TORONTO, ON — February 16, 2016

12 Canadian startups have been selected from across the country to pitch to investors like OMERS, Whitecap Venture Partners, YEDI, Extreme Venture Partners, DMZ at Ryerson University at the 2016 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit. The finalists are:

1. Comfable
2. Eye-LIVE Media
3. Flipd
4. NERv Technology
5. Pinnguaq
6. Riipen
7. Rna Diagnostics
8. Smart Halo
9. Stashbelt
10. The Sharing Depot
11. Vizwik
12. Yirego Technology

Each of the finalists will also have a chance to win one of four sponsored prize packages.

The Summit, to be held on March 3, 2016, attracts investors, service providers and alternative finance leaders from Canada and around the world. This year’s summit already has over 60 speakers lined up including keynote Bill Morrow, founder and CEO of Angels Den, the UK’s largest angel-led crowdfunding platform.

To learn more about the 2016 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit, visit www.crowdfundingsummit.ca.

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Comfable Inc. is a tech start-up whose mission is to create comfortable and sustainable environments. Their latest product is called QTemp, a smart wearable weather station that measures UV index and temperature. Based on the measured UV and users’ skin type, QTemp calculates the safe sun time and notifies them when they need to seek sun protection. The company recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter which raised over $43,000. Location: Toronto, ON

Eye-LIVE is the Athlete’s Media Network for “athlete perspective” sports broadcasting. Like IMAX for documentaries, Eye-LIVE sports content is an immersive, 360° viewing experience that fully engages audiences in the entire spectrum of the athlete experience using GoPro-like camera and sensor technology that is custom configured to each sport. Eye-LIVE empowers all athletes to become their own broadcasters by creating their own network channels. Location: Toronto, ON

Flipd is an innovative mobile app that helps people become less distracted by their phones. It aims to disconnect people from their phones, and reconnect them to reality. If you find yourself easily distracted by games, social media, and other apps, Flipd creates a lock screen that removes distractions, but keeps you connected. With Flipd, you can even remotely lock other people’s phones to keep those around you in check. Flipd has grown 15% month over month since launching. Location: Toronto, ON

NERv aims to reduce the risks that are associated with surgeries by monitoring a patient’s health after a surgical intervention. As a Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology start-up, NERv is developing an implantable biochip designed to detect post-operative complications. The NERv platform consists of implantable biosensors that operate from within the human body to collect data and send feedback to the doctor, allowing medical care facilities to assess critical post-operative changes. Location: Waterloo, ON

Pinnguaq provides high quality technology experiences in a variety of formats that focus on the culture and social growth of Indigenous communities. Pinnguaq was created as a Pangnirtung-based technology startup in 2012 with the goal of providing play experiences in Indigenous languages. Since then, the organization has begun to embrace ways of incorporating play and gaming into wide reaching applications that can benefit tourism, education and economic development. Location: Nunavut

Riipen is an experiential learning platform that connects organizations to top faculty-supervised industry projects completed by university and college students. Students gain real world experience while organizations generate strong brand awareness and leverage millennial insights to grow their business. Riipen’s mission is to eliminate graduate underemployment, thus reducing youth unemployment. Riipen currently has an active equity crowdfunding campaign on Frontfundr. Location: Vancouver, BC

Rna Diagnostics Inc. is a cancer diagnostics company that has developed the first “real time” chemotherapy response guidance tool, the RNA Disruption Assay™ (RDA™), to address the urgent problem of over-treatment with ineffective chemotherapy and to assist oncologists in the management of cancer treatment. RDA provides an effective solution to one of the most serious problems in cancer treatment: how to evaluate response to chemotherapy early so that patients’ treatment can be tailored to their individual responses. Location: Toronto, ON

SmartHalo is a wearable device that turns your bike into a smart bike. SmartHalo not just another bike accessory; its minimalist design is installed permanently and is built to resist the harshest cities. SmartHalo pairs with your smartphone to bring your biking experience to a new level: it finds the quickest and safest routes and bikepaths for you, reminds you where you’re parked and allows you to set fitness goals. SmartHalo recently raised over $538,000 on Kickstarter in just 30 days. Location: Montreal, QC

Stashbelt is an ethical fashion company that creates a wearable insurance policy mixing fashionable peace of mind with a socially conscious twist. Handmade in Kenya from genuine graze-fed and organic leather, the Stashbelt is the world’s premiere travel moneybelt with an 18-inch hidden zipper and built-in USB data storage. Boasted by their appearance on Dragon’s Den in February 2015, StashBelt’s sales have increased by 1000% in 2015. Location: Halifax, NS

The Sharing Depot is a new venture by the founders of the Toronto Tool Library, a tool-sharing program with 4 locations in Toronto that launched in Spring 2013. Beyond loaning tools, the Sharing Depot will expand its loaning program to include camping and sports equipment, house party supplies, board games and toys as well as monthly swapping events. The Sharing Depot’s crowdfunding campaign will launch in Spring 2016. Location: Toronto, ON

