By Hessie Jones
On June 16th, 2026 Altitude Accelerator held its 2nd annual Founders and Funders event. It was an afternoon of investment insights, a lively mixer, offering some levity in pitch theatrics, vibrant founder open-mic spiels and a celebration of the incredible caliber of founders in Brampton and GTA. It was validation of energy, and regional support for the booming tech ecosystem that culminated an afternoon of festivity, laughter, engagement and networking.
Altitude Accelerator gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. As a proud member of Ontario’s Regional Innovation Centre (RIC) network, alongside more than 17 innovation centres across the province, we work together to help technology founders launch, grow, and scale globally competitive companies. Through this collaborative network, we are strengthening Ontario’s innovation ecosystem, creating high-value jobs, attracting investment, and contributing to the province’s long-term economic prosperity.
We’re also excited to announce InsurePlus by Guthrie Insurance as our new sponsor. InsurePlus focuses on life science R&D companies. Their program is designed to grow alongside the company, giving founders the essential protection and scale their coverage as they move from pre-revenue to clinical or commercialization stages.
Event Highlights:
Pam Banks, Executive Director, kicked off the event, drawing attention to Altitude Accelerator’s goal for Founders & Funders 2026:
“At Altitude Accelerator, we believe that innovation doesn’t just happen in isolation. Great companies are built through connections — to customers, partners, expertise and capital. Today’s event is designed exactly around those connections, providing practical insights, meaningful conversations, and new relationships to help accelerate founder growth.
For our investors, funders and ecosystem partners, today is an opportunity to discover emerging technologies, meet ambitious founders and help shape the next generation of Ontario success stories.”
We were honoured to welcome Harkirat Singh, Deputy Mayor of the City of Brampton, to help open the event and discuss the Brampton Innovation District and the progress it’s made.
The event’s theme: Help founders grow through knowledge, connections, customers and access to capital.
The Money Panel
Nick Kuryluk, CEO Cosality and Co-Chair, Altitude Accelerator moderated a panel to help founders unlock funding to scale. Amid changing market conditions, evolving technologies, and fundraising pressures, founders also face increasing challenges in customer acquisition and in solidifying trusted partners for commercialization.
Kuryluk was joined by Henna Agha, Director, Strategy & Programs, Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN); Rebecca Griffith, Director, Southern Ontario Fund for Investment in Innovation (SOFII); Andrew Opala, Board Member, Altitude Angels & Founder, Preference Capital.
These experts brought together their perspectives, addressing early-stage funding options—government innovation funding, community-based financing, and angel investment.
The panel addressed the common deal-breakers they witness when founders are seeking funding, the importance of pilots, customer validation, revenue in comparison to the product strength; what stands out in applications for government funding; and the critical steps founders should take to prepare for investment.
Top insights for founders:
- Traction and customer validation substantially lowers the hurdle to investment
- Step up your financial acumen and know your unit economics and what drives your revenue.
- Domain knowledge is not enough. A strong team that can execute is a winner every time.
Founder Spotlight – An Open Mic Opportunity
Founders submitted their applications for Founder Spotlight and we selected 15 founders and gave them three minutes to pitch to an audience of investors, founders and partners. This was a chance for founders to validate their messaging, share their vision, attract investor interest, and improve visibility for their innovation. Carlos Hernandez, Managing Partner, Blue Jaguar Capital, hosted the session.
For the audience, this was an opportunity to discover innovative companies that could become future partners, customers, portfolio companies or success stories.
We thank the following companies for presenting their innovations: GenLedge AI, Techlnu, Virotek Bioscences, Pyko, Quotrons, NeuraSpeech Technologies, CaloT inc., Zephaer, Lightgrid Energy, CanVeer Biopharma,
TruckFixr Fleet AI, Fathom Storage Ltd, TheGarage, Schedulaa and Morgan AI.
Congratulations to Team Pyko for being selected as the People’s Choice winner among the amazing companies that presented. They will have the opportunity to pitch at Altitude Angels June 24th Investment Meeting.
Celebrating 2025 and 2026 Investor Readiness and Market Readiness Graduates
Altitude has always delivered programs to help founders progress, regardless of their stage. From the idea stage, or MVP or whether they’re ready for market validation to when they’re ready to do their first capital raise, Altitude has been delivering programs from RevUp for idea-stage companies to Market Readiness, our flagship program for companies looking to scale, to Investor Readiness, which will give them the tools to effectively raise capital.
Companies that come to Altitude are evaluated to determine their current stage and their needs. We select those companies which are ready for our programs. We keep our cohort as an optimal size, so members get the most out of the program, more individualized attention, and an opportunity to learn from each other.
At Founders & Funders we celebrated our 2025 and 2026 Graduates. We welcomed Kevin Smith, our marketing instructor for Market Readiness and Chief Story Architect of The Story Architect, to say a few words. Founder from AlloWide Health, Nodalli and Manaya also said a few words about their company and their experiences at Altitude.
Read more about our most recent graduates from our Market Readiness & Investor Readiness programs.
The Founder & Funder Swap
What happens when investors must pitch…and founders become the judges? This year at Founders & Funders 2026, we flipped the script.
Investors were in the hot seat, presenting their fictitious product and company to founders who were accustomed to pitching to investors.
This was one of the most unique startup sessions in Ontario. This light-hearted poke at the pitch process generated genuine empathy and a few laughs in an atmosphere all too familiar for both startups and investors.
Thank you to Moien Giashi, Principal at Greensky Capital; Ebenezer Arthur, Partner at BKR Capital, and Graham McBride, President at LarchHill Capital for taking the founder hot seat. Investors experienced what founders face everyday: communicating a vision, defending their assumptions, and answering tough questions under pressure.
Ben Su, Founder of LegalBooks; Paul Fowler, Founder of MesoMat and Mehdi Rahman, Founder of Innovative Global Talent Platforms, did a great job as investors, holding founders to account, probing risks and looking for evidence of market demand and scalability.
Thank You to Our Community Partners and Sponsors
Our thriving community partners—City of Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon, Sheridan College , Schulich and OCI—have continued to be part of an engaging ecosystem, helping founders build the necessary connections for partners and customers and access funding. Thank you for your commitment and for being part of the event.
The dedication of our Altitude program sponsors provides the necessary early support, through legal IP, legal structure, insurance resources and advice— to minimize founder risks and capitalize on opportunities as they grow their innovations. Pallet Valo and Smart & Biggar have been long-standing sponsors in their commitment to early-stage founders. InsurePlus, by Guthrie Insurance, our new sponsor provides an added layer of support for life sciences founders as they grow.
If you are a founder and you have an innovative idea, you are ready to validate your MVP or you are raising capital, we can help. We are now accepting applications for Market Readiness and Investor Readiness Programs. Apply now!
