Tag: Startups

Coffee grounds make for stronger cement. Other types of waste are increasingly popular too. (Using wine residue?) a Toronto-based startup is extracting nanocrystals from chitin, which is found in crab, shrimp and lobster shells. With a formula containing just 1% of chitin nanocrystal, the team has created a sustainable packaging film. A single-layer solution without chemical glue, it can...

A dating app is bringing people with disabilities together. Now, an Ottawa-based startup is ensuring people with physical disabilities get the help they need by connecting them with caregivers on a new digital platform. It might be personal hygiene, cleaning and cooking. But equally shopping, collecting the post and providing speedy assistance when clients’ potentially height-adjustable, electric wheelchairs break...

Taking mushrooms straight from the parking lot into the kitchen is a practical solution. Along similar lines, a startup in the Vancouver area is currently developing a stand-alone smart system for vertical farming planned as franchise. Its USP? The fact that it’s for small buildings specifically and helps owners grow fruit, vegetables and herbs in their underused spaces such...

Thanks to innovative lung models, testing new medication on animals could soon be ancient history. Human lungs are usually examined by X-ray or ultrasound scans. But now a Canadian startup is working on a modern, mobile solution. Around 120,000 ultrasound clips were analysed, with 270,000 individual images extracted, each annotated with details on healthy and sick tissue and with...

Supply and demand of biological waste is becoming more transparent. Meanwhile, in order to promote the funding of sustainable projects, a Portuguese startup has launched a platform for private individuals and organisations. Both can invest in projects and receive interest of up to 9% each year. In turn, projects by profit-oriented or charitable organisations must adhere to the UN’s...

Cars could be protected from theft by a safe-like coding system. Anyone who works in public places would welcome the chance to leave their laptop unattended. To use the toilet for instance. Research shows that worldwide around 10% of laptops are stolen. Enter a US startup and its easy-to-install solution. A mounting arm is taped to the underside of...

Thanks to a personal initiative, Inuktitut is being kept alive. Indigenous peoples are enormously knowledgeable and innovative, but one of the hurdles for their founders is securing funding. Now, a Canadian TV show launched by an Indigenous woman is putting Indigenous entrepreneurs on the map. Any new company can apply so long as its business model prioritises sustainability, saves...

People can grow sustainable vegetables from their sofas and know exactly where they come from. The same cannot be said for supermarket-bought food, even organic produce. Which is why an Argentinian startup is developing solutions to verify the agricultural supply chain’s sustainability. First, NASA images of the production area are analysed. This helps determine whether areas were created through...