The power to
build big.

At the University of Waterloo campus, something extraordinary is happening. Every year, close to 1,400 students step into Velocity events and programs and many walk out as startup founders.

“From day one, students are immersed in a community that believes in building, testing and learning fast,” says John Dick, senior director of founder development at Velocity. Whether it’s an industry innovation challenge, a product roundtable or a 10-day sprint to validate an idea with real customers, Velocity is designed to activate momentum.

And it works. In 2024, 395 student-led entrepreneurship teams were actively building on campus from idea to pre-seed startup. “When they’re ready to sell product or raise capital, many transition seamlessly into our incubator, home to Canada’s best founders. It’s a full-circle ecosystem, built to support founders from their first pitch to their first million,” Dick adds.

Velocity trains the next generation of leaders, CEOs, innovators and changemakers by helping them think like founders. That means learning to solve real problems, talk to real customers and build real solutions. “It’s entrepreneurship as a mindset, not just a career path,” says Krysta Traianovski, associate director of founder development at Velocity.

At the heart of Velocity is a simple but powerful model:
Find. Develop. Connect.

Find: Recruit and activate Waterloo’s students, faculty and researchers through inspiring events and challenges that help them discover problems worth solving and learn entrepreneurial mindset skills that will complement any career path.

Develop: Coach students, faculty and researchers to think like founders. Being curious, disciplined and customer-obsessed, through mentorship, sprints and hands-on learning.

Connect: To our global network of alumni, investors and industry experts who help accelerate founder growth.
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Velocity startups reach key milestones faster with the right resources behind them. One standout example is PatientCompanion, founded by Christy Lee (BASc ’24) and Ethan Alvizo (BASc ’24). Their platform improves communication between patients and health care teams, helping reduce nurses’ workload. After joining Velocity in Fall 2023, they completed a successful hospital pilot before graduating in May 2024.

In less than one-year, they’ve launched CAN Health commercialization projects in three Ontario hospitals; WRHN Midtown and Brightshores Health System in Owen Sound and Southampton, focusing on women’s and children’s care, childbirth and acute units. Now, they’re preparing to scale across Canada.

Velocity empowers thousands of student founders like Lee and Alvizo to turn innovative ideas into real-world solutions. When students have the right tools, community network and coaches, they can build something that matters — and they do.

This is where the future gets built.

We’re evolving to meet the changing needs of Canadian entrepreneurs by building a stronger, more robust innovation ecosystem.

The Velocity community of more than 1,200 founders and 500  companies starts with founder development, moves to venture creation and finally to venture scaling. With the Velocity venture creation systems behind each founder, we continue to drastically reduce the time to market, ultimately improving founder success and Canadian productivity.

“Traditional incubators often focus on space and mentorship. While those elements still matter, Velocity’s evolved model goes further. We are creating a structured, repeatable system that helps founders move faster, make smarter decisions, and build with greater confidence,” says Moazam Khan, director at Velocity. “Our approach is rooted in a deep understanding of what drives startup success and how to reduce risk.”

At the core of our model lie the 3Ts: Team, Technology, and Traction. These three pillars are the primary determinants of a startup’s risk profile as it enters the market and begins to scale. The ability to secure capital, capture market share, and expand across borders depends on how effectively a venture can de-risk each of the 3Ts. They are the foundation of whether a startup cannot just survive but thrive.

However, success in the 3Ts doesn’t happen in isolation. It is driven by the 3Cs: Customers, Capital, and Connections. As a nation of innovators, we must evolve our support systems to empower the 3Cs. Giving founders access to early-stage capital, building a network of pilot partners, and nurturing a strong community of alumni and industry advisors are critical to accelerating early validation, and ultimately de-risking the 3Ts.

This is an evergreen model that creates a cyclical effect resulting in an ecosystem of accelerated validation and de-risking.

This year, we took bold steps to accelerate the success of Canada’s next generation of innovators. We launched Momentum Grants to deliver critical early-stage capital to emerging founders when they need it most. To support customer acquisition, we introduced specialized sales training programs tailored to technology founders and we also deepened our collaboration with the University of Waterloo’s academic and research networks to unlock pilot projects and first customers.