Vizwik’s technology fundamentally changes who creates software, revolutionizing both the teaching of programming in the education sector and mobile development in enterprise industries. Vizwik makes coding available for everyone and enables computing to be a common literacy. Its coding tool is designed for teachers to bring coding technology into classrooms and engage students to develop computational thinking skills. Location: Toronto, ON

Yirego Technology Inc. is a Toronto-based product design company geared toward providing sustainable solutions through unconventional design. The company’s flagship product is the Drumi, a foot-powered washing machine with low environmental impact that saves time, energy, and money. It is not only more hygienic than public laundromats, but also a fraction of the time. Yirego has raised over $250,000 on Indiegogo for the Drumi recently. Location: Toronto, ON

About the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada

The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a non-profit actively engaged with both social and investment crowdfunding stakeholders. NCFA Canada provides education, research, leadership, support and networking opportunities to over 1300+ members and create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding industry in Canada.

For more information, please contact:

Media Inquiries:

Craig Asano

416-618-0254

casano@ncfacanada.org

Bill Morrow, Founder and CEO of Angels Den to Keynote the 2016 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit

We couldn’t be more excited to announce this year’s keynote at the 2016 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit on March 3: Bill Morrow, serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Angels Den, the largest angel-led crowdfunding platform in the UK. He has been creating, building and selling businesses for the last 25 years and was recently been named the ‘most influential person in alternative finance’ by City AM.

Angels Den is an angel-led crowdfunding platform where angel investors and experienced business people invest in pre-vetted SMEs. Since 2007, the company has helped more than 170 businesses raise investment from its crowd of 12,000 angel investors. Angels Den operates across 10 countries with another 3 coming on stream this year. As a result of its approach, over 90% of Angel Den’s funded deals are still trading.The company recently raised $1 million from a Mexican family office to launch their angel-led crowdfunding model across Mexico, with bases in five major cities. Following two years of preparation, Angels Den Mexico has ambitious growth plans and strong support from the Mexican government and the investor community.

We were introduced to Bill through the UK Crowdfunding Association (UKCFA), who, like the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA), was also formed in 2012 to promote crowdfunding as a valuable and viable way for businesses, projects or ventures to raise funds, among other objectives. We can’t wait to hear his keynote What Does it take for Crowdfunding to succeed? (8 Years of UK Insight) at #CCS2016!

TORONTO, Jan. 12, 2015 /CNW/ – The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) today announced the 2nd Annual 2016 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit (CCS2016) is to be held on Thursday, March 3, 2016, the foremost destination for leaders in the quickly emerging Canadian crowdfunding economy.

CCS2016 is the Canadian crowdfunding industry’s leading edge and innovative national conference aimed at stimulating business transactions, collaborative partnerships and engagement for crowdfunding, alternative finance and fintech markets.

The overarching theme of this year’s conference is ‘The Future Is Now’: 2016 is anticipated to be the year of crowdfunding, with the majority of provincial securities regulators having adopted new exemptions. These exemptions would allow start-ups and early stage companies to utilize securities crowdfunding by the general public through online portals, validating the need to modernize the capital raising process of private ventures. Globally, crowdfunding grew by 167% to raise $16.2 billion in 2014, and was projected to double (again) in size to over $30 billion in 2015.

The summit will take place at MaRS Discovery District in downtown Toronto with a comprehensive program of over 30 sessions, delivering a full day of education and networking featuring high profile keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, entrepreneurial pitches, mentor sessions, and a trade show showcasing Canada’s most forefront crowdfunding platforms and service providers.

NCFA Canada and partners are also hosting a VIP networking reception on March 2 to provide prime networking opportunities and accommodate out of town guests. Companies that are actively seeking to raise capital from crowdfunding markets are encouraged to apply to pitch to CCS2016 by Feb 5^th end of day.

“There is still time to get involved with the conference” said Craig Asano, Founder and Executive Director of NCFA Canada. This is an open call to all entrepreneurs, investors, expert speakers and conference partners to jump on board to advance the Canadian crowdfunding industry, a key driver to the early stage financing ecosystem.”

NCFA Canada expects the Summit to attract over 500 delegates from across the country this year, varying from crowdfunding industry leaders such as portals, accounting and legal professionals, dealer-brokers, marketers, private angel investors and venture capital funds, social enterprise impact investing companies, government, academia, media journalists and entrepreneurial networks.

Conference organizers promise that, “CCS2016 will be even bigger and better than the inaugural summit – there has been a lot more interest from international markets in the Canadian crowdfunding industry this past year, especially with the new regulations. 2016 will be a milestone year as crowdfunding continues to grow exponentially around the world.”

Register for CCS2016 today!