Innovation UBC is excited to support the next generation of entrepreneurs building our future. This January, we welcomed 28 new ventures into our Venture Founder program from across the University of British Columbia—with 50% of ventures co-led by women founders. These ventures span AI, biotechnology, healthcare, climate and sustainability, cultural innovation and advanced engineering. They represent the Faculties of Forestry, Applied Science, Medicine, Science, Business, Arts and Computer Science, showcasing the diversity of UBC's entrepreneurial and research ecosystem.
This cohort marks a significant milestone—our 51st since the program's inception over 13 years ago, supporting UBC founders from their earliest ideas through to the growth stage.
Meet our new Venture Founder teams
BioFilmX
Developing cellulose-based film for packaging application, which is expected to reduce the reliance on single use plastic.
- Faculty: Forestry
- Team: Feng Jiang (Founder), Cynthia Truong (Team Member), Penghui Zhu (Team Member)
- Website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/biofilmx/
BioLign
Developing modern tools for clinicians to optimize orthodontic aligner therapy.
- Faculty: Applied Science
- Team: Zaid Badawi (Co-Founder), Faris Alshouani (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://biolign.ca/
Beyond Ozempic
Improving type two diabetes treatment with a new class of drug that improves insulin sensitivity.
- Faculties: Medicine, Science
- Team: Ed Conway (Founder), Kevin Gonzalez (Team Member), Paniz Ghavimi (Team Member)
- Contact: Ed.conway@ubc.ca
C7Bio
Progression of drug to clinical usage improving cancer treatment by blocking the degradation of genomic instability.
- Faculty: Medicine
- Team: Alastair Kyle (Co-Founder), Andrew Minchinton (Co-Founder)
- Contact: aim@bccrc.ca
Canopy
Upcycling forest residues into clean beauty solutions to replace synthetic ingredients.
- Faculties: Applied Science, Forestry
- Team: Ariane Fernandes (Co-Founder), Cecilia Cancellara (Co-Founder), Emily Cranston (Advisor), Eupidio Scopel (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://www.canopybioproducts.com/
Catigen Biosciences
Developing polymeric sRNA therapies to expand treatment options for patients.
- Faculty: Applied Science
- Team: Anna Blakney (Co-Founder), Anneke Strumpel (Team Member), Josh Friesen (Co-Founder)
- Contact: josh.friesen@ubc.ca
Circuit
Creating a centralized network for creatives to support career growth.
- Faculties: Business, Arts, UBC Okanagan
- Team: Peter Idoko (Founder), Ayah Hamdona (Company Executive)
- Website: http://wavecircuit.app/
ConsensX (formerly CLEAR AI)
Scribing and connecting diverse health voices for transparent, evidence-based decisions.
- Faculty: Applied Science, Medicine
- Team: Bhushan Gopaluni (Co-Founder), Ibrahim Yousef (Co-Founder), Kendall Ho (Co-Founder)
Clio-X Data Solutions Ltd.
Empowering ethical AI use for organizations, communities and individuals globally.
- Faculty: Applied Science, Science
- Team: Brandon Li (Co-Founder), Chris Zhou (Co-Founder), Victoria Lemieux (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://cliox.io/
Counterforce AI
Creating information-defense infrastructure for nations to safeguard digital trust.
- Faculty: Applied Science
- Team: Jamie Forrest (Director), Meaghan Thumath (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://herolab.nursing.ubc.ca/
Cryo-Analytics
Enabling ultrasensitive medical diagnostics for global communities using water freezing.
- Faculty: Science
- Team: Nadine Borduas-Dedekind (Advisor), Paris Salamon (Co-Founder), Ghina Darwish (Co-Founder), Paul Bieber (Co-Founder), Russ Algar (Advisor)
- Contact: pbieber@chem.ubc.ca
Edvise
Predicting disengagement for students, employees, and patients to improve retention.
- Faculty: Applied Science
- Team: Adait Khanna (Co-Founder), Jeremy Huang (Co-Founder), Simon Wilton (Co-Founder), Sujay Potlapelly (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://www.edvise.org/
Entoq Environmental
Delivering holistic waste solutions for communities to achieve zero landfill waste.
- Faculty: Business
- Team: Robert Clark (Co-Founder), Sandeep Karthik Lokala (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://entoq.com/
Filemind
Centralizing construction data to keep projects on time and budget.
- Faculty: Business, Science, Computer Science
- Team: Griffin Velichko (Co-Founder), Torrin Pataki (Co-Founder) and Finn Longhurst (Co-Founder).
- Website: https://www.file-mind.com/
FindTensor (formerly Ion)
Find Tensor automates GPU kernel optimization, making AI inference faster, cheaper.
- Faculty: Science
- Team: Sam Mausberg (Founder)
- Website: https://findtensor.com/
Foodimetric
Bridging nutrition care access gap among Africans through technology.
