Unito and Hykso took home the “Best in Canada” and “Best in Hardware” awards respectively at last week’s Founder X awards. The Montreal companies were the only Canadian nominees to win any sort of award, beating out companies from Toronto, Ottawa, and Waterloo.

Six graduates of the Montreal Founder Institute chapter were nominated for the awards, which celebrate founders who have made significant progress in the past year.

 
Since 2009, the Founder Institute has helped talented entrepreneurs launch over 2000 businesses across six continents. These graduates raised over $100 million in funding in 2016.
 
“Montreal has become a leading Canadian launch-pad for technology based companies,” said Sergio Escobar, Managing Director of the Founder Institute Montreal chapter. “Proud of Unito’s and Hykso’s success. They have both managed to secure funding from US investors at the launch-pad stage immediately after finishing Founder Institute. We can now see the results as companies are entering the +1M$ seed stage with confidence and a strong basis. Proud of Montreal as there are a dozen more FI companies following their path. Therefore, this is not a singular event but a trend that will become recurrent from now on. The Montreal ecosystem is getting stronger over time. As soon as we increase quantity and quality of pre-seed and seed stage investors, we will be able to become the startup city of Canada.”