OligomicsTx won a minimum of $155,000 from Startup TNT at the organization's Life Sciences Summit finale on March 14 in Edmonton.
"I'm really honoured. I want to thank everyone," said company co-founder Toshifumi (Toshi) Yakota, who is also a professor of medical genetics at the University of Alberta. His company develops RNA-targeting therapies for rare neuromuscular disorders.
The Life Sciences Investment Summit portion of Startup TNT's three sector summit finales took place at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. OligomicsTx beat out fellow locals PulmVita and MACH32; both work on medical devices. Also vying for investment were Calgary's Qualisure Diagnostics and Wave View Imaging, as well as Vancouver's Difinity Solutions.
Investors made side deals with PulmVita and Qualisure for amounts that were not disclosed during the event.
In Calgary, the Cleantech Investment Summit was held at Platform Calgary. There, Edmonton's Aqua-Cell Energy, an alumnus of Propel FastTrack, went up against Calgary's CO2Brew, Connect X, ENA Solution, and MissionNet. The judges went with Connect X.
No Edmonton companies were in the Agri-Food Investment Summit, held at the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina. Calgary's AgGene, Saskatoon's BetterCart Analytics and Rayhawk Technologies, Vancouver's Geco Engineering, and North Vancouver's Maia Farms all pitched. BetterCart Analytics took the win.
All three sector winners are eligible for future investment via the $5 million TNT Capital VC Fund. The $155,000 for OligomicsTx could still grow, as investors will have the option over coming days to increase their investment.
Startup TNT is a group that brings together angel investors who want to see local startups flourish. It was founded in 2019 and runs investment summits three times each year. The organization says it has invested more than $11.5 million in more than 90 companies since it started its summits.
Photo: Toshifumi (Toshi) Yakota reacts to his company, OligomicsTx, winning $50,000 in investment at the March 14 Life Sciences Summit by Startup TNT. (Startup TNT/YouTube)
Correction: This file has been updated to correct the amount OligomicsTx received.