Equally transformative was the launch and first close of the Velocity Fund, a dedicated pre-seed fund backing Canada’s most ambitious entrepreneurs. In its first year, the fund has already become one of the country’s most active early-stage investors by deal volume.

At Velocity, we are not just evolving. We are building the blueprint for innovation ecosystems. This model works—just ask any Velocity founder who’s been through it,” says Khan. This is the future of entrepreneur support in Canada. It is a system that doesn’t just nurture ideas but actively drives them to market.

The outcome is more founders, more Canadian productivity and more impact worldwide.

Qidni Labs is developing the world’s most accessible dialysis technology for millions of patients with kidney failure. The Qidni/D device replaces traditional dialysis systems that rely on 120 liters of dialysate, purified tap water, and constant electricity. Instead, it uses just a few bags of saline, runs on rechargeable batteries, and is small enough to carry.

Patients can dialyze anywhere and anytime using Qidini’s tool with no infrastructure needed, making treatment super accessible and affordable. With this technology, Qidni Labs was able to set up a dialysis clinic in under a week with less than $5,000. The device is designed for use anywhere, including homes, rural areas, disaster zones, and military settings, where clean water and power may not be available.

The company was recently selected from over 2,600 applicants to join the 2025 NATO DIANA cohort, recognizing its potential for both civilian and defense applications. Qidni was also recently named to Fast Company’s 2025 list of World Changing Ideas. It also received the $1M KidneyX Sustainability Prize, awarded by KidneyX and the American Society of Nephrology, for its contribution to making kidney care more sustainable. Learn more here.

Velocity is all-in on creating the optimal environment for visionary students and founders to succeed.

At the earliest stage, students often ask: What makes a good company? What product does the world truly need? This publication shares how we help them answer those questions, validate their ideas, and ultimately gain traction. Much of this is made possible by a network of committed individuals, industry leaders and the generous support of donors, sponsors, and partners who believe in the power of innovation.

Velocity supporters do more than fund programs, they provide critical non-dilutive capital, expand our network, and help us to help founders so they can continue to make an impact across all industries.

Take faculty of arts student Sehaj Raj Singh. He once sat in the audience at Velocity pitch competitions, inspired by the bold ideas on stage. In his final year, he entered the Future Cities Innovation Challenge, funded by CAIVAN knowing there was no team, startup, or idea required to sign up. Just ambition and the openness to try something new.

“I met three incredible teammates – one in architecture, one in urban planning and one in computer science. We came up with the idea of Permitly, a platform to tackle Canada’s housing crisis by fast-tracking planning and building permits. Tech, policy, design and business all coming together. That didn’t just get us to the finals. I got to pitch to two mayors … and we won. One of the judges, a huge home developer in Ontario, even invited us to Ottawa to explore making it real. Standing there, pitching Permitly, felt like the perfect full-circle moment. From being in the crowd to being on stage, I’m just glad I bet on myself,” says Singh.

This is the kind of transformation that happens with a collaborative community, and there are hundreds of stories just like this one.

“Whether you're a company with a goal of creating meaningful change or an individual passionate about shaping the future, partnering with Velocity ensures your support drives innovation where it matters most. We turn resources into results by aligning funding with purpose,” says Michelle Benevides, associate director of partnerships and communications at Velocity.

There are many ways to get involved, from sponsoring programs, awards, or events, to supporting founders directly or contributing to our Momentum Grants. With nearly a decade of experience running challenges and supporting bold, brilliant innovators, Velocity’s manager of strategic partnerships, Tina Wilton, sees the impact every day.

“There’s so much opportunity waiting to be unlocked,” Wilton says. “When students and founders are given the right support, they often exceed expectations. That’s the magic of what we do here, and it wouldn’t be possible without the incredible partnerships we’ve had this past year. We’re deeply grateful for the support that continues to fuel our community’s success.”