Canadian Web and mobile startups are getting a jolt of financing and mentorship opportunities courtesy of Canada’s largest tech incubator.
The Toronto-based MaRS Discovery District announced a new techaccelerator program called Jolt today. It will accept 15 startups peryear from the two aforementioned IT categories. The firms will getaccess to work space, seed funding, mentoring and introductions toangel and venture capital investors.
The new Jolt program will be partof the MaRS Discovery District.
The length of each Jolt program cohort and the amount of seed financingthe startups can tap into were not disclosed.
Over 70 companies, entrepreneurs and financiers have signed on toprovide advice, services and/or investment to the program, includingPolar Mobile, Google, Zynga, CFC Media Lab, The WorkingGroup, MediaProfile, PostMedia Network Inc., Global Accelerator Network, and theJet Cooper Web design agency in Toronto.
Susan McGill has been named executive director of Jolt. She is a formerexecutive of Research in Motion Ltd., Yahoo andCanWest who has advisedover 200 tech startups to date.
A news release put out today said Jolt will announce its call forapplications “shortly.”
The announcement comes just a few weeks after the Waterloo, Ont.-basedtech hub organization Communitech unveiled plans for a new $30-millonincubator called Hyperdrive.