NexStream Phase 03 Update

NexStream 2.0 is progressing nicely and we’re excited to provide our community with an update on the progress of our challenges!

Phase 01, the Expression of Interest (EOI) phase, closed on November 9th, 2020. We received 50 submissions with strong representation in all four of our current categories. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, each challenge was designed to be broad in scope and relevant to our region at this time. They are:

1. Health and Emergency Preparedness

2. Sustainable Resource Management

3. Food Security

4. Wildcard

Challengers who expressed interest in phase 01, were invited to continue in the program by submitting a pitch deck and an executive summary of their business. An example deck and summary were provided to each business, and we provided coaching to early stage companies who reached out to us with additional questions.

In total, we received 40 successful phase 02 submissions addressing issues ranging from recruiting patients to clinical trials, simplifying global trade in the seafood industry through sophisticated and autonomous monitoring of our ocean systems. Here’s a breakdown of the submissions by category and region:

Phase 02 entrants by Challenge Category:

• Sustainable Resource - 12 entrants

• Wild Card - 15 entrants

• Emergency Preparedness & Healthcare - 7 entrants

• Food Security - 6 entrants

Phase 02 entrants by Region:

• Campbell River - 6 entrants

• Strathcona Regional District - 3 entrants

• Vancouver Island - 7 entrants

• British Columbia - 13 entrants

• Canada - 2 entrants

• Outside of Canada - 9 entrants

We’re particularly happy with the number of Vancouver Island entrants in the second generation of challenges, which totalled 16! Our global reach also increased compared to NexStream 1.0, with entries from as far as India and Vietnam. The global reach of our program was in large part thanks to the international reach of our partners at Spring Activator, a global business incubation and acceleration company based out of Vancouver.

Click through to see the list of Phase 03 participants!

The selection from Phase 02 into Phase 03 was competitive this year, with 23 companies moving provisionally into Phase 03. Our processes included an independent, written evaluation of each company by each of the five members of CRAAG, followed by two debate sessions where each of the entries was discussed by the group. Our selection rubric had us evaluate each business along the following dimensions:

• Problem

• Solution/Technology

• Market Opportunity

• Revenue Model

• Go-to-market Strategy

• Traction

• Competitive Framing

• Impact

• Local Relevance

• Team

In mid-February, we completed another round of selection and we now have 17 businesses actively participating in the program. For comparison, we had 37 expressions of interest in NexStream 1.0 with 17 successful Phase 02 applications and eventually, five finalists. If you have not yet seen the results from NexStream 1.0, we invite you to learn about the finalists here: https://nexstream.is/finale-2020.

We’re particularly proud that NexStream 1.0 was one of three nationwide Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) Cup Contenders, and that our finale won the Event category.

One way in which this second generation of prizes feels different than 1.0, is that we have an increase in the number of well-established companies participating. That being said, we’re equally proud of the fact that we very early stage, local businesses participating. To say the least, we're pleased with the growth of the program in terms of sponsors, number of participants and quality of submissions!

To learn more about our sponsors and partners, please visit our partners page. To see a list of all of the businesses participating in phase 03, please visit our challenger page.