Every week I seem to hear about a new venture incubator or accelerator program in Vancouver. This could be good news for entrepreneurs or the sign of a saturating sector! In the meantime, here’s a list of the resources that have come to my attention. If you have used any of these services or know of other programs, do let me know in the comments.
- Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub – cohort model, accepted 7 ventures in its inaugural program for 2013. Focus: social innovation, social entreprise
- Institute B accelerator and BSpoke Consulting – founded by ex-Lululemon senior executives, accelerator, launched business consulting arm in February 2013. Focus: retail, apparel, green business, social purpose businesses, changemakers
- RADIUS – initiative of SFU, RADIUS is RADical Ideas, Useful to Society, a social innovation lab and incubator where students, communities and educators come together to develop and grow creative solutions to tough social problems. Focus: social innovation, social enterprise
- HiVE incubator – presently fundraising for a “Non-Profit Incubator”, a lot like a hospital incubator, that will take non-profits from their infancy to establishing an organization with a well-developed foundation so that they can have a real chance to make a difference in the world. Focus: not-for-profits, social enterprise
- Sanotron – accelerator for digital health entrepreneurs, anticipated to be a 9-month cohort model. Focus: technology/ digital media, health
- Invoke Labs – product incubation arm of Invoke Media, providing incubation services to technology startups with compelling ideas. Focus: technology/ digital media
- Groundswell Grassroots Economic Alternatives – working with people under 35 to build social enterprises, co-ops, non-profits and a different way of doing business. Focus: co-operatives, not-for-profits, social enterprises
If you know of other incubators and accelerators – as a candidate, operator, or otherwise – do get in contact with me or leave a message in the comments. Thank you!
Good list Bonnie!
But do you think we are truly reaching incubator/accelerator saturation (or hype cycle)? Are you concerned that as a medium sized city, we may not have enough qualified ideas/entrepreneurs to sustain these many incubators?
I’m curious to know more about the RADIUS @ SFU & Hive Incubator. Is the latter a project of The HiVE on Hastings St.?
Here are a few more that may be considered on the list. these are gleaned from a post on Quora that I answered on a similar query.
http://www.quora.com/What-support-is-there-for-startups-in-Vancouver/answer/Miraj-Khaled
– Launch Academy. http://www.launchacademy.ca/
– Growlab. http://www.growlab.ca/
These are not exactly incubators, but seems useful.
– Centre4Growth (C4G). http://www.centre4growth.com/
– Peter Thomson Centre for Venture Development @ BCIT. http://www.bcit.ca/business/venture/