InnoCité MTL is a startup accelerator that directly addresses the needs of city dwellers. The private sector, mainly formed by startups, will implement solutions to urban issues.
Program
InnoCité MTL, a startup accelerator for a smarter cityWe bring startups and cities together to make cities smarter. Cities from all around the world are looking for solutions to accelerate their shift to the 21st century. This is a huge market opportunity and we want to help startups to leverage this opportunity.
Step 1
Selection
We closed selection process for the next cohort on December 14 of last year. Five startups were selected and they will begin on March 14, 2016. we are currently looking for startups for our next cohort which will begin in September 2016. Please sign up to our newsletter to stay informed of important dates and events.
Step 2
Acceleration
Our 12-week acceleration program focuses on product market fit and includes:
- a catalog of training and practical workshops
- a diverse mentors ecosystem including entrepreneurs, corporate executives as well as municipal representatives
- individual coaching throughout the program for selected startups
- the possibility to test your product with the City of Montreal or other InnoCité partners
The acceleration will be divided into three phases:
- Defining value proposition (weeks 1 to 4)
- Achieve and demonstrate scalability of the product/business (weeks 5 to 8)
- Establish go-to-market strategy (weeks 9 to 12)
Step 3
Test
Personalized coaching for startups that run a pilot project with the City of Montreal or another partner of InnoCité.
Selection criteria
We are looking for startups that already have at least one prototype (or demo) and are ready to go to the market or have launched their product and acquired users.
- Have at least 2 co-founders. (We don’t accept solo entrepreneurs)
- Founder market fit with at least one team member having expertise in the business field of activity
- Working full-time in the business
- Be available during the 12-week program in Montreal
- The company must have smart city activities related to the field of activities in Montreal’s Action Plan 2015-2017.
- Strong business plan and growth potential.
Administration
General Manager, InnoCité MTL
Béatrice Couture
Beatrice is a corporate lawyer by trade who acquired experience working in fast growth small companies. She gained a solid experience with municipal sales and infrastructure project management as a team member of BIXI business development team managing the system implementation in major Canadian and American cities.
Chairman, Board of Directors
Jacques Bernier
Jacques is a highly respected venture capitalist, entrepreneur and investor who’s helped shape the Canadian technological innovation scene. Through a 30 year career of contributions to the high-tech community, he has been actively involved in more than a dozen emerging high-tech companies as Founder/CEO or angel investor as well as Senior Vice-President of the Solidarity Fund QFL. He's currently a Managing Partner at Teralys Capital.
Member, Board of Directors
Jean-Nicolas
Jean-Nicolas Delage is actively engaged in the startup community. He specializes in the protection, management and commercialization of intellectual property assets, including patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights. He frequently advises clients in the context of commercial transactions involving intellectual property. He's curently a Partner at Fasken Martineau
Member, Board of Directors
Francis Guimond
Francis is a Partner at EY, where he works primarily in business advisory services. Over the last 20 years, he has developed extensive experience in financial auditing of public and private companies, while providing technical advice on the application of Canadian, American and IFRS accounting principles.
Member, Board of Directors
David Nault
David is a Principal with iNovia Capital, an early stage venture capital firm with $275M under management. David is a long time technology entrepreneur and started his career at VIPswitch as President for a disruptive telecom technology for which he helped raise $15 million to grow. Later, while Director of Business Development at Pivotal Payments, he helped grow the company to over 60,000 customers, 400 employees and $150 million in annual revenue.
Advisor
Sylvain Carle
Sylvain Carle lives and breathes emerging technologies. For the last 20 years, he has thrived with marvel and fun at the confluence of media, technology and networks. Entrepreneurship, web software architecture, APIs, digital and social media as well as open-source software and open standards are all at the core of his competence and passion. He has been on many community technology group boards and a serial entrepreneur, CTO and co-founder since 2000. Most recently he was Senior Developer Advocate at Twitter in San Francisco, helping strategic partners get the most of the blue bird’s APIs and technology products.