Velocity Summer Accelerator sends 30 funded teams into the fall

Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON) provided $12,000 fellowships to 30 teams in the 2026 Velocity Summer Accelerator, a program that took in 55 recent and soon-to-be graduates of Waterloo. The idea was to help founders cross the stretch between graduating and running a company full time.

Over three months, teams followed weekly programming aimed at milestones such as letters of intent, first pilots and first sales, then pitched investors at a demo day. Participants came from all six Waterloo faculties, and more than 45 per cent of teams had female founders.

Among the entrants was Ashley Juraschka (MASc in progress, BASc ’24), whose company AllioHealth is building AllioGo, a breast pump designed around how a baby naturally feeds. After the Cooperathon powered by Desjardins, she took AllioHealth to the finals at Startupfest in Montreal, where it won a $5,000 Innovation Award and the People’s Choice Award.

Many teams will keep building with Velocity coaching and follow-on programs such as Velocity Northstar, a three-month run of weekly in-person check-ins covering customer discovery, sales and fundraising.