Meet the Ventures Joining HATCH Venture Builder Winter 2025
We are excited to welcome 10 new ventures into HATCH Venture Builder (HATCH)!
HATCH helps to propel early-stage venture growth, working with entrepreneurs to further develop their companies through rigorous finance, sales & marketing training, deep mentorship from our Entrepreneurs and Executives in Residence (EiRs), access to funding opportunities, as well as access to over 10,000 sq.ft. of state-of-the-art office and Makerspace. In this stage, ventures are de-risking their innovations and business models in an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration and grit. The newest ventures to join HATCH are addressing problems across climate, human health, aerospace, mining and more, addressing unmet global challenges through UBC research and innovation.
Our early-stage venture community is a part of the next generation of companies and leaders bringing new technology and approaches to solve critical global challenges.
Meet the teams that will be joining this movement:
Baerfell
Baerfell provides sustainable insulating biomaterial for the outerwear industry that outperforms avian down and synthetic petrochemical insulation on performance and cost.
Founding Team:Marc Massicotte, Pierre Massicotte, Feng Jiang
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Forestry
Binta Financial
Binta is dedicated to financial inclusion and providing the tools to navigate the Canadian economic landscape.
Website: https://www.bintafinancial.com/
Founding Team: Paschal Okwundu
UBC Affiliation: Sauder School of Business
Broadsight Tracker
Broadsight Tracker is a secure, web-based collaboration platform that leverages artificial intelligence to help communications teams save valuable time and ensure their messaging remains consistent and error-free across all channels.
Website: https://www.broadsighttracker.ca/
Founding Team: Kurt Heinrich, John-Jose Nunez
UBC Affiliation: UBC Media Relations
CereCura Nanotherapeutics
CereCura Nanotherapeutics is a preclinical biotechnology company developing innovative RNA therapies for patients with untreated brain disorders.
Website: https://www.cerecura.com/
Founding Team: Louis-Philippe Bernier, Brian MacVicar, Nicholas Weilinger, Pieter Cullis
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Medicine
Dream Photonics
Dream Photonics is actively engaged in process design kit development for silicon photonics foundries across the globe. Simulation, design, and test data for silicon photonics components are provided by Dream Photonics to the foundry such that customers can use these components in their designs with confidence.
Website: https://dreamphotonics.com/
Founding Team: Lukas Chrostowski, Sudip Shekhar
UBC Affiliation: Quantum Matter Institute
ImageCyte
ImageCyte uses cutting-edge nanowell technology to make high-quality, single-cell imaging and 3D cell culture more efficient and precise, enabling researchers and clinicians to unlock deeper insights into cellular behavior, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic responses.
Website: https://www.imagecyte.bio/
Founding Team: Samuel Berryman, Hongshen Ma
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Applied Science
Insporos
Insporos provides an intelligent seed sorting platform capable of non-destructively detecting seed-borne diseases and user-inputted traits to accelerate breeding and enhance overall crop health.
Founding Team: Amanda Ackroyd, Mallory Flynn
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry
Sustainable Bioproduct Innovations Inc.
At Sustainable Bioproduct Innovations Inc. (SBI) focuses on commercializing bioproducts that foster sustainability and innovation in the agri-food and natural health product sectors. By connecting academic innovators with industry partners, they help turn groundbreaking research into successful, market-ready products.
Website: https://sbinnovations.net/
Founding Team: Dr. Anubhav Pratap-Singh, Dr. Anika Singh, Dr. Alberto Baldelli, Dr. Hale Oguzlu-Baldelli
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Land and Food Systems
SeraGene Therapeutics
SeraGene Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biotech company committed to reimagining the treatment of coagulation disorders through innovative RNA and nanomedicine technologies.
Website: https://www.seragenetx.com/
Founding Team: CEO, Erika Siren & CSO and Co-Founder, Lih Jiin Juang
UBC Affiliation: Faculty of Medicine (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Michael Smith Laboratories, Centre for Blood Research, SBME Innovates as part of SBME-Amgen Golden Ticket
The HATCH Venture Builder program is a collaboration between Innovation UBC and the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS). We are pleased to welcome these 10 ventures into our HATCH Venture Builder Program!
About Us
Innovation UBC supports pathways for UBC’s research community to bring their inventions to impact. Through research partnerships, technology transfer, and venture building services, UBC researchers have access to a robust ecosystem of services and support to strengthen their translation opportunities. Innovation UBC is committed to strengthening knowledge and understanding of the commercialization process through mobilizing university inventions for society's benefit. Our goal is to accelerate UBC research inventions to global impact with focused support rooted in removing systemic barriers across the continuum of research translation activities.