Invest Ottawa’s Ignition Pitch Finale won by political text messaging business, ReachReactor.
OTTAWA, Sept. 15th, 2022 — Invest Ottawa hosted its Pitch Finale for their Ignition program’s 16th cohort.
The Pitch Finale event took place Thursday, September 15th, at Ottawa’s Innovation Centre, Bayview Yards. All 13 members of cohort 16 presented a 3-minute pitch for their business at the hybrid event in front of the in-person and virtual crowd.
“Thursday evening, Bayview Yards was filled with our inspiring community cheering on IO’s Ignition Cohort 16 graduates,” said Erin Seegmiller, Manager of Early Stage Programs. “We are privileged to work with such talented founders, and the Pitch Finale is a great way to conclude the final week of the 10-week program. The event brings together the graduating founders to battle for the Best Pitch and the Crowd Favourite awards. Congratulations to all graduates from Cohort 16.”
A panel of five judges evaluated each company’s pitch based on their description of the problem they are solving, their solution, their team and their upcoming milestones. The winner will receive 6-months of extra Invest Ottawa advisor support and 6-months of free co-working space access at Bayview yards.
The judges recognized ReachReactor’s pitch, presented by the company founder Dave Bagler, as the best pitch of the event.
ReachReactor is a text message application that allows political campaigns to send personalized broadcast text messages and manage follow-up conversations in a real-time webmail-style inbox.
With nearly 60% of Ontarians opting not to vote in June’s provincial election, Dave Bagler focused on improving voter turnout.
“Research shows that direct voter contact improves turnout. But unfortunately, this is increasingly difficult. Emails go to spam. Phone calls go unanswered. And video doorbells make it harder to reach people at home. Campaigns resort to those annoying robocalls or flyer drops and sacrifice value for volume. However, there does remain one method of voter contact that maximizes effectiveness and reach. It’s personalized text message conversations.”
All 13 pitches were well received, and the companies will now graduate to Invest Ottawa’s Flex program.
The application period for Invest Ottawa Ignition cohort 17 is now open. Visit https://www.investottawa.ca/venture-path/ignition/ to apply.
For additional information, please contact:
Dave Bagler
Founder, ReachReactor
About ReachReactor
ReachReactor is an Ottawa-based campaign software start-up and graduate of Invest Ottawa’s Ignition program. ReachReactor provides campaigns with the ability to send personalized text message broadcasts and manage follow-up conversations in a real-time webmail-style inbox. https://www.reachreactor.ca/
About Invest Ottawa
Invest Ottawa is the lead economic development agency for knowledge-based industries in Canada’s Capital, facilitating economic growth and job creation in Ottawa. Guided by a vision to help realize Ottawa’s full potential as a globally recognized, innovative, inclusive, and future-ready city, Invest Ottawa delivers venture development, global expansion and talent programs and services that catalyze the growth and success of entrepreneurs and firms. These include small business training, mentorship, acceleration for technology firms, foreign business and investment attraction, local business retention and expansion in targeted sectors, commercialization, and marketing Ottawa’s diversified economy and high quality of life. Invest Ottawa is also the founder and manager of Area X.O, the futureplex of innovation and collaboration. Since 2012, Invest Ottawa has worked with thousands of startups, scale-ups and SMEs; helped firms to attract more than $992 million in capital; contributed to the creation of more than 11,178 jobs; and attracted more than $1 billion in domestic and Foreign Direct Investment. https://www.investottawa.ca/
About Invest Ottawa’s Ignition Program
IO Ignition (formerly known as the IO Pre-Accelerator) is a 10-week boot camp created for entrepreneurs who want to validate a tech startup idea and create a solid business foundation to build upon. https://www.investottawa.ca/venture-path/ignition/
About Invest Ottawa’s Flex Program
Invest Ottawa created IO Flex to give founders and business leaders access to Early-Stage Advisors, cost-saving start-up perks, and a network of like-minded peers. IO Flex is flexible to meet founders’ needs when they need it most – giving them the key to a select roster of the best business resources for every phase of their business. https://www.investottawa.ca/venture-path/flex/
About Ottawa’s Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards
Bayview Yards creates a one-stop business acceleration shop, and equips our most promising entrepreneurs and technology firms with the technical, business and market capabilities they require to take on the world! It serves as a springboard for these ventures from start-up to scale-up, helping them to reduce risk, accelerate growth, and spur commercial success and economic development in our community. https://bayviewyards.org/
