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Launched in January 2017, the Western Accelerator provides an intense, rapid and immersive education for prospective entrepreneurs. Our goal is to accelerate the life cycle of high potential ventures and to compress a year’s worth of learning into a few months for their entrepreneurs.
The Western Accelerator is a critical component of the cross-campus Western Entrepreneurship ecosystem and is open to Western students, faculty, and recent alumni with an expectation of a full-time commitment. The Western Accelerator program is made possible by the support of our generous sponsors: Libro Credit Union and StarTech.com
During their time in the accelerator, teams can expect:
As part of your Western Accelerator experience, you can expect to participate in a weekly workshop that will give you the education and real-world feedback that you need to launch your business. Workshop topics can include:
We look for teams who have a high-potential to scale and who meet the following criteria:
We look for startups who have completed product development and are ready to launch! If you are still in the idea or build stage, you may not be a good fit for the Accelerator yet. Teams who are in early stages can find great resources available for you at Western’s Propel Entrepreneurship Centre.
Competitive applications for the Accelerator are startups who have high potential to scale (i.e. have IP and/or have a clear competitive advantage addressing a large potential market). We also look for a founding team who have the skills, ability and determination to launch their product offering into the market.
Teams applying to the Accelerator should have a functioning prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) that can be offered to their customers.
You don’t have to have every feature or offering built and ready to sell. In fact, we encourage you to test your MVP early and often so you can build and shape your business based on customer feedback.
Entrance to the Accelerator is a competitive process. We accept 6-8 teams per Semester (Fall, Winter and Summer).
There are two parts to the application to the Western Accelerator.
Applications for our next cohort open February 2021. All teams are required to submit a written application that consists of:
Applications are reviewed by an external panel, and the top ranked teams will have the opportunity to pitch their business to a selection committee. Each team has 10 minutes to pitch their startup, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A.
Apply Deadline to apply is March 1, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
The Western Accelerator consists of 3 cohorts per year (Fall, Winter and Summer). The Fall and Winter terms are for teams who have an MVP that is ready to go to market. These cohorts are all 16 weeks in duration. The summer cohort is designed for validation-stage startups who have put significant effort to understand their business model and are ready to validate their idea with early adopters.
Applications close 2 months prior to the beginning of the cohort as per the chart below
Cohort | Fall | Winter | Summer |
Duration | September - December | January - April | May - July |
Applications Open | June | October | February |
Applications Close | July | November | March |
Interviews | July | November | March |
Please visit our website regularly or join our email list for exact dates.
We are educational innovators who believe in transforming and improving the teaching experience and in turn positively impact students learning and maximize their potential. Blees AI applies the latest research in natural language processing to automatically grade students' responses to domain-specific essay questions and provide instant and customized feedback to them.
Founder: Sojin Lee
CHIPEET
Chipeet's mission is to bring easily accessible, ethnically inspired snacks to the retail and e-commerce space. Chipeet's leading product is plantain chips, manufactured in Canada with unique flavours to choose from. We are also focused on sustainable farming practices; our sustainability mission is to reduce plantain wastage, thereby increasing the income for the farmer and financial viability of the farms.
Co-Founders: Martin Ugo and Omar Ali
CRANK Lite Lager is a new Craft Beer made BY young Canadians, FOR young Canadians. We found that the current market only had beers that were either high-quality yet expensive or lower quality but affordable. At CRANK, we wanted to fill this gap and create a high quality, affordable beer marketed directly at young adults.
Founder: Michael Woolfson and Jack Jelinek
Healthy Eats is a meal prep delivery service. We deliver nutritious chef prepared meals right to peoples door that does not sacrifice quality of product. All of Healthy Eats food is locally sourced right here in London, ON. We offer personal and family programs to help with your busy lives. Everything is free of Gluten and Dairy. Convenience without Compromise.
Founder: Luke Thomas
LegalEdison uses technology to make reading and citing case law faster than ever. LegalEdison's first product quickly summarizes case law to extract the most important paragraphs. Additionally, LegalEdison provides insights on the parties involved as well as legal concepts before you even need to read the case.
Founder: Aniket Bhatt and Zac Yungblut
LoWo Golf designs uniquely patterned golf gloves to help the next generation of golfers stand out from their high socked fore-bearers. Made from 100% Cabretta leather, LoWo Golf's one of a kind gloves are designed to feel great and look even better.
Founder: Lucas Wong
Tournkey is an innovative event ecosystem changing the way all stakeholders own, operate, and participate in sporting events. Made possible through the integration of a stand-alone platform where all the tools needed to run the world's best events finally rest in one place.
Founder: Tyler Childs
Thalamus Assistive Technologies Inc.
Maxwell Group
Avocado Core (AVO)
ONPoint Medical
Auspre
Canadian Load Board
Amass Dynamic Data Solutions
Conquest Hockey Apparel
Shop Accessories 365
Auxe
Hairstrong
MakerBars
Myoprynt Nutrition Inc.
Penelope
ScrumGenius (SmallCloud Technologies)
Thornbury Bakery
Vidhug
Aquatell
Ascend
Cohesys
Front Line
HYY Selections
Speak
Vitruvius VR
Boho Bakeshop
North Strong Collective
Dibbzz
Lawyerly
Sugar & Co.
Os & Oakes
Plentiful
Supports Health
bCLUTCH
For the Love of Laundry
Orca
WingDeals.com
Motif
Miistro
Pinch
STMNT
Evelynn by Nicole Snobelen
uMunch
Sisterhood Media
brüst
At Western, entrepreneurship isn't about widgets – it's about people.
Western Entrepreneurship harnesses the university's collective expertise to arm the next generation of leaders with crucial entrepreneurial and leadership skills that enable them to develop great ideas that excite the world. Western and its Ivey Business School are invested in this cohesive, student-focused entrepreneurship ecosystem that brings together students, faculty and alumni.
Western Entrepreneurship builds upon a tradition of entrepreneurial thinking at Western, including the establishment of Canada's first MBA program (1948), our launch of Canada's first PhD program in business (1961), and QuantumShiftTM – Canada's premier leadership program and network for the entrepreneurs driving the growth of Canada's most successful companies, founded by Ivey and KPMG.
The umbrella of Western Entrepreneurship brings together incubators, alumni mentorship, co-working space, academic excellence, commercialization and thought leadership across all our faculties and schools.