Welcoming our 7th Maple Cohort to Canada

Since 2017, Launch Academy has been helping international tech companies going through Canada’s Start-up Visa Program successfully land in Vancouver and not only settle themselves but grow the tech ecosystem in the city. Every few months, we welcome new tech-talent to Vancouver, and we’re so excited to introduce our newest cohort to our Maple Program coming from Iran, India and Nigeria.

Please join us in welcoming this vibrant talent to Canada!

Meet the cohort:

Mahyar Salek, Froute [Founded in Iran]

Froute is an online platform enabling both farmers and consumers wanting fresh, local produce to interact outside of a traditional marketplace. The platform consists of a network of local farmers, a marketplace equipped with a blockchain payment system for buyers and sellers, which is all optimized using Froutes technology enabling farmers to plan and optimize their harvest, inventory, fuel cost, and more.

Emotu Balogun, Sendbox [Founded in Nigeria]

Sendbox provides both on-demand shipping and escrow payment services to its users. For individuals and businesses, Sendbox connects either respective party with the right courier agent for quick and affordable delivery or pick-up. For online platforms, specifically social platforms like Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp, Sendbox also provides the infrastructure for payments and fulfilment within a trusted system that both the buyers and sellers can rely on.

Ashish Nayyar, PushAssist [Founded in India]

PushAssist is an application software that provides push notification services for its users. They provide support for multiple devices and their software allows for alerts to be scheduled and segmented to specially-grouped customers. They also have a multi-channel messaging feature which enables customer engagement on their preferred channel.

PushAssist engages customers by sending offers, coupons, a new blog post or just about anything through web push notifications. Customers don’t have to be browsing their website and they receive a notification as soon as they come online.

Amitt Sharma, VDO.AI [Founded in India]

VDO.AI helps publishers leverage the power of video content and advertising using their smart contextual instream video solutions to boost their monetization. VDO.AI uses artificial intelligence to provide contextual videos and video advertising to select publisher partners. Their proprietary platform integrates the best demand sources with the best publishers enabling a high-value private video advertising ecosystem to thrive. They’ve had over 1 Billion video plays every month, serving over 3-petabytes of video content.

About Launch Academy

Launch Academy is one of Western Canada’s leading entrepreneurship facility that helps tech founders build their businesses through mentorship, resources and networking opportunities. The non-profit was created for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. By bringing together a density of high-quality entrepreneurs, Launch Academy has established an environment where ideas are vetted, business models are tested and successes are celebrated. Since 2012, Launch Academy has incubated over 700 companies that have collectively raised over $250 million and created more than 2500 jobs. Launch Academy specifically targets programming towards tech companies in order to enhance the level of specialized support. The areas of emerging tech that Launch Academy is looking to work with include: Artificial Intelligence, VR/AR/MR, Blockchain, Financial Services, Data Science, Quantum Computing, Health Tech, CyberSecurity, and SaaS.