Local start-up and scale-up companies will have more access to financial capital than ever before thanks to a $213,000 investment by the federal government.
Accelerate Okanagan, a not-for-profit organization that gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to build technology-driven ventures, recently signed a funding agreement with the National Research Council of Canadan Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) that will support the continuation of its OKGN Angel Summit over the next two years.
The OKGN Angel Summit is an investor-led event put on by Accelerate Okanagan and is designed to raise awareness about angel investing, its benefits and opportunities and to educate accredited investors and entrepreneurs in a participatory manner.
“Investments like this help support entrepreneurs in Canada’s technology and innovation sectors,” said Brea Lake, acting CEO of Accelerate Okanagan.
“Based on the success of our inaugural OKGN Angel Summit, we have no doubt that this funding will have a significant impact on the OKGN tech community for years to come.”
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Accelerate Okanagan recently hosted former summit participants and potential investors at the Innovation Centre in Kelowna to announce the second annual OKGN Angel Summit as well as the new funding agreement.
Accelerate Okanagan programs manager, Thuy Tran, took the opportunity to highlight some of the success following the inaugural event.
“Not only was the OKGN Angel Summit responsible for a $130K investments in Kelowna-based company, Trellis, but it was also the catalyst for more than $4 million in committed investments with multiple participating startups,” said Tran.
“We knew this summit would be an amazing opportunity to connect local investors with local startups but we are blown away by the resounding impact of this project and overwhelmed by the amount of community support we have been able to attract.”
Over the next five years Accelerate Okanagan plans to collaborate with organizations like NRC IRAP to build a network capable of unlocking the capital needed to support local founders and companies of all types and at every stage of growth.
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