Young Entrepreneurs of Year Awards in Manitoba capital spotlight

A group of innovative young Canadian entrepreneurs were honoured in Winnipeg on Wednesday night.

The League of Innovators hosted the second annual Young Entrepreneurs of the Year Awards at the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre. The Vancouver-based charity, which offers programs and education for entrepreneurs between the ages of 15 and 30, handed out awards in seven categories.

B.C. resident Annika Ng was named Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year. Ng co-founded Blossom Social, an investment platform with more than 400,000 investors across North America.

Nanette Sene was named Young Black Entrepreneur of the Year for her work with Juno Technologies, which is developing a compact, wearable device that eliminates menstrual pain.

James Quinn, the Toronto-based co-founder of online fish market Larry’s Catch, took home the Young Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year award, while Jennifer Côté was named Clean Tech Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Côté’s Montreal-based startup, Opalia, is developing a technology to make milk using mammary cells.

The Emerging Young Entrepreneur of the Year award went to Georgiy Sekretaryuk of Overdrive, an artificial intelligence and automation consulting agency in Vancouver. Ankur Boyed of Boardy, another AI startup, was named Emerging Tech Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Francesca Albo took home the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. The Toronto resident is co-founder and CEO of Puppy Sphere, a chain of yoga studios that incorporate puppies into exercise classes.

More than 500 award applicants were whittled down to a list of 21 finalists. Each of the seven winners will receive a round-trip flight for two anywhere Flair Airlines flies.

“The Young Entrepreneurs of the Year Awards was something we created to bring together a lot of the national and regional organizations that work within the ecosystem around young entrepreneurship, and to celebrate and create a platform for these young founders,” said Rob Ironside, executive director at the League of Innovators.

League of Innovators chose to host the awards in Winnipeg because it’s a central location and because it has a partnership with Manitoba Innovates (the unification of Tech Manitoba and Manitoba Technology Accelerator), Ironside said.

That partnership is important because it gives Manitoba entrepreneurs insights into what startups across the country are doing, said Paul Card, CEO at Manitoba Innovates.

“I think it’s important to showcase Manitoba as a place where innovation is happening, and it’s an opportunity to see what else is happening nationally,” Card said of hosting the entrepreneurship awards in Winnipeg.

Around 300 people were expected to attend the event, which included a fireside chat with two entrepreneurs: Jake Karls, co-founder of Montreal protein bar company Mid-Day Squares, and Mike Fata, founder of hemp products company Manitoba Harvest.

Prior to the awards ceremony, the Manitoba Environmental Industries Association hosted the Green Dragon’s Lair pitch competition, which saw select Canadian entrepreneurs pitch their product to a panel of judges.

Entrepreneurs visiting Winnipeg for the awards have the opportunity to participate in two more events today, Card said.

Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative, the Winnipeg non-profit committed to advancing digital agriculture, is hosting its annual day-long Agriculture Enlightened conference at the Delta Hotel.

Winnipeg’s Tech Thursdays series is hosting an event at the King’s Head Pub, featuring Card in conversation with John Cassidy, managing director for Canada at SVG Ventures Thrive, a global agrifood investment and innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca