For some, summer is a welcome opportunity to take the foot off the gas pedal, pump the brakes and recharge. For others, it’s more a case of making hay while the sun shines.

Count VueReal, the Waterloo-based maker of micro LED technologies and displays, among the latter. It held an open house this month at its 16,000-square-foot Phillip Street facility where visitors received a preview of its soon-to-be completed advanced nanotechnology centre. The $24-million project was showcased in a story in the Waterloo Region Record.

Another nanotechnology company that kept the beach umbrellas stowed and rolled up its sleeves was SannTek Labs, a Velocity-incubated firm that’s working on a roadside cannabis detection device. SannTek, featured by Communitech News a year ago, was part of Y Combinator’s summer cohort, which caught the eye of TechCrunch. Typically a Y Combinator company receives US$150,000 in seed funding in exchange for a seven-per-cent stake in the company.

Shopify’s stock price certainly hasn’t taken a summer holiday.

The e-commerce juggernaut’s shares are up 164 per cent this year, writes the Globe and Mail, and in August the company’s valuation hit $56.2 billion, vaulting it into the top 10 in Canada and eclipsing BCE, the venerable media/telecom company. The climb in Shopify’s share price means that the net worth of CEO and founder Tobi Lutke has doubled to US$3.2 billion in just six months, says Forbes.

Fast forward

Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, announced it is expanding its leadership team and launched a search for an executive director to join Jay Shah and Camelia Nunez. Shah, the current director, wrote in a recent blog post that once the executive director comes aboard he will become Director, Startups and Nunez, currently Velocity’s Associate Director, will become Director, Campus.

Still with UW, researchers there created a stir in solar panel circles, unveiling an algorithm that increases the efficiency of solar panels and reduces power waste.

Intellectual property of precisely that kind was on the mind of Navdeep Bains, federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, who dropped by UW to announce three new IP initiatives, including a $30-million patent collective pilot project that aims to help small and midsize companies grow, particularly in the green-tech sector.

Bains also flagged a new government website designed to allow entrepreneurs to access publicly owned IP and negotiate licences with the owners. Thirdly, Bains explained the details of a new fund that’s available to the law schools of several Canadian universities so they can make pro-bono or low-cost IP legal services available to entrepreneurs.

Federal money was flowing at Wilfrid Laurier University, too. The school will receive $1.38 million from the government’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy Ecosystem Fund to help boost female entrepreneurship with an emphasis on non-tech and social initiatives.

Start me up

The thriving Canadian tech sector edged onto the radar of CNBC, which published a piece for its largely U.S. audience that flagged the migration of U.S. tech companies – and talent – north of the world’s longest undefended border. The piece noted the success of the Global Talent Stream initiative, the establishment of offices in Canada by the big U.S. tech firms, as well as  the emergence of burgeoning tech ecosystems in several Canadian cities, including Waterloo Region.

A TD Economics study, meanwhile, raised a note of caution about those burgeoning ecosystems, noting that jobs are being concentrated within major Canadian cities that have a vibrant tech sector and that smaller centres – particularly those without a tech presence – risk being left behind when it comes to wages and employment, although the report said the divergence isn’t as pronounced as it is in the U.S. The report also described Waterloo Region as a “rising tech superstar city.”

Maintaining that momentum is the aim of a new partnership Communitech has entered with Thomson Reuters Labs and law firm Gowling WLG. The trio announced the launch of a six-day bootcamp for startups that are keen to work in the legal, regulatory and tax verticals. The first cohort gets under way Oct. 21 and applications are now being accepted.

Speaking of regulation, the provincial government is forging ahead with its new data strategy, aiming to promote public trust in the data economy. The initiative got its start last February with the launch of a consultation; the first of three white papers has been released and input will be accepted until Sept. 6.

Local government has been busy on the innovation front, although perhaps not in a traditional sense: The City of Kitchener investing in what the Waterloo Region Record describes as cutting edge green technology – “silva cells” under sidewalks that capture and treat stormwater runoff, recharge the groundwater supply and help indemnify against severe weather brought on by climate change.

Cash is king

Toronto’s McRock Capital announced it led CDN$3.5 million in Series A funding for Kitchener-based Praemo, which uses AI to identify process problems for enterprise companies.

Meanwhile the UK-based parent of Waterloo’s Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, Trak Global Group, completed a US$50-million raise which it says will be of significant benefit to IMS. Trak Global brought IMS out of receivership last December.

And digital flyer firm Reebee completed a raise for an undisclosed amount led by Toronto-based RHI Group Inc.

Kitchener’s Vidyard, with $60 million raised to date, certainly knows its way around a financing round. Vidyard surfaced in a recent Financial Post story looking at likely candidates for an IPO.

Speaking of money, Betakit reported on the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s latest report, which says that Canadian venture capital investments hit a record high of $2.15 billion in the first half of this year, surpassing the half-year high of $1.7 billion.

In other news

    • Kik has filed a 130-page response to allegations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company’s cryptocurrency sale violated U.S. securities laws.
    • Lime’s e-scooter pilot project, which launched last April on the University of Waterloo campus and along a portion of a city-owned trail in Waterloo Park, has come to a close. Waterloo city council has indicated that it’s unlikely the city will allow another similar project until the province decides how to regulate the vehicles under the Highway Traffic Act.