Village Gamer

Companies from across Canada are establishing themselves in other markets thanks to the Soft-Landing Program supported by the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) in partnership with its nodes across Canada. The CDMN announced today that 14 companies are participating in the most recent round of the Outbound  Soft-Landing Program under way now, following a successful pilot program in 2012.

“Our Soft-Landing Program formula is working, enabling companies to hit the ground running in other geographies to increase their business opportunities,” said Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director. “The pilot program realized an estimated $20 million in new opportunities and sales for participating companies, so we’re excited to see what 2013 brings for the companies announced today.”

Ideal candidates to participate in the Outbound Soft-Landing Program are mature Canadian startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are generating revenue already and have goals of growing their customer base, opening a satellite office, or developing distribution channels or secure partnerships. Through this type of landing, Canadian companies looking to expand in foreign markets anywhere in the world can qualify for up to three months of residency in partner facilities equipped to support their growth, plus up to $4,000 for transportation and hotel costs.

Applications opened October 15, 2012 for companies from across Canada looking to participate in soft-landings outside the country between January 2 and May 31, 2013. Companies applied through the 21 CDMN ‘nodes’ which then assisted in facilitating the application and mentorship of the enterprises. From the many applications received, the CDMN chose the select group of 14 companies.

Here is the list of startups, the nodes they are working with, and where they will be ‘landing’ as part of the Outbound Soft-Landing Program:

Startup	Node	Destination
Authintic Analytics Technologies	Digital Media Zone (DMZ) Toronto	New York City
Ayogo Health Inc.	Wavefront Vancouver	London and Birmingham U.K.
Blacksquare Inc. blackboxx	TR Tech Calgary	Germany
DLI.tools	Communitech Waterloo	Melbourne, Australia
Green Owl Mobile	Communitech Waterloo	New York City
Insightworks Learning and Development	Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre Sault Ste. Marie	Bay Area, California
Javelin Reality	NGen Hamilton	Venice Beach, California
Media Merchants	Wavefront   Vancouver	Brazil and Singapore
Picatic	MaRS Toronto	New York City
Voices.com	Communitech Waterloo	San Francisco, California
Viafoura	Digital Media Zone (DMZ) Toronto	Venice Beach, California
Weblishpal	MaRS Toronto	Singapore
Wedding Republic	Ottawa	New York City
Zighra	Ottawa	Dubai and Jordan, UAE

 

Companies that have previously ‘landed’ outside Canada as part of the CDMN Soft-Landing Program include:

• Awesense
• CPS Parking
• Cyborg Trading
• MAGNET
• Mantry
• Tabillo
• Weever Apps

CDMN also supports an Inbound Soft-Landing program for promising international companies looking to establish their businesses in Canada, and companies that have participated include Fluorologic and Koning Corporation. There is also a Domestic Soft-Landing program that assists Canadian companies in furthering their growth across the country.