COMING SOON THIS NOVEMBER: BREAKTHRU 2011 LAUNCH

Think you have what it takes?

Innovation doesn’t just happen inside the R&D departments of large corporations. It’s happening in people’s basements and university laboratories all over New Brunswick. The challenge is to uncover those champions of innovation, to let them pitch their ideas, and for the right ones, give them the resources they need to get started. Great ideas are scarce.

Breakthru is a bi-annual business plan competition that gives creators of outstanding innovations the venture capital, professional services and mentoring support they need to turn that innovation into a business.  The process applicants undergo includes a bootcamp and three elimination rounds.  Six finalists vie for the three prizes, awarded at gala event that ends the competition.

Prizes include over $250,000 in cash and in-kind professional services from our partners. The 2009 competition included a Viewers' Choice Award conducted by CBC Television, with the winner traveling to Toronto to pitch their business on the set of Dragons' Den. Winners of the 2009 competition each pitched businesses that included intellectual property first developed at one of the province’s universities.