- Faculty: Land and Food Systems
- Team: Ayomide Ademola (Co-Founder), Folake Sowonoye (Co-Founder), Oluwadamilola Aderemi (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://foodimetric.com/
Formme
One seamless platform to design, produce, and launch fashion brands.
- Faculty: Applied Science, Arts, Science
- Team: Dibyendu Roy (Co-Founder), Mallika Handa (Co-Founder), Mira Sehgal (Co-Founder), Prajna Nayak (Co-Founder), Rythem Shah (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://www.formme.io/
HPUI Systems
Provide keyboard-mouse for smartglasses to improve clinicians productivity.
- Faculty: Science, UBC Okanagan
- Team: Shariff Mohommaed Faleel (Co-Founder), Pourang Irani (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://shariff-faleel.com/
ImmunoWell
Providing an immunity test for the vulnerable to improve health.
- Faculty: Medicine
- Team: Shirin Kalyan (Co-Founder), Neeraja Punde (Co-Founder), Malcolm Kendall (Advisor), Jorg Gsponer (Co-Founder)
- Contact: shirin.kalyan@ubc.ca
Intellimed Health
Multiplying physician capacity to improve patient access through safe automation.
- Faculty: Medicine
- Team: Renata Lewis (Founder)
- Website: https://www.renatalewismd.com/
IvoryOS
Developing open ecosystem and orchestrator for SDLs to accelerate discovery.
- Faculty: Science
- Team: Ivory Zhang (Co-Founder), Fergus Klein (Advisor), Jason Hein (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://ivoryos.ai/
MAJ
Empowering enterprises with AI-fluent 10x productive workforce that accelerates your business.
- Faculty: Science, Business
- Team: Anush Sankaran (Co-Founder), Jassimran Kaur (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://maj.kaurai.com/
Minder
Delivering evidence-based resources to promote students' mental wellbeing.
- Faculty: Medicine, Population and Public Health
- Team: Chris Richardson (Team Member), Angel Wang (Co-Founder), Daniel Vigo (Co-Founder), Tiana Mori (Team Member), Melissa Vereschagin (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://www.myminder.ca/
QuantaSeal
Securing crypto wallets with quantum-safe encryption to prevent key theft.
- Faculty: Applied Science
- Team: Armaan Soni (Founder)
- Website: https://quantaseal.it.com/
Rekindle
Transforming wood waste into biodegradable materials for industries, reducing pollution.
- Faculty: Business
- Team: Habiba Akl (Founder)
- Website: https://rekindleubc.ca/
Sneaca
Providing custom footwear for communities and brands to celebrate identity.
- Faculty: Science
- Team: Udbhav Kansal (Founder)
- Contact: udbhav@sneaca.com
Threesino
Delivering specialty photopolymers to empower Canadian innovators and manufacturers
- Faculty: Science, Applied Science, Medicine
- Team: Hossein Yazhani (Co-Founder), Iraj Dehghan Hamani (Team Member), Parisa Golesorkhi (Co-Founder)
- Contact: Threesino.info@gmail.com
VibeOps Technologies Inc.
Providing software services to civil engineering firms to improve efficiency.
- Faculty: Applied Science, Science
- Team: Eric Balanecki (Co-Founder), Felix Stewart (Co-Founder), Gabriel Comla (Co-Founder), Hrudai Rajesh (Co-Founder), Zander Dent (Co-Founder)
- Website: https://www.vibeops.ca/
About the Venture Founder program
Venture Founder is one of Innovation UBC's flagship programs, guiding early-stage ventures through experiential workshops, mentorship and foundational training. Over 16 weeks, teams work through venture validation, business model development and leadership capacity-building to establish viable startup companies and strengthen their management and business skills.
The program provides hands-on mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, industry experts and UBC alumni who offer personalized guidance throughout the journey, helping teams work through challenges, sharpen their strategies and build momentum. This mentor network forms the backbone of Venture Founder, delivering insights and support that continue well beyond the cohort experience.
By program's end, each team has a validated opportunity, a stronger foundation for growth, and the skills to move through the challenges of entrepreneurship with confidence and resilience.
Are you interested in joining Venture Founder? Be the first to know when applications go live! Learn more here.
About us
Innovation UBC is a service-oriented unit dedicated to enabling UBC researchers and students to translate their work into societal and economic impact.
Innovation UBC works with UBC’s researchers to support and accelerate the translation of their research into real world impacts. Through research partnerships, technology transfer, and venture building services, UBC researchers have access to a robust ecosystem of services and support to strengthen their translation opportunities. Our successful history of translation and commercialization has led to the creation of 284 spin-off companies, establishing over 500 active licensing agreements, and enabling thousands of research partnerships each year with industry, government, and non-profit organizations. We support $190M+ annually in sponsored research activities (which is more than 80% of provincial sponsored research funding). UBC licensed technologies have attracted over $8.4 billion in investment capital and generated over $13 billion in revenues. 91% of UBC spin-off companies remain in Canada, 88% in BC.
Our mission is to help create impact from UBC’s breakthrough research to generate social, health, environmental and economic benefits.
