March 25, 2025 – The winning pitch at FACIT’s sold-out annual Falcons’ Fortunes pitch competition and recipient of the $100,000 Ernsting Entrepreneurship award was delivered by Dr. Waël Hanna, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of NodeAI Diagnostics (“NodeAI”). The Hamilton, Ontario based start-up is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to improve the speed and accuracy in evaluating and staging non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The innovation is poised to address a long standing gap in lung cancer diagnostics that can better inform treatment decisions and ultimately improved patient outcomes.
Category: News Release
FACIT and OBIO® announce inaugural WeSEED cohort of women-led start-ups in joint seed capital and commercialization program
March 6, 2025 – The Women’s Synergistic Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (WeSEED) program leverages the combined, complementary capital, expertise and resources of OBIO® and FACIT. The resulting synergies provide a continuum of seamless support and lower barriers faced by women STEM leaders in accessing business training, advisory resources, networks and venture funding.
Cutting-edge radiosurgery tech for brain tumours wins 2024 Falcons’ Fortunes
May 6, 2024 – At the sold-out Falcons’ Fortunes pitch competition hosted by FACIT, Dr. Hatim Fakir delivered the winning pitch as selected by the panel of judges for the $100,000 Ernsting Entrepreneurship Award. Developed at London Health Sciences Centre, Dr. Fakir’s RadioSphere is a patient-centred technology to revolutionize existing gamma knife radiotherapy procedures by providing the most precise tumour localization capabilities.
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FACIT and OBIO® partner on women-focused seed capital and entrepreneurship program
March 8, 2024 – On International Women’s Day, FACIT and OBIO® are pleased to announce a new partnership in the Ontario life sciences ecosystem, built on their common goal to drive entrepreneurial and commercialization mandates to address the unmet needs and barriers faced by female entrepreneurial leaders in STEM.
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Women-led health and biotech companies dominate FACIT’s latest investments
November 20, 2023 – On the globally-recognized Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, FACIT is pleased to announce investments in four breakthrough oncology innovations – all driven by women leaders. November 19th each year is a day to celebrate and showcase women’s contributions to advance communities and to strengthen their empowerment in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to drive economic impact. FACIT’s support of the four ventures, Virano Therapeutics, Hyivy Health, Tenomix Inc., and DTPx Therapeutics are representative of an asset portfolio where over one third are women-led or founded innovations, attracting one third of every dollar invested by FACIT – as much as ten times the average for the venture capital industry.
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FACIT appoints seasoned life science leaders to its Board of Directors
November 1, 2023 – FACIT is pleased to welcome two new directors to its Board, Dr. Maura Campbell and Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi. Dedicated to commercializing Ontario intellectual property and impacting patients with cancer, both executives bring with them decades of private and public sector leadership experiences.
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FACIT and T-CAIREM at the University of Toronto partner to commercialize medical AI
August 2, 2023 – FACIT and T-CAIREM announce partnership to commercialize medical artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. The partners intend to harness both T-CAIREM’s innovative translational research in AI and FACIT’s unique commercialization-venture model to build the next generation of Ontario biotechnology companies. The joint mission will accelerate the benefits of AI research to support patients battling cancer.
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New Innovative Cancer Technology Wins 2023 Falcons’ Fortunes Pitch Competition
March 31, 2023 – The winning pitch for the 10th anniversary Falcons’ Fortunes pitch competition and the $100,000 Ernsting Entrepreneurship Award was delivered by Dr. Sumaiyah Rehman, co-founder and CEO of DTPx Therapeutics.
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FACIT generates $1.5 billion in follow-on investment
March 29, 2023 – FACIT announced $1.5 billion in follow-on investment attracted to its portfolio of cancer biotechnology start-ups in Ontario, a significant milestone for life science commercialization in Canada.
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FACIT’s Prospects Fund invests in two emerging Ontario diagnostics for colorectal and prostate cancers
September 16, 2021 – September 16, 2021 – Both innovations were previous finalists in FACIT’s 2021 Falcons’ Fortunes pitch competition.