The École de technologie supérieure (ETS) will announce this Friday a new project valued at 100 million intended for start-ups, the Espace Ax-C in the heart of downtown Montreal, for which subsidies of 48 million are planned.
The federal government, through Canada Economic Development, will provide $7 million in non-repayable contributions for the fitting out of premises and the purchase of specialized equipment. Quebec will put five times more, or subsidies totaling 38.5 million, including 18 million for “rental improvements” and 20.5 million for operations until 2027. Montreal will grant 2.5 million.
It has not been revealed where exactly this new space will be built. Work is expected to begin next fall. The project “aims to bring together in the same place the Quebec ecosystem of innovative technology companies and a set of organizations and services essential to their development”, we explain in the documents obtained by La Presse.
“It will be strategically located in the heart of the city’s business center and close to universities in order to accentuate the entrepreneurial dynamic in Quebec, to promote the attraction of talent and to facilitate the establishment of business relationships” , can we read.
At the ETS, we refer to the press conference which will take place this Friday morning for more details. In particular, the presence of the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, as well as the head of development on the Montreal executive committee, Luc Rabouin, is announced.
The mission of this Ax-C Space: to provide “a meeting place for events, incubation and acceleration services, workspaces, infrastructure and specialized laboratories with the aim of accelerating the commercialization of innovations companies “. Richard Chénier, general manager of the Centech incubator at ETS, will act as strategic advisor for the service offer.
On the federal side, the Minister of Sports and head of Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, Pascale St-Onge, presents this project as an additional player in Montreal’s already rich ecosystem.
Compared to the Centech incubator, which was recently promoted to the world’s top 10 by UBI Global, the new space “will work in collaboration,” said the minister in an interview.
She sees this investment from governments as part of an “ultra-competitive” global context where there is a need to boost research and commercialization. “We know that the future of the economy is going to happen on the side of technologies in all sectors, whether on the medical side, artificial intelligence, clean technologies [or] to solve the major problems of the planet . What guarantees that Canada and Quebec will be part of this global race are the efforts, the energy and the commitment that we will put towards development, research, maintaining intellectual property and to market the great innovations that we make here. »
The pandemic has shown the vulnerability to which Quebec and Canada are exposed if certain sectors have been neglected, she recalls.
“These are extremely strategic sectors from a national security and long-term economic development point of view […] Reclaiming the medical and biopharmaceutical sectors is extremely important. When we talk about food security, we are very much into innovation, best practices to ensure that we are going to be able to produce food. »