Queen’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) supported the creation of 209 new patents and intellectual property assets and saw 136 new products, services or processes developed through the first phase of FedDev Ontario project.
Since the inception of the project, QPI helped over 200 startups and small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) through the various programs and supports, funding from FedDev Ontario. From the inception of the program, companies attracted $36 million in funding or investment and generated over $29 million in revenues.
QPI assisted 13 faculty-led startups or emerging startups to commercialize or license Queen’s-assigned intellectual property.
One such faculty-led startup, Nurenyx, was able to take advantage of many of the Scale-Up Platform programs and workshops as they navigated the evolution of their company.
John Okello and Palek Patel initially approached Mike Wells, one of QPI’s Partnerships Development Officers, with an idea for using molecular tools to diagnose and predict prostate cancer.
But working with Mike Wells was the catalyst for the relationship-building with QPI.
Okello and Jason Evans were introduced to each other through Lucas Nogueira, a fellow alumnus of the Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship program, and together they began working to develop their startup company. When Patel joined the team, the company name evolved to Nurenyx.
“John’s and Palek’s previous interactions with QPI led us to joining the Startup Runway incubation program for the company we were building. We participated in the Wings Acceleration program, where we realized we needed to pivot,” says Jason Evans.
The Nurenyx Health Management platform is a patient-centric environment automating the patient journey by leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital humans, digital twins, and spatial computing through extended reality interfaces. In short, Nurenyx aims to improve the quality of clinical trials, both for trial participants and to help speed up novel healthcare treatments.
From the Wings Accelerator, the Nurenyx founders were invited to participate in a virtual event organized by QPI with the federal government’s Boston Canadian Technology Accelerator and soon after they were able to take advantage of another of QPI’s Scale Up Platform programs, Go-to-Market.
“The opportunity that the Scale Up Platform programs have given our company has been incredibly helpful,” adds Evans. “They’ve worked with us for many years now, seeing Nurenyx grow from the ideation stage to an established company. Even the networking sessions have been valuable to share knowledge, updates and create partnerships with our peers.”
“Considering the pandemic started in the middle of this project, the metrics produced from Queen’s University and our local partners are really impressive,” says Jim Banting, Assistant Vice-Principal, Partnerships and Innovation. “We have a unique advantage that we are a small enough community that we can really spend quality time with our companies while still having a deep well of expertise that we can tap into from our partners and post-secondary institutions.”
Announced in April 2019, the Scale-Up Platform was designed to help companies overcome key challenges: rapid growth, market success, securing customers, generating revenue and hiring talent.
QPI’s programs included the Queen’s Startup Runway Incubation program, the Wings Acceleration program and the Growth Acceleration program. QPI’s Go to Market services included mentorship from QPI staff and partners, support to develop intellectual property and commercialization strategies, research and development collaborations, and export market strategies, and focused on investment readiness and attraction.
“I am really impressed by the quality and tenacity of the startups that came through our programs,” says Rick Boswell, Assistant Director of Programs and Facilities with QPI. Boswell played a key role in ensuring companies received the right support at the right time throughout the project.
As for what’s next for the Scale Up Platform project – a phase two will begin this spring with a focus on startups and SMEs in the deep tech space. QPI will continue to offer workspace and free resources for these companies to get them from early-stage startup to investment ready and beyond.
“With the first phase of the Scale Up Platform, we’ve help to foster and grow a pool of highly sophisticated tech companies in the region,” adds Dr. Banting. “With the new deep-tech focus, we look forward to helping those companies who are now investment ready to accelerate their growth so that they can compete on bigger stages.”