Announced today, 27 businesses have received funding and mentorship through Innovacorp’s ocean technology and clean technology acceleration programs this fall — including Graphite Innovation and Technologies (GIT).
GIT co-founder Mo Algermozi was on hand for the announcement at the Technology Innovation Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The event featured speeches from local elected government officials, including Member of Parliament Darren Fisher, who was speaking on behalf of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Minister Navdeep Bains.
GIT was awarded funding in two programs offered by Innovacorp — the Clean Tech Accelerate Program and the global competition, Blue Solutions Start-Up Challenge.
The CleanTech Accelerate Program helps Nova Scotia blue and green technology companies get investment ready. GIT will receive $40,000 in non-dilutive, non-repayable funding to address key technical and business milestones. In addition to the funding, GIT will get access to a series of acceleration activities and resources.
The Blue Solutions Start-Up Challenge is a competition to build on the increasing ocean technology development across our region and to ignite the start-up community in Nova Scotia. As a round one winner of Blue Solutions, GIT will receive $10,000 in non-dilutive, non-repayable funding and will pitch for the chance for another $50,000 in January 2018.
“Participating in Innovacorp’s ocean acceleration programs will push our company forward,” said Mr. Algermozi. “We are very excited to put this funding into action to help us refine our innovations and build even stronger products.”
GIT’s winning entries were aimed at further developing it’s disruptive marine product, GrapheneCoat™. GrapheneCoat™ is an anti-biofouling marine coating which utilizes graphene to create a formula that works to protect ship hulls from corrosion and biofouling, helping to increase fuel efficiency and the longevity of boat hulls. By discouraging the growth of organisms, this innovative coating drastically improve the performance of a boat over its lifetime.
It’s worth noting that GIT was the only cross winner selected, having been selected as a recipient in both the ocean tech and clean tech acceleration programs.
GIT was also selected for an interview with CBC Nova Scotia reporter Paul Withers after the announcement event. The segment will air during the local news broadcast at 6:00pm (AST) on CBC Nova Scotia.
For the list of the other companies participating in Innovacorp’s ocean and clean technology programs, visit https://innovacorp.ca/news/ocean-and-clean-technology-program-participan…