Federal Minister of Economic Development Mélanie Joly announced Thursday that her department will be handing out just under $5 million to three Montreal-based organizations that help entrepreneurs in Quebec develop innovative technology startups.
The three groups receiving the cash are the Centre d’entreprises et d’innovation de Montréal (CEIM), the Centre de l’entrepreneurship technologique de L’École de technologie supérieure (Centech) and Bonjour Startup Montréal. They will receive non-repayable contributions of $4.999 million from Canada Economic Development.
Bonjour Startup Montréal will use the money, in part, to develop Inno Startup, a platform designed to foster relationships between large organizations and startups.
“We know that before the pandemic, Montreal’s economy was doing great,” Joly said during an online press conference Thursday. “One of the reasons why that was the case was because our high-tech sector was booming. We were attracting a lot of investments from all around the world, in the AI sector and (sectors with companies in) different technologies. Now what we want to do is to make sure we continue on that path, and one of the issues we’re facing is definitely there are more risks for entrepreneurs to launch new businesses and to invest.
“So that’s why we want to create the opportunities for entrepreneurs to take risks and launch new companies. I want to make sure we invest in new incubators and that’s why we’re supporting Bonjour Startup Montreal, Centech and CEIM.”
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