The City of Kitchener has made an $8.5 million investment in the newly opened Innovation Arena, located on the University of Waterloo's Health Sciences campus. This investment helps achieve the City's commitment to advancing growth in health innovation, part of the Make It Kitchener 2.0 economic development strategy.
On November 15, the University of Waterloo officially opened the Innovation Arena, a new collaboration space in the heart of Kitchener's Innovation District, which will empower businesses, founders and community partners to engage researchers and entrepreneurs in solving local, national and global health challenges.
The Innovation Arena will be the new home of Velocity, the University's flagship startup incubator. The Arena houses enhanced business supports for founders, state-of-the-art product development labs, manufacturing equipment and collaboration spaces.
"The City of Kitchener is thrilled to welcome the new UW Innovation Arena to Downtown Kitchener as the first investment we made coming out of the pandemic from our new Make It Kitchener 2.0 economic development strategy," said Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. "Working collaboratively with our federal and provincial funding partners and the University of Waterloo, this amazing space will build on Kitchener's world-renowned culture of innovation, supporting the growth of new small and scaling businesses in Kitchener, with impacts across Ontario and throughout Canada and beyond. I'm so excited to see the incredible work and advancements in health tech that will come out of this cutting-edge, collaborative space and change people's lives."
The arena will work alongside existing hubs like the Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX) to support the more than 100 health tech companies already operating in the Region to facilitate new ideas from research to commercialization. The Waterloo Region Small Business Centre will be opening a 5,000 sq ft office on the main floor next year focusing in particular on health-based entrepreneurs.
"With an aging population and the emergence of new health technologies, this industry is poised for significant growth in the years ahead," said Councillor Scott Davey, Chair of the Finance and Corporate Services Committee. "As part of the investment, 5,000 square feet of space will be used by the City in partnership with the Waterloo Region Small Business Centre to broadly support health innovation-based entrepreneurs."
The Innovation Arena contains 90,000 square feet of innovation space and includes 20,000 square feet of space dedicated to hardware including chemistry and biology building tools. Partners ranging from hospitals, local businesses, academia, non-profit organizations, and government bodies are welcome to be part of the arena's journey in the community.
The University of Waterloo and Velocity have also received financial support from the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and the Government of Ontario to propel the vision of advancing health innovation and entrepreneurship in Canada. The University has seen support from philanthropic partners including local entrepreneur and angel investor Mike Stork.
To learn more about the Innovation Area, visit www.uwaterloo.ca/innovation-arena, and for the Make It Kitchener 2.0 strategy, visit www.makeitkitchener.ca
