L-SPARK Opens Applications to Second Incubator Session

Ottawa, Ontario, October 5, 2015 – L-SPARK has opened applications for their second Incubator session, seeking enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) startups who are looking to raise seed investment. The call for applications comes on the heels of L-SPARK’s Canadian SaaS Showcase, where the organization successfully graduated their first two cohorts earlier this month.

The inaugural cohorts contained a diverse group of up-and-coming SaaS companies, generating a lot of buzz around Ottawa’s once-again burgeoning tech scene.

In the Incubator, Webstage, Punchtime and MyDoma launched their products out of beta and ZINation completed integrations on e-commerce platforms, Shopify and Magento, granting access to thousands of new customers. InvataCloud became the first Canadian company to join the Microsoft BizSpark Plus program, enabling the company to scale the product dramatically with $120k in Azure credits. In the Accelerator, The Better Software Company grew revenue by 400% and closed an $800k round of investment.

“Our alumni are a firsthand example of the impact that high-touch mentors can have on a company’s growth. Each of the startups in our inaugural cohorts advanced their products, increased revenue and strengthened their brands as a result of the constant guidance from our network of mentors, advisors and corporate partners. I look forward welcoming a fresh group of talented entrepreneurs to the second Incubator session in the winter of 2016,” says L-SPARK Managing Director Leo Lax.

To produce these kind of results, the four month Incubator combines individualized expert mentorship with in-depth support from corporate and investment partners, guiding entrepreneurs as they scale their business, strategize an effective go-to-market strategy and define a repeatable sales process.

L-SPARK’s mentors and Business Development Team effectively prepare the startups for seed investment from Angels and/or early stage Venture Capital and facilitate guided meetings with early stage angel, venture capital and institutional investors.

“L-SPARKS mentorship has been invaluable. Nothing beats working with somebody who knows what they’re doing and has been there before, someone who has successfully walked in your shoes,” states Incubator Alumni, Sarah Daniele, Founder, MyDoma.

One of L-SPARK’s main differentiators is its high-touch mentorship model. High-profile mentors, who have scaled their own enterprise software companies, are paired one-to-one with startups. Together with the founder, they develop a business plan by working collaboratively for two days per week throughout the duration of the program.

Eli Fathi, L-SPARK mentor and co-founder of Fluidware, which was sold to SurveyMonkey earlier this year, describes the L-SPARK experience as an invaluable one.

“L-SPARK’s startups are selected based on their ability to scale quickly.  Working with them hands-on two days a week allows mentors like myself to transfer knowledge and find the best approach to grow their business. It is the magic of having so many resources and talents under one roof that has shaped L-SPARK into an energized community of entrepreneurs,” says Fathi.

Finally, entrepreneurs in the program will have the opportunity to travel to VC hubs in the United States such as Silicon Valley, Boston and NYC to visit with L-SPARK’s investment and corporate partners.

Up to eight startups will be selected for the Incubator program. Entrepreneurs with a customer-ready enterprise SaaS or cloud product on the market should apply.

Applications to the second Incubator Session will remain open until December 18, 2015 via the L-SPARK website: http://apply.l-spark.com