

Founder, Just Innovation ASSOCIATE

Paola Marignani Professor, Dalhousie University SCIENTIST

Ken Marshall Director, KTM Ventures Inc

GUEST ASSOCIATE

Jen McCain President, Irie Capital Corporation

ASSOCIATE

Larsen Mettler

Managing Director, S2G Ventures

ASSOCIATE

Matthew Miles Southwest Properties Ltd, Senior Financial Analyst

GUEST ASSOCIATE

CDL Affiliation

-Prime, -Oceans

Kristi Miller

Managing Partner, Natural Products Canada (NPC) Ventures ASSOCIATE

Chris Moyer Director, Pelorus VC ASSOCIATE

Sarah Murphy Partner, Pelorus VC ASSOCIATE

Melanie Nadeau CEO, Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship ASSOCIATE

Chris Neumann

Partner, Panache Ventures ASSOCIATE

Carolyn O’Keefe Owner, Thinkwell ASSOCIATE

Robert Orr

Managing Director, Cuna del Mar LP ASSOCIATE

Andy Osburn

Principal Consultant, Nymi ASSOCIATE

Thomas Park Partner, BDC Deep Tech Fund ASSOCIATE

Millicent Pitts Executive Director, Ocean Exchange ASSOCIATE

Christian Rangen Founder, Engage Innovate

GUEST ASSOCIATE

Olivier Raybaud

Managing Partner, Blue Oceans Partners

ASSOCIATE

Jolene Reid Investment Principal, Sandpiper Ventures ASSOCIATE

John Risley

Chairman & CEO, CFFI Ventures Inc.

FOUNDING PARTNER, FELLOW

Thank You

Marc Savoie

Executive In Residence, East Valley Ventures ASSOCIATE

Brice Scheschuk

Managing Partner, Globalive Capital ASSOCIATE

Shally Shanker

Founder & Managing Partner, AiiM Partners ASSOCIATE

Leah Skerry Co-founder, Squiggle Park/ Dreamscape ASSOCIATE

Ian Smith

Chief Executive Officer, Clearwater Seafoods ASSOCIATE

Jonathan Sobey Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Longshot Capital ASSOCIATE

Jim Spatz

Executive Chairman, Southwest Properties Ltd FOUNDING PARTNER, FELLOW

Marc St. Onge

CEO, Smallfood Inc. ASSOCIATE

Matt Stanley Investment Director Cleantech, BDC Capital ASSOCIATE

Tobias Stapleton Co-founder, Managing Director, Blue Innovation Symposium INVESTIGATOR

Richard Stavis Founder, Stavis Consulting, LLC ASSOCIATE

Andrew Swanson

VP R&D, Cooke Aquaculture Inc ASSOCIATE

Jason Thompson CTO, Oceankind ASSOCIATE

Dawn Umlah President, Founder, CEO, COO Coaching ASSOCIATE

Jennifer Wagner President, CarbonCure Technologies ASSOCIATE

Neil Wainwright

Founder, UpHabit ASSOCIATE

Anya Waite

CEO and Scientific Director, Ocean Frontier Institute SCIENTIST

Doug Wallace Canada Excellence Research Chair

Laureate and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Ocean Science and Technology, Dalhousie University SCIENTIST

CDL

-Prime, -Oceans

CELEBRATING FIVE YEARS

Jeff White

CEO, New Brunswick Innovation Foundation ASSOCIATE

Pamela Winsor Principal, Winsor HealthSystems Consulting ASSOCIATE

Boris Worm Professor, Dalhousie University SCIENTIST

Partners

Thank you to all of our partners that support us in our Prime and Oceans streams.

Founding Partners

George Armoyan

Mark Dobbin

Chris Huskilson

John Risley

Ken Rowe

Frank Sobey

Rob Sobey

Jim Spatz

Rob Steele

Corporate Partners

Bank of Montréal Business Development Bank of Canada Builders Initiative Canadian Special Operations Forces Command Canada’s Ocean Supercluster ExxonMobil KPMG Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Royal Canadian Navy

Supporters

Atlantic Canada

Opportunities Agency Innovacorp Invest NS John Lindsay Volta

Upcoming Session Dates

Prime HALIFAX/FREDERICTON

November 9, 2022 Session #1

January 31, 2023 AM Session #2

February 1, 2023 PM Session #2

March 28, 2023 Session #3

May 10, 2023 Session #4

Oceans HALIFAX

October 6, 2022 Session #1

January 31, 2023 PM Session #2

February 1, 2023 AM Session #2 March 29, 2023 Session #3

May 17, 2023 Session #4

Global TORONTO

June 13 & June 14, 2023

Super Session

Sessions highlighted in pink will be held in person, all other sessions will be held online via Zoom.

Oxford

Estonia Berlin

Paris

CDL-ATLANTIC WAS THE FIRST SITE IN THE GLOBAL NETWORK TO DELIVER A VIRTUAL SESSION IN 2020

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