Waterloo Tech Highlights for June 2025
Our goal is to provide you with a monthly primer on significant news events from private Waterloo-based technology companies in 5 minutes or less.
ENVGO raised $2M for their electric boat in a round led by Two Small Fish Ventures and Garage Capital.
Swap Robotics raised $3M from Silicon Ranch, giving them both capital and an inside customer.
Nicoya acquired UK-based Photophysics. The deal takes the company to 100 people and increases their customer count over 3000.
Real Life Robotics signed a 3-month trial deal with Skip to field test their last mile delivery robots.
Flomaru, a pre-revenue startup plans to launch their pilot this summer. They’re part of a new breed of team-light AI-driven startups. They’re tackling gifting across borders.
Intellijoint made their first product shipments to India with surgeries starting in July.
Chris’ Thoughts
Happy Canada Day!
I hope we’ve moved past cancelling our country and cancelling Canada Day. We’re an amazing place to call home without the need to constantly apologize. There’s a lot we can take pride in, and I think there are some great common values that hold us together, drives our identity and makes Canada a force for good in the world. Here’s three examples:
Sacrificial Sanctuary
We have friends Tim and Jen who opened their home two years ago to Jen’s sister and her two kids, aged zero and two. The sister’s husband became abusive, and she needed immediate shelter. Where this goes beyond a normal story is the depth and duration of how they’ve changed their lives to love and accommodate a vulnerable family. The sister works a 3-shift job and so Tim and Jen take turns sleeping in the basement with the kids, driving them or picking them up from daycare and dealing with the crazy soon-to-be-ex-husband. They’re two years in and will continue for at least another two more years.
I doubly love this story because Tim and Jen themselves are immigrants to Canada, from the US and Poland. They’ve taken up the best of the traits we have as a nation and quietly live them out daily. No Instagram, no blog, no GoFundMe, just quietly loving the vulnerable and finding meaning in sacrificial giving.
Catalyzing Community
Leave the metropolitan areas of Canada and you run into strong communities almost immediately. You can’t spend time in the north, Newfoundland, at a prairie family reunion or an immigrant community festival without encountering a way of life that revolves around sacrificially giving to build community.
Our neighbour Bob just sold his house. We’re all sad because Bob was the one who took the initiative every June to host a neighbourhood BBQ. Fifteen years ago he was the only one buying the pig to roast, handing out the flyers, buying all the drinks, renting chairs and extending his backyard for all to come. He spent days on it.
While Bob continues to do more work to make it happen, each year has featured increased participation as neighbours have begun taking full days off work to help. Bob’s neither rich nor idle so the time and money represent real sacrifices but his quiet resolve to do something we all value makes him an anchor for our community.
Quiet Exceptionalism
Much gets made of American Exceptionalism, and for good reason. Americans do an amazing job of trumpeting their excellence.
The best of Canada is more than “we’re not American” though. Canada stands out as a positive example of doing excellent things for the pure love of it as opposed to the Instagram likes.
I’m willing to bet you know somebody who is world class at something but quietly lives in relative anonymity. Shanda Hill is the only person alive to complete three Double Deca Ironman races (20x the Ironman race distance). She’s currently working through a 10x Ironman but when not doing a race, spends most of her days quietly training and living in Vernon, BC as an ordinary citizen.
The standard bearer for Quiet Exceptionalism has to be Terry Fox. If you’re too young to have been captivated by his quiet grit, running at least 2500km on one leg before anybody started paying attention, take the time and read his Wikipedia page. He just did, despite so many saying he shouldn’t. Or couldn’t. In the process Terry and his supporters catalyzed more cancer fundraising and awareness than any other person in history, along with, I’d argue defining a modern identity of Canada.
We have lots to celebrate this Canada Day. If you’re one of those who provides safety, builds community or just quietly inspires others with excellence, then cheers to you. For the rest of us, take the time to thank those you know who define our identity and make this a great place to live.
Have a great Day!
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Chris Wormald @cwormald