Who needs those extra two days, anyway?
It might have been the shortest month of the year, but Waterloo still posted stellar results in tech, research and innovation in February. Our tech ecosystem made significant strides with record deals, exciting funding announcements and impressive partnerships, while our research community garnered attention in the sustainability, aerospace and medtech fields.
Here are the top stories from last month:
OpenText acquires Micro Focus in historic deal
OpenText kicked off the month of February with the biggest deal ever made in Waterloo tech history. With its $5.8B acquisition of British tech company Micro Focus, OpenText is now one of the biggest B2B software providers in the world.
" With this acquisition, OpenText’s corporate mission expands to help enterprise professionals secure their operations, gain more insight into their information, and better manage an increasingly hybrid and complex digital fabric with a new generation of tools "
Mark Barrenechea
CEO & CTO, OpenText
Waterloo tech companies announce major funding
Three local tech companies – Plum, MappedIn and Swap Robotics – hit the funding jackpot this month.
Plum, an HR tech startup tackling the talent crisis, secured $8M CAD in growth funding. The organization places the right people in the right roles in bigger enterprises, a crucial task during a time when many industries are struggling to find, attract and retain top talent.
MappedIn raised $8.6M CAD in Series A funding, accelerating the Waterloo company’s plans to scale its indoor-mapping tools and services. The funding will help MappedIn address the growing demand for digital maps of buildings and indoor spaces.
Swap Robotics, a cleantech company, scored $7M in seed funding this past month. Swap Robotics is known for its disruptive solutions in the cleantech and sustainability ecosystem, with a particular focus on solar farms.
eleven-x selected for major smart-parking tech deployment
eleven-x is in the smart-parking big leagues. The Waterloo-based startup was tapped by Arlington County in Virginia for one of the largest deployments of smart-parking tech in North America. Founded in 2015 by former BlackBerry engineers, eleven-x builds low-power, wide-area networks in major cities, helping to improve the quality of life across the country.
Miovision acquires MicroTraffic in its third acquisition to date
Local traffic software company Miovision acquired startup MicroTraffic with the goal of bringing collision predictions to its traffic management tech. Miovision uses a combination of computer vision, AI and advanced analytics to help cities reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. The addition of MicroTraffic’s predictive modeling technology will help predict potential car crashes, further improving safety on our roads.
New partnerships will advance AI, research in the nuclear sector
Communitech is partnering with the Vector Institute, a cornerstone of artificial intelligence (AI) research and innovation in Canada, to help Canadian businesses leverage the power of AI. CEO Chris Albinson said, “Working in partnership with Vector will add more than extra horsepower to our mission of helping Canada’s tech founders start, grow, and succeed.”
But that wasn’t the only exciting partnership announced in Waterloo in February. The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo) is collaborating with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and Western University to advance collaborative research opportunities in the nuclear sector, and fuel innovation in key sectors, like additive manufacturing, clean energy and security.
UWaterloo innovators tackle global challenges head on
Researchers and innovators at UWaterloo are making a positive impact around the globe with innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges.
From autonomous air travel that prioritizes remote communities, to research on Canada’s first net-zero energy building and the reduction of landfill waste, to disruptive medtech innovations that can predict the effectiveness of breast cancer chemotherapy and save stroke victims, UWaterloo is paving the way for a safer, more sustainable future.
Waterloo’s top manufacturers share the spotlight
Some of the world’s top manufacturers – like Toyota, ATS Automation and BWX Technologies – call Waterloo home. The list goes on, with many other companies that are innovating, collaborating and contributing to Waterloo’s thriving manufacturing ecosystem. We took the opportunity to showcase them in our recent blog article.
Don’t miss out! The Waterloo Innovation Summit returns
The Waterloo Innovation Summit hosted by UWaterloo is returning on April 21, 2023, at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. The theme of the event is Rethinking Global Travel: Designing more sustainable journeys from A to B. Register here to attend.
Speak with one of our Market Development Managers.