BlackBerry, L-SPARK launch third cohort of accelerator program to advance Canadian connected vehicle technology innovation
BlackBerry Limited and L-SPARK, Canada’s largest software-as-a-service accelerator, announced the third phase of their joint accelerator program, which aims to grow Canadian technology companies focused on connected vehicle solutions.
Following the success of the first and second cohorts, the partnership will once again help small and medium-sized technology enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses and bring new products to market using BlackBerry® QNX® technology. New this year, the accelerator will provide selected companies with access to BlackBerry’s Intelligent Vehicle Data Platform – BlackBerry IVY™, enabling them to develop high-impact solutions leveraging in-vehicle data to improve driver and passenger experiences.
Announced in December 2020 as part of a multi-year, global agreement with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), BlackBerry IVY is a vehicle-first, cloud-connected software platform that presents vehicle data in a normalized format. BlackBerry IVY insights can easily be consumed by applications on or off the vehicle and are managed via a cloud console. The BlackBerry IVY development environment enables insights to be easily created from vehicle data, safely and securely.
“After two successful cohorts with L-SPARK we look forward to going to back to the deep talent pool that exists within the Canadian start-up scene to help identify those companies that share our vision: a transportation industry – and in-vehicle experience – transformed by data,” said Peter Virk, Vice President of IVY Product and Ecosystem, BlackBerry. “As we continue to build out a robust ecosystem of services and automotive applications to leverage the rich data insights that BlackBerry IVY provides, we can’t wait to see the ideas and use cases that will emerge to help automakers unlock the vast potential of next generation intelligent connected vehicles.”
“Imagine the possibilities when we combine the Canadian SME community’s imagination with the technological depth and market reach of BlackBerry”, said Leo Lax, Executive Managing Director of L-SPARK. “The breadth of applications, the depth of innovation, and market traction, when combined through this accelerator program, will be ground-breaking. I look forward to seeing the transformative services demonstrated for use in the transportation industry and the in-vehicle experience of the drivers using these applications driven by BlackBerry IVY.”
L-SPARK will again turn to the expertise of the National Research Council of Canada-Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), to reach out to companies with business models and technologies that could benefit from working with the BlackBerry QNX product group.
Applications will stay open until March 7th, 2022. BlackBerry and L-SPARK will then host a selection day where they will choose up to six companies to join the third cohort of the program.
