With the surprising number of breakthrough ideas coming out of Toronto, it should be no surprise the city is a hotbed of tech savvy entrepreneurs.
According to a global report by Startup Genome, an American research organization, Toronto ranks number four on a list of best places to launch a tech startup falling behind only San Francisco, New York and London.
Here are seven startups, in no particular order, that have received international recognition and reflect the city’s booming tech culture:
1. REVELO BIKES
Founder Henry Chong started the company Revelo Electric which specializes in electric bikes for urban settings. His idea, which started as an undergraduate thesis project has come a long way. The made in Canada e-bike is 100 per cent street legal and definitely one of the coolest tech start-ups in the city.
2. TELLSPEC
Imagine tracking your calories in a blink of an eye? Well, founder and CEO Isabel Hoffman has developed a handheld device that will tell you exactly what’s in your food. The device, which scans your food, would be able to detect which harmful chemicals might be in your food by sending information to your smartphone.
3. FIGURE 1
An app made by doctors for doctors is a thriving free photo sharing app for health professionals. Co-founded by Dr. Josh Landy, the idea behind Figure 1 allows medical professionals from anywhere in the world to safely share images, often extremely graphic, to the medical world. The platform serves as a forum for doctors where they can discuss, debate and provide their diagnosis on various medical conditions.
4. VANHAWKS VALOUR
Vanhawks Valour
Some say it’s the bike of the future, but many are already on board with the stylishly "connected" bike which is integrated with the latest technology. The bike, considered to be the smarter, safer approach to urban commuting comes equipped with blind-spot detection, turn-by-turn navigation, and a pedal-by-pedal handbook.
NYMI
Created by Bionym, Nymi is a wearable device in the form of a bracelet type band that wraps around your wrist. The device reads your unique heart rhythm to authenticate your identity allowing you to automatically connect to your devices via a Bluetooth Low Energy without entering your password. Nymi securely gives you control of your computer, your smartphone, car and whatever else you can connect with wirelessly.
MINUUM KEYBOARD
Developed by the team at Whirlscape the Minuum keyboard is an app meant to give the end-user a faster, smarter typing experience. Finger obsessed typers might see it as revolutionary considering the keyboard adjusts to your typing style over time, accurately knowing what you want to type.
AWAC (Automated Web Access Coupling)
Built and tested by the visual media department at the Toronto Star the AWAC device allows photographers who are in the field to instantly post photos to live blogs. This is a game changer especially when covering live events like the Olympics. The miniature device which is still in the works has been thoroughly tested by the photography team and slides on to the hot shoe mount of your DSLR camera.
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