Calgary Innovation Week kicked off with a packed house at Platform Calgary as this year’s Launch Party Top 10 showcase opened the week’s program. Presented by Alberta Innovates, the event remains one of Calgary’s most anticipated gatherings for early-stage startups, shining a spotlight on the city’s most promising emerging companies.
Each year, Launch Party highlights startups selected by community leaders for their creativity, traction, and potential. The 2025 cohort showcased an impressive range of technologies — from AI-driven tools that accelerate industrial and educational processes to innovations improving health care and accessibility for people worldwide.
Using a new format, each of the Top 10 companies pitched live on stage to judges and a full audience at Platform Calgary on November 3. Four companies earned honours in this year’s award categories:
Alex Raczenko Pitch Award: Possibility Neurotechnologies
The company’s Think2Switch device transforms off-the-shelf EEG headsets into brain-computer interfaces, giving individuals with limited mobility new ways to communicate and control their environment.
Alumni Choice Award: Tarkka
Tarkka is revolutionizing wheelchair seating by cutting evaluation-to-delivery time from months to a single bedside session — a leap forward in accessibility technology.
Community Choice Award: Tutred
Tutred connects students with personalized tutors while using AI to automate up to 95% of administrative tasks, freeing educators to focus on teaching and student success.
Sponsors’ Choice Award: DAYY Photonics
DAYY develops high-brightness, broad-spectrum light sources that power advancements in defence, semiconductor, and medical imaging applications.
This year’s Launch Party Top 10 also featured HazTrack, PataBid, Symbiotic AI, Taste the City, VRCORE Education, and VL Energy, each demonstrating how Calgary’s next generation of innovators is applying technology to solve challenges across energy, industry, and everyday life.
The Top 10 will be celebrated at Launch Party’s closing event on November 6, capping off a week that will showcase the strength and diversity of Calgary’s startup community. Tickets to the closing are available here.
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