BC’s leading technology ecosystems builders announced today that they are establishing an alliance of not-for-profit innovation hubs, known as BC’s Technology Ecosystems Network (BCTEN).
The goal of this alliance is to leverage their diverse and dynamic regional ecosystems into one powerful network that supports transformative company building across British Columbia. Following years of collaboration on best practices, strengthening industry intelligence and deep domain expertise, the alliance will showcase how BC born companies start, scale and grow their businesses by accessing fundamental resources provided by BCTEN.
In celebration of a decade of collaboration as members of Innovate BC’s BC Accelerator Network (BCAN), the launch of this new alliance aims to build upon the BCAN performance record which has resulted in the creation of over $1.2 billion of economic activity, added 4500 new tech sector jobs, and supported 1500+ companies. Leveraging their years of experience in developing and delivering tailored initiatives and advocating for entrepreneurship, this alliance has galvanized their communities around the early-stage startup to scale-up entrepreneurial journey. As backbone organizations of BC’s innovation ecosystem, this group is on the frontlines of supporting the economy by providing the critical resources necessary for the commercialization and scale for BC technology ventures.
The alliance includes the following organizations:
Accelerate Okanagan
entrepreneurship@UBC
Foresight Canada
Hubspace
Innovation Island
Kootenay Association for Science and Technology (KAST)
New Ventures BC
SFU VentureLabs
VIATEC
“The founding members of BCTEN recognize that fostering a truly vibrant innovation ecosystem demands a comprehensive approach,” states Dan Gunn, CEO VIATEC and BCTEN Chair. “From nurturing nascent ideas to empowering scale-ups, and supporting not-for-profit hubs, we believe that an inclusive strategy encompassing skills development, connections, access to capital, community engagement, best practice sharing, joint initiatives and beyond are pivotal to achieving long-lasting success” Mr. Gunn further elaborates.
Central to the work of this group is ensuring that the diversity of people and solutions are unencumbered by systemic barriers, paving their way to becoming attractive and investable ventures that anchor in BC. Together this alliance of not-for-profit innovation hubs will continue to identify meaningful collaborations that harness best practices and leverage shared resources while building relationships designed to enable equity of entrepreneurship so that founders, inventors, new teams, and small businesses solving the world’s most pressing problems can bring their game-changing solutions to global impact.
“Over the last 10 years, BC has established an incredible network of organizations committed to ensuring innovation and sustainable economic development thrive in this Province. The impact of these accelerators and ecosystem builders goes beyond just the number of jobs created, dollars of new revenue generated, and dollars of investment attracted,” notes Jeanette Jackson, CEO Foresight Canada. “Through the BCAN Network this group has provided safe, unconditional support for thousands of companies across all regions and sectors. We are excited to see what is possible over the next 10 years with existing and new partners in the BCTEN alliance.”
Over the next 90 days BCTEN will begin sharing collective impact stories and purpose-driven initiatives that demonstrate both a decade’s track record of success, as well as new opportunities aimed at catalyzing awareness and growth of the next generation of BC company leaders.
