Startup Watch: Grobo, Voltera, RideCo

Kurtis Thomas
CONTRIBUTOR

Matt Smith
PHOTO EDITOR

Grobo
You’d be hard pressed to find a person who doesn’t prefer delicious home grown vegetables over those from the grocery store. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles to success: the Canadian climate, busy schedules, and our own lacking green thumbs. The team at Grobo is working to eliminate these variables. With their app-controlled pods, all you have to do is plant a seed and tell the app what’s growing. The Grobo will take care of the rest. It automatically provides the plant with the perfect amount of water and light to ensure you’ll have delicious home grown food without fail.

RideCo
RideCo is a ride sharing service designed with convenience and your wallet in mind. When booking a ride with the service, their logistics technology finds more riders travelling at a similar time and in a similar direction, and matches you with them. According to RideCo, this can create a cost savings of up to 80 per cent compared to other ride hailing services, plus all the convenience of knowing exactly when and where you’ll be picked up and delivered. A Milton pilot test is currently underway, offering door to transit hub services for less than two dollars a trip.

Voltera
Recent winner of the 2015 James Dyson award, Voltera is making a name for itself. Circuit board printing is traditionally a time consuming and costly process, involving set-up costs and shipping fees. Voltera has embraced the additive manufacturing revolution and made a printer that will print a circuit board right at your desk. Their technology eliminates a huge infrastructure barrier and drastically reduces the time from concept to completion, saving companies of all sizes time and money. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the group is now shipping printers and accepting orders.

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Kurtis enjoys many fine things in life such as tacos, records, and Batman. He’s always trying to do new things by getting out of that pesky comfort zone. He usually has a beard, and almost always has his adorable smiling dog Kinsey with him.