Alumni and student-led startups feature at Entrepreneurship Week 2025

Kiwi Charge, which is working to boost EV adoption by improving charging infrastructure, is one of several U of T startups that are making waves in vital industries.

A portable charger for electric vehicles. Using quantum chemistry and artificial intelligence to clean polluted water. A dental smart gum for oral health on the go.

These are just a handful of the innovative ideas that entrepreneurs who are connected with the University of Toronto -- including many alumni -- are turning into potentially game-changing startup companies.

Ranked among the top five university business incubators in the world, U of T Entrepreneurship is set to celebrate these and other startups during its ninth annual Entrepreneurship Week from March 3 to 7. The celebration includes pitch competitions, startup showcases, inspirational talks and more.

Here are 10 exciting U of T-affiliated startups to keep an eye on in 2025:

Xatoms

Xatoms is using quantum chemistry and AI to accurately predict 3D models of photocatalytic molecules that can help clean polluted water. The startup sprang from a discovery that CEO Diana Virgovicova made at age 17, when she used quantum chemistry software to model a molecule that can eliminate pollutants from water in the presence of sunlight.

Virgovicova’s startup is already turning heads, making to the final six of the global Hult Prize and attracting the attention of American actor and co-founder of Water.org Matt Damon.

Waabi

Waabi is a self-driving trucking startup founded by Raquel Urtasun, a professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, co-founder of the Vector Institute and a world-renowned expert in AI for autonomous transportation. 

In June 2024, the company, which is headquartered in Toronto, announced that it raised US$200 million in series B funding. More recently, the startup inked a partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks. 

Watch Waabi on CBC’s The National

Kiwi Charge

Kiwi Charge has developed a portable electric vehicle (EV) charger that’s designed to bring the power outlet to the EV as opposed to the other way around – an offering designed for owners who live in high-rise buildings or dense urban neighbourhoods. 

Founded by Abdel Ali, Kiwi Charge was part of the 2023 cohort of the Nobellum Innovator Program and the 2024 cohort of the Black Founders Network (BFN) Accelerate program. Down the road? The company is working on a self-navigating robot to locate and charge its customers’ rides. 

Xanadu

A graduate of the Creative Destruction Lab seed-stage accelerator at the Rotman School of Management, Xanadu is working to create a commercially viable quantum computer that can operate at room temperature (many quantum computing chips need to be super-cooled to extreme temperatures) and uses easily obtained components. 

In January, the company, founded by former U of T post-doctoral researcher Christian Weedbrook, announced the completion of Aurora, the world’s first prototype of a modular, scalable and networked quantum computer.

Cohere

Cohere provides advanced Large Language Models (LLM) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to help businesses integrate AI into their applications. The startup was co-founded by Aidan Gomez (BSc 2018 UC) and Nick Frosst (BSc 2016) – both of whom worked with U of T Nobel Prize-winner and “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton – and former U of T computer science student Ivan Zhang.

In June, Cohere announced that it launched a startup program that will enable companies to leverage its AI models at discounted rates to support early-stage AI innovation. And, in December, the company announced the release of a new LLM designed for enterprise users. 

Cohere has raised over US$900 million from investors and was last valued at US$5.5 billion, according to Reuters.

Toothpod

Toothpod, an oral care startup, has developed a “smart” gum for oral health on the go – a chewable that can help clean the mouth and the tongue when a toothbrush is unavailable. 

U of T alumna Vishar Yaghoubian (BSc 2023 WDW), CEO and co-founder of Toothpod, says she wanted to make oral hygiene more convenient and accessible – at work, on an airplane or camping. The startup, which employs “anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory properties and reminerializing agents,” won third place in the early-stage category of the Desjardins Startup Prize at U of T’s Entrepreneurship Week last year.

HDAX Therapeutics

HDAX Therapeutics is a drug company that develops targeted treatments for peripheral nerve damage, which can result from chemotherapy or radiation, or cardiometabolic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and stroke. In particular, the startup focuses on HDAC 6 – a protein that has been linked to cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders – in their treatments.

The startup was co-founded in 2021 by U of T alumni Pimyupa Manaswiyoungkul (PhD 2021) and Nabanita Nawar (PhD 2022), who met in the lab and grew the technology out of U of T Mississauga’s department of chemical and physical sciences. They hope to see HDAX Therapeutics lead in targeted treatments for diseases with high unmet needs in the future.

MedEssist

16 Bit develops medical device software that improve the efficiency and quality of health care. Its flagship product, Rho, is a screening device that detects low bone density through X-ray imaging obtained for other medical purposes in patients 50 and older. The company has already received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin marketing Rho in the United States. 

Co-founded by co-CEO Mark Cicero,16 Bit began its journey with the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) accelerator in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management. 

MOTUS

Startup co-founders and siblings Sydnie and Malik Pottinger (BKin 2023) became the first students to partner with U of T’s Trademark and Licensing Office with their clothing brand MOTUS.

The siblings, who launched their company in 2023, took on everything from designing clothing and creating a logo to arranging manufacturing and shipping orders. The startup also received support from U of T’s Spaces and Experiences team and the Black Founders Network (BFN).

MOTUS was one of 11 startups chosen to participate in the BFN Accelerate program in 2024, an incubator for early-stage Black-led startups.

Originally published by U of T News