The Pulse
Dec. 2, 2022

The 50 companies that were part of Plug and Play Alberta's second batch have made their pitches and had their conversations with potential customers. Now it's time for the real work to begin, says director Kevin Dahl.

"The next big step for a lot of them is just getting to work now," he told Taproot after this week's expo in Banff showcasing what the companies have to offer. "You've made the connection. You've got the interest of one of our corporate partners, and now as a startup founder, you need to execute on those pilots."

Plug and Play Alberta helps later-stage startups and scaleups connect with corporations that are "looking to supercharge their innovation," Dahl said. Partners include TD Bank, EECOL Electric, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pathways Alliance, and now WestJet, which joined to leverage AI and machine learning across its business. Those partners identify the challenges they want to address, "and we go out and source startups around the world that are solving that problem," Dahl said.

Seven of the startups chosen this time around were from Edmonton: DrugBank in the health stream; Aurora Hydrogen, Swift Charge, and element 4 in the sustainability stream; and AlignVR, Trust Science, and Spontivly in the sector-agnostic stream.

"These seven companies from Edmonton all stood shoulder-to-shoulder with peers around the world," Dahl said.

The oldest of those businesses is Trust Science, Evan Chrapko's fintech company that helps lenders identify creditworthy borrowers who are screened out by the traditional credit bureau system. Given that Trust Science made this year's list of Canada's top-growing companies, it may not seem like a candidate for an accelerator program. But Dahl said it's precisely the kind of company Plug and Play wants in its global network of scaleups ready to offer solutions to problems that its corporate partners face.

"For us, Trust Science is a company that has really done a great job of building out their customer base. They are growing, they have a team, they're not just an idea," Dahl said. "They're at that point where they're looking to grow and scale globally."

Most of the accelerators that started under the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program (Scaleup GAP) wouldn't be a good fit for a company the size of Trust Science, but Plug and Play was, said Colin Tran, the company's vice-president of corporate affairs.

"An enticing piece of joining the Plug and Play accelerator for us (was) being able to connect with not only the Alberta ecosystem, but also the broader corporate ecosystem across Canada and across North America," he told Taproot.

• The Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) and the Edmonton Social Planning Council released their annual Vital Signs research report, which this year focuses on systemic racism in Edmonton and draws from sources including academic studies, Statistics Canada, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. ECF CEO Tina Thomas said she hopes the report, which looks at affordability, unemployment rates, and a variety of other topics, will "encourage discussion and provide useful, current statistics that can be used to spur meaningful change." Several people involved in creating the report said their efforts were frustrated by a lack of detailed and up-to-date information about minority groups in Edmonton. Edmonton-City Centre MLA David Shepherd, who earlier this year introduced an unsuccessful anti-racism bill that would have required provincial organizations to collect race-based data, spoke at the report's launch event.
• Boyle Street Community Services confirmed to Postmedia it will be running a new community health hub in Old Strathcona at 10119 81 Avenue, which will open next spring if the plan goes ahead. The hub will include an overdose prevention site, and doctors and nurses will be there to provide primary care and referrals. "It'll be a wraparound holistic environment where folks will, we hope, not just come in to use their substance but to really build relationships with the people that are on site," said Sindi Addorisio with Boyle Street.
• Alberta recorded four more influenza deaths, bringing the total number for this season to 16, and surpassing the 14 total deaths recorded during the previous flu season, according to the latest provincial data. Alberta also added more than 1,500 new cases of influenza, a 42% increase in one week, for a new total case count of 5,163. During the 2021-22 flu season 2,906 cases were recorded in total. Just over one million Albertans have received their flu vaccine this year, representing about 22.5% of the population. An Edmonton pharmacist is encouraging more people to get their shot as the holiday season approaches. "You're going to go visit your families and friends. You don't want to make other people sick," said VIDA Pharmacy manager Vishav Singh.
• ATB Financial released its latest economic forecast for Alberta, which anticipates real GDP growth of 2.8% in 2023, a decrease from 5% in 2022 but enough for Alberta to outpace the rest of the country as Canada faces a possible recession in the new year. "While Alberta is not experiencing a boom, the positive prospects for our oil and gas sector are providing a significant boost that will continue into 2023," said ATB's deputy chief economist Rob Roach.
• Sully, a four-year-old Cocker Spaniel-Poodle mix, landed a job at a small consulting company after his owner, Meg Maclean, posted on the Edmonton subreddit asking if anyone needed an office dog. Sully suffers from separation anxiety and allegedly prefers the company of humans to the other dogs in his house. "I don't typically do that kind of thing, but I thought I'd reach out and see if my office would be a good fit," said Stephanie Reddecliff, who now brings Sully to work along with her own dog, Abby. "Having the dogs there is definitely good for morale."

This weekend, you can enjoy the beauty of holiday lights among the animals, take in a little Sondheim, pick up a used book or a new cookbook, acquire some Ukrainian goodies, or celebrate art.

• Dec. 2-4: Zoominescence at the Edmonton Valley Zoo
• Dec. 2-4: Books2Buy Sale at the Stanley A. Milner Library
• Dec. 2-4: Company at MacEwan University
• Dec. 3, 11am: ACUA Christmas Market from the Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts
• Dec. 3, 1:30pm: Reception for Guilded: Reflections and Transition at the Art Gallery of St. Albert
• Dec. 4, 12pm: Edmonton Comfort Food Cookbook Launch Party with Converse and Cook
• Dec. 4, 6pm: The Holly Ball at the Art Gallery of Alberta

Find even more things to do in the Arts Roundup.

Photo: Zoominescence, the Edmonton Valley Zoo's annual celebration of light, love, and conservation, opens this weekend and continues on various dates throughout December. (Wild Times)