Successful startups in Canada

When Whirlscape first came on the scene early last year, the University of Toronto-incubated startup had just suggested a rather radical approach to touchscreen typing — a keyboard for smartphones and tablets called Minuum that consists of a single strip of letters across the bottom of a device’s screen. It didn’t look like the QWERTY keyboard most of us know and love, but for many users it worked just as well — in some cases, better — while taking up a fraction of the screen.

Led by chief executive and lead designer Will Walmsley, Minuum has been in beta for Android smartphone users since the summer, following a successful Indiegogo campaign that raised more than $90, 000, though it had a modest $10, 000 goal. The full version of Minuum is expected to launch this year — and with the company recently being accepted into the U.S. accelerator program Y Combinator, who knows what else is in store.

Minuum’s potential goes far beyond improved touchscreen typing. The company’s so-called “one-dimensional” keyboard approach can actually be applied to a wide range of scenarios, in particular, highly touted new wearable technologies such as Google Glass, and motion-sensing technologies such as Microsoft’s Kinect and the Leap Motion 3D controller, enabling users to type “anywhere.”

Katherine Hague, the chief executive of e-commerce startup ShopLocket and one of last year’s entrepreneurs to watch, called them “one of the coolest under the radar startups in Toronto.”

“They’re innovative approach to text input is widely applicable, not just in software, but in wearable computing and beyond, ” she said.

Bionym’s Nymi

Almost everyone we spoke with had something to say about Bionym, and for good reason – the Toronto-based wearable technology company is presenting a unique new vision for how we interact with the world around us.