First Cohort of CENGN Living Lab Projects Announced, Valued at $6.5 Million for Nine Canadian Startups

9 Canadian startups approved for CENGN Living Lab projects, validating tech in real environments. Combined value: $6.5M, with $2.6M in ISED SRF funding.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, February 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- French: https://www.cengn.ca/fr/information-centre/nouvelles/annonce-de-la-premiere-cohorte-de-projets-de-laboratoires-vivants-de-cengn-dune-valeur-de-6-5-millions-de-dollars-pour-neuf-startups-canadiennes/


• Nine Canadian startups and scaleups have been approved to begin technology commercialization projects through the CENGN Living Lab Initiative.
• Each project will involve validating a Canadian tech solution in a real end-user environment.
• The projects have a combined value of $6.5 million and are receiving $2.6 million in funding from ISED’s SRF program.

Today, CENGN announced its first cohort of Canadian startups and scaleups that will carry out commercialization projects through the CENGN Living Lab Initiative. The nine selected companies will validate and demonstrate their solutions at CENGN’s Smart Agriculture, Smart Mobility, Connected Robotics, and 5G Living Labs.

With a combined value of $6.5 million, these initial projects are supported by $2.6 million in funding from the Federal Government’s Strategic Response Fund (SRF) and mark the beginning of the CENGN Living Lab Initiative’s goal to help over 100 Canadian startups and scaleups looking to prepare their innovative products and solutions for commercialization and industry adoption.

By offering access to advanced infrastructure, expert support, and real-world testing environments, the CENGN Living Lab Initiative drives technology adoption across key economic sectors. It plays a critical role in boosting Canadian industry competitiveness, fostering new Intellectual Property, and fueling the growth of the country’s most promising technology ventures.


Nine Canadian Companies Embark on CENGN Living Lab Projects

The nine projects will support each innovative Canadian tech startup and scaleup on their respective commercial journeys:


Ecosystem Informatics

“Carrying out a CENGN project will enable our organization to validate and scale real-time environmental intelligence within connected mobility infrastructure, including electric vehicles. ESI delivers an AI-powered mobile air monitoring platform designed for reliable operation across fixed and vehicle-based environments using advanced wireless connectivity. Collecting large, high-resolution datasets through this project prepares the solution for city-scale deployments and provides municipalities and infrastructure operators with actionable insights for compliance, planning, and public health,” Shirook Ali, CEO & CTO, Ecosystem Informatics.

Ecosystem Informatics: An air monitoring informatics company dedicated to providing advanced AI-driven data and analytics solutions to help organizations monitor and improve air quality in real-time. The organization’s multi-modal solution means their customers can cover a very large area at a very low cost, with either terrestrial or aerial mobile platforms, complemented if required by a fixed platform.
Project Lab: Smart Mobility and Agriculture Living Lab – Powered by Area X.O


Geco

"Our CENGN project will enable Geco to significantly advance our weed detection capabilities by working with a network of researchers and commercial farms across Canada and internationally. Geco uses satellite imagery and AI to generate multi-season weed maps that guide precision management decisions. This empowers farmers to apply herbicides more precisely and adopt non-chemical strategies such as variable-rate seeding to increase crop competition and reduce overall input use," Greg Stewart, Founder & CEO, Geco.

Geco: Leveraging all available data on and above farm fields into agronomic models so farmers can nip weed problems in the bud. They are working with North American farms on their most challenging weed issues.
Project Lab: Smart Agriculture Living Lab – Powered by UBC Farm


GeoMate

“Carrying out the CENGN project will accelerate industry adoption of GeoMate’s flagship product, RealSimE. The platform empowers cities for CAV readiness and enables scalable AD/ADAS testing and validation across new geographies,” Amin Gharebaghi, Co-Founder & CEO, GeoMate.

GeoMate: Accelerating smart mobility innovation by transforming high-resolution geospatial imagery into precise, cost-effective HD maps and simulation environments. Their AI-driven technology delivers mapping solutions that are more accurate, more scalable, and significantly less expensive than traditional methods—empowering urban planners and autonomous mobility teams to create safer, more connected communities.
Project Lab: Smart Mobility and Agriculture Living Lab – Powered by Area X.O


InDro Robotics

"Partnering with CENGN enables InDro Robotics to validate our dexterous humanoid solution in a real-world agricultural environment, advancing our systems with a clear path toward commercial deployment. Access to CENGN’s Living Labs, including high-performance 5G connectivity, allows us to test our teleoperation, autonomy, and data streaming under realistic conditions alongside our end user, significantly reducing technical risk and accelerating time to market," Philip Reece, President & CEO, InDro Robotics.

InDro Robotics: Leveraging the latest advancements in robotics, AI, and data analytics to unlock the full potential of unmanned systems, enabling customers to achieve their goals faster, safer, and more sustainably than ever before.
Project Lab: Smart Mobility and Agriculture Living Lab – Powered by Area X.O


Mobilytics

“Our organization is thrilled to have been approved for a CENGN load-testing project that will provide our team with funding and access to vital infrastructure to complete our testing protocol. As our team moves into a global rollout phase, this project will verify our infrastructure can support hundreds of thousands of sensor deployments worldwide,” Casey Binkley, Founder & CEO, Mobilytics.

Mobilytics: Specializes in measuring location-based media on any physical or mobile platform including billboards, digital screens, transit/fleet vehicles, retail environments, and exhibitions – both indoors and outdoors. Their service provides a turnkey solution for measuring the amount of people and attraction level of any point of interest and tracks movement within a desired target area during a selected time interval.
Project Lab: 5G Advanced Performance Living Lab – Powered by Ericsson


Real Life Robotics

“Carrying out a CENGN project will allow our organization to accelerate the integration and testing of our PASSENGER platform within a world-class robotics environment. PASSENGER is designed to unify fleets of hardware-agnostic robots, IoT systems, and automation tools into a single intelligent orchestration layer that gives customers real-time visibility and management. We’ve already integrated the platform across multiple robotic systems and seen growing demand from partners across logistics, infrastructure, and public services. It’s another step in proving that Canada can not only build world-class robotics…but also commercialize them at scale,” Cameron Waite, CEO, Real Life Robotics.

