Toronto-based Tangerine Bank has taken a lead role in the development of Ryerson University’s newest digital innovation space, the “Thinkubator,” which the two organizations cofounded and officially launched today.
Housed on the second floor of Tangerine’s Downtown Toronto Café, the Ryerson Tangerine Thinkubator will serve as a digital workforce and fintech-based counterpart to Ryerson’s existing startup incubator, the DMZ, drawing on Tangerine’s business expertise and Ryerson’s startup partnerships to help emerging companies grow.
“We’re proud to be working with Ryerson University to build a new community of local entrepreneurs who will be behind some of Canada’s latest innovations,” Tangerine CSO Brenda Rideout said in a statement. “At Tangerine we’re continually focused on innovation through technology to make our clients’ lives better, and the Thinkubator is an extension of this focus.”
Like the DMZ, which has become North America’s top-ranked university-based incubator since its launch in 2010, the Thinkubator will provide participants with a shared work space, mentorship, and support, including from the Incubate Innovate Network of Canada and the federal government’s Canada Accelerator Incubator Program.
Four companies have already signed up to make use of the Thinkubator’s space:
- Digital Retail Apps, a mobile payment system that allows shoppers to scan and pay for in-store items using their smartphones;
- Curexe, a web application that provides small businesses with international payment and currency exchange services, for the price of one per cent of each transaction;
- WhoPlusYou, a community engagement platform that matches people with jobs based on each party’s needs, interests, and preferences;
- CareerJSM, an application that allows job seekers to manage their entire search across any hiring platform.
Unfortunately for aspiring startups, the Thinkubator does not yet have a website, though Toronto residents can presumably walk into 221 Yonge St., across from the Eaton Centre.