Planet Hatch Launched In Knowledge Park
September 16th, 2013
Knowledge Park and Enterprise Fredericton officially launched Planet Hatch (formerly called the CEALT- Commercialization Environment for Advanced Learning Technologies) Centre and its ACcelR8 program.
Planet Hatch is the first centre of its kind in Atlantic Canada, and was modelled after best practices from around the globe. The Centre is described as an ‘entrepreneurial hub’ connecting startups with the best resources.
Planet Hatch’s accelerator program, ACcelR8, will provide early-stage companies with access to coaching, mentoring, funding, space and educational tools to commercialize their technologies into game-changing products and services.
The first cohort of six come from varying knowledge-based sectors like ICT, aerospace & defence, advanced manufacturing design to biotech. The program is designed to ‘navigate, align, refine and push’ them through a three-month program with the option to remain in the centre for one year dependent on their growth stage.
On May 21, 2013, the Government of Canada, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), announced an investment of $495,000 to provide foundational support to Planet Hatch during the first three years.
“Our Government is committed to supporting innovative projects like Planet Hatch that contribute to economic growth in Atlantic Canada,” said the Honourable Rob Moore, Minister of State for ACOA, who was present at the event. “The creation of this important program will provide critical support to better position entrepreneurs in our region for commercial success.”
As part of the Province’s Innovation Growth Agenda, Premier David Alward announced today $250,000 to provide early support seed funding of $25,000 per entrepreneur up to ten entrepreneurs in the first year of the program.
“Investing in New Brunswick’s next innovative success stories is an essential part of our government’s plan to create jobs in communities and rebuild the economy,” said Premier Alward. “We are pleased to partner with Knowledge Park and contribute to its vision of creating an acceleration and commercialization centre to help New Brunswick startups grow and create jobs.”
Sally Ng, Executive Director of Planet Hatch, announced the founding partners as follows: Knowledge Park, Enterprise Fredericton, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), Province of New Brunswick, City of Fredericton, University of New Brunswick, Office Interiors and Haworth. Technology founding partners are GoFredNet and 3D datacomm.
“The ACcelR8 program is an integral element of the City of Fredericton’s Vision 2020 Economic Development Strategy – focused on positioning Fredericton as ‘Atlantic Canada’s Startup Capital’”, said His Worship Mayor Brad Woodside. “We are pleased to be a founding partner of this exciting initiative, and strengthening the pathway to support startups through Enterprise Fredericton, and our new GoFredNet product – offering connectivity and some of the lowest commercial internet rates in Canada!”
More than 170 entrepreneurs, mentors and community leaders attended the launch party including David Alston, CMO at Introhive, who offered praise for the ACcelR8 program – “Planet Hatch gives new entrepreneurs access to resources needed to shorten the time between idea stage and go to market. This is often a very fragile stage for startups when finances are tight and key decisions will have a big impact on the firms’ course for success. The program can help infuse knowledge that might usually come from the school of hard knocks.”