By: Shivani Persad, October 30 2024
Elevate Festival 2024 explored the latest in cybersecurity, scaling startups, AI, the future of Canadian tech and more. If you missed some sessions, you can catch a few here.
On top of our packed masterclasses and buzzing lounges, this year’s Festival had an incredible number of attendees, distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment, witnessed world-class speakers and much more.
Want the highlights? Here are our top four takeaways from Elevate Festival 2024:
1: Incredible Attendance and Diversity
This year, we had over 9500 attendees, including founders, investors, and tech professionals across retail, machine learning, banking and climate tech industries.
We’re also proud that our speakers were over 47% visible minorities and over 50% women-identifying.
Here’s what some of our attendees had to say about this year’s festival using our hashtag #ElevateFest2024:
“As a founder who has bootstrapped, I couldn’t agree more with the lessons shared during the Self-Made Success session at Elevate 2024. There is no right or wrong answer—every founder should assess what’s best for their business, rather than just following what others have done.”
– Mary Yazdani, Co-founder & CEO, Robosafety
“Finally made it to Elevate – Listening to Fantastic insights on starting a bootstrapped business and being a founder from Fatima Zaidi & Sarah Stockdale: ‘Don’t let imposter syndrome stop you. You’re starting from scratch as a Founder. It’s a great equalizer.’”
– Amanda Connon-Unda, Head of Marketing, Augmenta
“AI isn’t replacing us; it’s amplifying our CREATIVE potential. Today at Elevate, Marc Low, Director of Innovation at KPMG delivered a thought-provoking talk highlighting the incredible impact of generative AI on the future of work. […] Marc’s message is crystal clear: AI is the tool, but WE are the value drivers. AI isn’t replacing us; it’s EMPOWERING us.”
– Izzy Piyale-Sheard, Founder, ClearCareer
2: Tangible Investment in Innovation
Elevate Festival 2024 wrapped up its third day in Toronto with an impressive showcase of Canadian entrepreneurial talent. Over $750,000 in investments into tech startups through direct investment, grants, and AWS credits was distributed!
Here are some details about the pitch competitions and the winning companies:
Elevate’s Women+ Program Makes Historic Announcement
This 8-week intensive program, supported by the Government of Canada and Mastercard, became a landmark moment for women entrepreneurs this year. The Firehood Angels doubled their initial commitment, raising the stakes to $200,000 for the grand prize winner.
Oakville-based Nunafab, led by CEO Cynthia Ene, claimed the $200,000 grand prize for their innovative high-performance materials for the construction industry. Runner-up Infinite Harvest Technologies from Niagara secured $25,000 for their sustainable solution using insects for organic waste management. In a surprise addition, Montreal’s Oasis Learning AI received $500,000 in AWS credits for their AI-powered employee training platform.
eCommerce North Innovation Showcase
In partnership with Moneris, this competition sought out the most promising commerce-focused startups. eCommerce North is Elevate’s flagship accelerator program, backed by Moneris and open to companies building ecommerce solutions.
Toronto-based SnapWrite emerged victorious, earning a $10,000 grant. CEO Athiya Rastogi’s AI platform, which automates product detail pages and enables resale channels, impressed judges with its potential to revolutionize e-commerce operations.
Black Innovation Zone: Celebrating Diverse Talent
The showcase featured three distinct competitions highlighting Black entrepreneurship and innovation. In the Nobellum Black Women in STEM category, Leanne Spence’s Instant Save won $3,500 for digitizing Jamaica’s food supply system. The Black Entrepreneurship Program saw Elev8 and Perform take the top prize of $5,000 for their exercise fatigue solution, while innovative ventures like My Well Self ($3,000) and Owambe ($2,000) earned recognition for their contributions to mental health and event planning respectively.
Sustainable Changemaker Challenge
This six-week program, in partnership with Mackenzie, focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, awarded $40,000 in total prizes. Dartmouth-based Aruna Revolution secured the $25,000 first-place prize for their eco-friendly menstrual products. Toronto’s CERT Systems earned $10,000 for their CO2 conversion technology, while Burnaby’s NANOSentinel Technologies received $5,000 for their innovative toxic metal monitoring system.
The diverse participants, stellar pitches and success of these competitions demonstrate the vibrant state of Canadian innovation, particularly in sustainability, diversity, and digital commerce. With access to Elevate Festival’s networking opportunities, pitching opportunities and thought leadership sessions, these startups are well-positioned to scale their impact across Canada and beyond.
