The Lazaridis Institute in Waterloo announced the ten startups accepted to its second cohort of its Scale Up program this week, and two Montreal companies made the cut.

Bus.com (formerly Share the Bus), which rebranded and raised $6.5 million back in April, and Agendize, a conversational book platform, will be entering the cohort along with eight other companies Toronto, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Dartmouth, Victoria, and Calgary.

The program will run weekend session from October 2017 to February 2018 and will give participating startups marketing opportunities to prepare them for their next round of financing. Each week, companies will cover a wide range of topics related to scaling up, including product development, customer acquisition and scaling sales, and scaling leadership. The sessions will also cover finance and operations and global growth, and will be followed by a week-long session taking place in March next year.

“Bus.com is committed to continuing its growth and seeking organizations and individuals to help us scale. We believe Lazaridis will help us continue moving at the pace since our inception,” Kyle Boulay, Founder and CEO of Bus.com told MTLinTECH.

Interested companies from across Canada went through a competitive selection process. A panel consisting of Canadian and American venture capitalists and ecosystem leaders reviewed detailed applications submitted via the national scale-up data platform powered by Hockeystick. Third-party analysis provided by Bytown Consulting helped the panel to assess each firm’s potential for growth. Shortlisted applicants were invited to take part in video interviews, from which the top 10 companies were chosen.

“We are so impressed with the depth of talent, the passion and the ambition of these 10 Canadian companies,” said Kim Morouney, managing director of the Lazaridis Institute. “They all have the potential to be global leaders in their industries. We’re looking forward to working with them over the next year — and beyond — to help them overcome their barriers to scale.”

Graduates of the first cohort of the program have seen significant growth in revenue, improved the efficiency of their processes, and advanced their capabilities in areas ranging from sales and marketing, to operations, product and talent management, to finance, leadership, and delivering a pitch. The most valuable elements of the program according to the companies were practical knowledge that they could apply immediately to their organizations, and crucial relationships with tech leaders from across North America.

“We are excited by the opportunity to join this year’s Lazaridis Scale Up Program cohort alongside such great companies. I have no doubts that, with their support, my vision of growing Agendize to become the essential tool for successful entrepreneurs and small businesses will materialize more quickly,” Alexandre Rambuad, Rounder and CEO told MTLinTECH.

The full list includes:

• 7shifts (Saskatoon)
• Agendize (Montreal)
• Bus.com (Montreal)
• Dream Payments (Toronto)
• Flytographer (Victoria)
• Showpass (Calgary)
• Spring Loaded Technology (Dartmouth)
• Terramera (Vancouver)
• Unata (Toronto)
• Vendasta (Saskatoon)