20 Aug 2021 Meet the Excellence in Technology Innovation 2021 TIA Finalists
Innovation is the lifeblood of BC’s tech ecosystem, bringing new products, solutions and sometimes markets into existence. By refusing to settle for the status quo, innovation builds a pathway to a better future. This award acknowledges companies whose technology clearly demonstrates next-level innovation and a breakthrough solution with significant market impact.
The Excellence in Technology Innovation award is presented in partnership with MDA.
Canexia Health is a Vancouver health science company that makes high-quality cancer genomic information accessible and affordable with their clinically validated assays, informatics, and support. The company’s suite of genomics-based cancer tests is clinically actionable and cost-effective, designed to improve cancer treatment and monitoring.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to seriously threaten the safety of cancer patients receiving life-saving treatment. In response, Canexia Health acted quickly, deploying its commercially available ‘liquid biopsy’ solution, Follow It®, free of cost to ensure thousands of Canadian cancer patients could continue to receive necessary care without risk of exposure to the virus. A truly innovative medical advance, Follow It® uses powerful machine learning and AI technology to detect fragments of DNA shed by cancer tumours. This novel innovation analyzes circulating tumour DNA to match cancer patients with targeted treatment, which can improve outcomes two- to three-fold over chemotherapy.
Dapper Labs is an NFT company that was created to bring blockchain technology to a mainstream audience by building accessible blockchain-based sports, entertainment, and consumer experiences. Dapper Lab’s rapid success in blockchain technology, has propelled their status as a unicorn, and the company has plans to continue its monumental growth with investments from several entities, including the founders of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList.
NBA Top Shot is perhaps the company’s biggest success. Developed in partnership with the National Basketball Association and the NBA Players Association, NBA Top Shot is the first officially licensed digital collectible experience. NBA Top Shot has revolutionized fandom by allowing fans to own video highlights of basketball’s most epic plays, and on boarded more than 1 million people to the blockchain, who spent over $550 million USD on NBA Top Shot packs and marketplace. With NBA Top Shot representing just one brand in their portfolio, it is easy to see how Dapper Labs is taking over the NFT collectables market with their innovative and effective strategy.
FORM is a Vancouver based sports technology company that has developed the world’s first augmented reality swim goggles. FORM goggles allow athletes and amateur swimmers alike, the ability to receive real-time data and feedback displayed directly in the swimmer’s line of sight while they are in the water.
Traditionally, swimmers could only estimate important swim metrics by performing mental calculations after glancing at the pool’s pace clocks during their rest. FORM’s innovation has completely changed the way people swim by leveraging technology to provide accurate, real-time feedback to swimming through augmented reality smart swim goggles. With FORM Smart Swim Goggles, swimmers can focus 100% of their mental energy on their technique or their coach’s instructions, rather than distractions from attempting to calculate metrics while swimming. Notably, FORM goggles made a splash at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games this summer, with several Olympic swimmers donning the smart goggles while representing their country.
TraceSafe is a technology firm that produces centralized, privacy-centric digital dashboards and wearable tech. The company offers real-time location management services and contact tracing solutions enabled through advanced low power Bluetooth beacons and enterprise cloud management. TraceSafe’s leading cloud management solution ensures both user privacy and comprehensive administrative control.
TraceSafe’s patented contact tracing bracelet has already been deployed in mission critical quarantine applications around the world in partnership with leading governments. This was in response to the sudden demand for this product as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to their government work, TraceSafe is developing leading edge solutions for enterprise, healthcare, education, government, and large-scale venue management.