Real Life Robotics: A robotics and automation company transforming how organizations manage their robots and connected devices. Their flagship software, PASSENGER, is a hardware-agnostic orchestration platform that unifies fleets of robots, IoT systems, and automation technologies into one simple dashboard.
Project Lab: Connected Robotics Living Lab – Powered by the University of Waterloo’s RoboHub and Rogers


Solana Networks

"Working with CENGN accelerates Solana Networks’ ability to validate the scalability and performance of TrafficWiz in carrier-grade 5G and wireline networks. TrafficWiz provides encrypted traffic visibility and supports AI-driven threat and anomaly detection at scale, giving stakeholders actionable insight into modern network traffic and infrastructure without requiring decryption," Nisan Rowhani, VP of Product Management, Solana Networks.

Solana Networks: An innovative technology company delivering intelligent software products and solutions for IP networks, including products that provide cutting-edge solutions for enhanced network discovery, performance, and advanced traffic visibility.
Project Lab: 5G Advanced Performance Living Lab – Powered by Ericsson


TreeTrack

"Carrying out a CENGN project will enable TreeTrack to validate and scale an AI-powered UAV monitoring platform that automates seedling survival verification across entire reforestation sites. Our solution combines high-resolution drone imaging with proprietary machine learning models to detect, classify, and quantify seedlings with high accuracy, replacing costly and limited manual audits. By delivering full-site, data-driven survival reports within 72 hours, we provide governments and carbon market stakeholders with transparent, verifiable evidence of ecological impact," Amir Soliemani, CEO, TreeTrack.

TreeTrack: Using advanced technology, proprietary Seedpods, and real-time data, the organization accelerates ecosystem regeneration, making it faster, more efficient, and more effective. Their technology delivers up to 10 times higher establishment rates than traditional methods, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by over 90 percent.
Project Lab: Smart Agriculture Living Lab – Powered by UBC Farm


WeTraq

“Carrying out a CENGN project will enable WeTraq to accelerate deployment of its patient mobility monitoring solution with hospitals, improving patient safety and supporting independence while giving care teams objective, real-time mobility insights,” Ishaan Singla, Founder & CEO, WeTraq.

WeTraq: A cutting-edge IoT solution provider empowering business enterprises to enhance safety and drive growth. By delivering real-time insights and actionable data, WeTraq enables businesses to protect their most valuable assets – people – while achieving measurable growth and compliance in today’s fast-evolving landscape.
Project Lab: 5G Advanced Performance Living Lab – Powered by Ericsson


Federal Government’s ISED Invests $45 Million

Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED)’s $45 million investment in CENGN aims to expedite the technology transformation of Canadian industry while directly supporting Canadian innovators through Innovation and Adoption Projects. Each Innovation Project includes up to $250K in co-investment funding to the startup or scaleup, a number which increases up to $500K for Adoption Projects.

This funding is expected to provide a major return on investment, including

- A significant boost in GDP growth
- The creation and safeguarding of critical tech jobs in Canada
- The launch of innovative Canadian products in the global market
- The generation of disruptive and impactful Canadian IP patents
- Sales growth and substantial follow-on investment for participating Canadian startups and scaleups
- Acceleration of Technology Readiness Levels for participating Canadian companies
- The entry of skilled professionals into critical digital technology roles nationwide

“The demand from Canadian startups and scaleups for access to CENGN’s Living Lab services has grown impressively with the launch of each Living Lab across the country,” stated Chris Joyce, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at CENGN. “These first projects exemplify the value of our initiative to support the robust and vibrant innovation ecosystem in Canada, and support the development of homegrown Canadian IP that will enable our country to lead the way in next-generation technology solutions.”


Resources:

CENGN Living Lab Initiative – https://www.cengn.ca/strategic-innovation-fund/
ISED SRF Program – https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/programs-and-initiatives/strategic-response-fund

Ecosystem Informatics – http://www.ecosinfo.ai/
Geco – https://geco-ag.com/
GeoMate – https://geomate.ai/
InDro Robotics – https://indrorobotics.ca/
Mobilytics – http://www.mobilytics.com/
Real Life Robotics – https://www.realliferobotics.com/
Solana Networks – https://www.solananetworks.com/
TreeTrack – https://treetrack.ca/
WeTraq – https://www.wetraq.ca/

Media Contact:

Rick Penwarden
Senior Communications Manager
CENGN -Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks
613-963-1203
Rick.Penwarden@cengn.ca


CENGN – Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks

CENGN, Canada's Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives innovation and adoption of applied AI, IoT, and advanced networking technologies through its Living Lab Initiative, technical expertise, and partner ecosystem. Through our services, we enable the digital transformation and competitiveness of the Canadian industry and the commercial growth of Canadian digital technology solutions. CENGN provides access to real end-user environments and the end-to-end testing services and expertise that accelerate validation, demonstration, commercialization, and adoption of digital innovation solutions across Canada and the globe.

Our unique expertise and positioning as a neutral third party in an ecosystem of technology, innovation, government, and academic partners, paired with a long track record of overperforming on program mandates, have made CENGN a trusted leader in delivering Government initiatives that support network technology innovation.

For more information on the CENGN Living Labs or for general inquiries on CENGN, please contact services@cengn.ca.

Rick Penwarden
CENGN
+1 613-963-1200 ext. 329
email us here

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