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Entrepreneurship

Tech e@SFU start-up wins third place in global sustainability competition

Jun 18, 2019

The SFU student founders of technology start-up Novion have won third place in the global Enzen Hackathon after competing against more than 650 companies. The three-phase hackathon sought solutions for tackling worldwide energy, water and environmental challenges. Novion grew out of the Technology Entrepreneurship@SFU program (Tech e@SFU), where John Nguyen, who is graduating from SFU’s Beedie School of Busines, Devpreet Bhullar, who graduates this month from mechatronic systems engineering, and mechatronic alumnus Refayet Siam teamed […]

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Beedie MBA alumni take top prize at SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition

Apr 30, 2019

A start-up that uses drone technology to make geospatial data more accessible has won SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition. Spexi GeoSpatial emerged from a slate of promising early-stage SFU entrepreneurs to win SFU’s eighth annual Coast Capital Savings Venture Prize competition, claiming the title of ‘top venture’ and taking home a cash and in-kind prize package worth $35,000. The start-up aims to empower organizations by using drone technology to deliver aerial intelligence at scale. The firm’s […]

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Young innovators showcase ventures at OppFest

Mar 29, 2019

The next generation of young entrepreneurs gathered at SFU Surrey on Thursday, March 28, 2019, for the ninth annual Opportunity Fest (OppFest) event. Competitors from many SFU faculties, as well as high-school entrepreneurs, showcased their innovative ventures and vied for prizes in a range of categories at the largest OppFest event yet, sponsored by Westminster Savings and presented by SFU’s Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship. The overall grand prize winner for the venture that best exemplifies […]

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Digital health solution and pioneering medical treatment win SFU Beedie science and tech venture competition

Oct 19, 2018

An advanced fuel cell technology, a treatment for arthritis, and a wearable massage device were among the ventures pitched to a panel of industry judges at the third annual Venture Pitch Competition at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. The event, which took place on October 10, 2018, brought together five scientist-entrepreneurship students in the third cohort of the invention to Innovation (i2I) program at SFU Beedie’s Segal Graduate School. This graduate certificate program […]

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2017-18 Tech Entrepreneurship@SFU cohort presents challenge-driven startups

Aug 27, 2018

On August 7th, 2018, the latest cohort of the Technology Entrepreneurship@SFU (tech e@SFU) program presented the startups they have developed to over the past year at an event at the Westminster Savings Theatre at SFU’s Surrey Campus. Tech e@SFU is a high-tech entrepreneurship program, funded by Innovate BC (formerly BCIC) and the SpencerCreo Foundation, offering hands-on training, mentoring, funding and guidance from faculty members in both the Beedie School of Business and Mechatronics Systems Engineering (MSE). The […]

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SFU Beedie-linked businesses honoured in tech recognition list

May 23, 2018

Nine companies with close ties to SFU’s Beedie School of Business have been named among the 2018 winners of Ready to Rocket, a recognition program for British Columbia’s tech sector that showcases the growing tech companies. The Ready to Rocket honourees are broken down by sector, and sub-divided between early stage ventures on ‘Emerging Rocket’ lists, and more established companies on ‘Ready to Rocket’ lists. The companies span a range of technologies in sectors including […]

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SFU Beedie explores offering credit to high school students completing youth entrepreneurship program

May 16, 2018

SFU’s Beedie School of Business has announced a unique agreement with Youth Entrepreneurship Leadership Launchpad (YELL) to explore a pilot scheme to give high-school students who complete the YELL entrepreneurship program university course credit at the school. YELL and SFU Beedie will work together to develop a new model to give credit to any student in BC who completes the YELL program, to determine how this might be done. YELL currently offers entrepreneurship training to students […]

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SFU’s Ionomr wins prestigious Energy prize in Berlin

Apr 17, 2018

  An SFU start-up company has won a major international energy award today at Berlin’s Tech Festival. Ionomr was among three companies—including others from Sweden and Israel—in its category and among 18 overall vying for top awards. Company co-founder and SFU PhD student Benjamin Britton is in Berlin and was recognized during the festival’s Energy Transition Dialogue. Britton is also an alumnus of the Invention to Innovation program at SFU’s Beedie School of Business. The companies were […]

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Student entrepreneurs showcase innovations at OppFest

Mar 29, 2018

A student venture that best exemplifies consideration for People, Planet and Profit (known as the triple bottom line), won the grand prize in SFU’s eighth annual Opportunity Fest (OppFest) on Thursday, Mar. 22, 2018. The venture, No Waste No Hunger, works with grocery stores and restaurants to distribute excess food stock, both reducing food waste and providing food to those who need it. The event, sponsored by Vancity, attracted young entrepreneurs from a variety of […]

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SFU alumni launch station-less bikeshare service in B.C.

Mar 22, 2018

A team of three SFU alumni have launched U-bicycle North America, the first dock-less bikeshare program in Western Canada. The all-female leadership team comprises CEO Grace Min (BA, Sociology and Education), Chief Strategic Officer Angel Fu (BBA, Finance and Marketing), and Business, and Chief Marketing Officer Mandy Chan (BA, Communication). After graduating, Min started a successful career as an entrepreneur, founding three businesses in the international trade, property, and travel sectors. Combining her entrepreneurial talents […]

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