3: World-Class Thought Leadership
In keeping with Elevate Festival tradition, we had some standout speakers leading conversations on everything from the state of Canadian innovation to tech journalism this year.
Here’s a roundup of some of our most-attended sessions:
Harley Finkelstein and Chris Hadfield on the state of Canadian Innovation
Harley Finkelstein’s journey from a 13-year-old DJ to the President of Shopify demonstrates how entrepreneurship can be a powerful vehicle for self-actualization and problem-solving. He’s learned that success comes from being comfortable with discomfort and maintaining a growth mindset (growing faster than your environment). He’s embracing challenges through concepts like “misogi” – taking on one scary thing each year. His experience leading Shopify’s transition to a digital-by-design company shows the importance of adapting to change while maintaining strong cultural connections through intentional in-person gatherings.
“I think this idea of injecting more ambition into the Canadian psyche. This idea of not going for bronze but going for gold, owning the podium, using whatever metaphor you want is unequivocally necessary… I don’t want to be a country of branch offices.”
– Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify
Dax Dasilva and Douglas Soltys on the Modern CEO Playbook
Your job is what you do, not who you are, right? Dax Dasilva demonstrates how modern CEOs can balance running a major tech company while pursuing personal passions and side projects that align with their values. As the founder of Lightspeed, he’s integrated his interests in conservation, art, and sustainability alongside building a billion-dollar company, showing that entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be single-focused. His return to the CEO position in 2023 highlights how founders can evolve their roles while maintaining authenticity and pursuing multiple meaningful projects.
“I think people are living their entire, authentic, whole self in weaving together projects that they’re not one note. They’re multifaceted… And I think that that mixing is where you find that innovation, that nexus of ideas.”
– Dax Dasilva, CEO, Lightspeed
Althea Wishloff and Tabitha Bull on Reimagining Venture Capital for Indigenous Entrepreneurs
Indigenous businesses are growing rapidly in Canada but face significant barriers to capital access, with First Nation and Indigenous-owned businesses accessing only 0.2% of available credit in Canada. Raven Capital, founded five years ago, emerged as the first venture fund exclusively focused on investing in Indigenous businesses across Canada and the US. They have a dual mission of providing culturally competent capital while maintaining Indigenous ownership. The fund addresses both financial returns and social impact, allowing Indigenous businesses to define their own impact metrics while breaking down arbitrary barriers that are often placed on underrepresented groups.
“If you’re already an under-resourced community, what does it say to then have other people say, I will give you capital only if you are subject to these conditions when other traditionally afforded opportunity groups do not have those same constraints.”
– Althea Wishloff, General Partner, Raven Capital
Tegan and Sara with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Creative Growth
Tegan and Sara have expanded their creative work beyond music into memoirs, graphic novels, TV adaptations, and most recently a documentary called “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara.” Through these various projects, they’ve learned to curate their public persona while maintaining private boundaries carefully. They draw from their early experiences as twins who dealt with public attention from childhood. Their documentary explores themes of social media, fan relationships, and privacy in the digital age. Their literary works have required them to balance honest storytelling with ethical consideration for the people in their lives.
“I want to write the way that I did when I was 15 years old again… I want to say the thing, like, I really want to get to the heart of the matter and say things that make me uncomfortable. And if I’m uncomfortable, then I know that’s going to be compelling for whoever is in the room listening to what it’s saying.”
– Sara, Singer, Author, Advocate
4: Quantifiable Networking Success:
This year, we incorporated Braindate at Elevate Festival, which took our networking capabilities to the next level. Braindate allowed attendees to book meetings with other attendees one-on-one and even start topical discussions in groups of six. The Braindate lounge was constantly full, with over 5000 attendees meeting across two days to create meaningful connections.
Another way we provide next-level networking is through our Meeting Exchanges. If you’ve ever wanted the chance to meet an investor whose calendar is usually packed, Elevate is the place! This year was no different. We’re proud that through our Meeting Exchanges, we facilitated 295 meetings between Canadian founders and investors at this year’s Festival. Hopefully, some of those will turn into big deals and power the next set of Canadian unicorns!
If you didn’t get a chance to attend Elevate Festival this year, we hope this recap gave you a sense of what you missed. Next year’s Festival is on October 7-9, 2025, and we can’t wait to see you there!
Can’t wait? CIX is happening on March 26 and 27, 2025 and is Canada’s top tech investment conference. Grab early bird tickets here!