These are the Winners of the Sixth Annual Canadian Startup Awards

The top awards of the night went to education platform Top Hat for Startup of the Year; Wealthsimple’s Michael Katchen for Entrepreneur of the Year; and Shopify’s COO Harley Finkelstein for Angel Investor of the Year.

Canadian Startup Awards, presented by tech media company Techvibes, announced the winners of the 6th annual awards at a gala in downtown Toronto. The top awards of the night went to education platform Top Hat, for Startup of the Year; Wealthsimple’s Michael Katchen for Entrepreneur of the Year; and Shopify’s COO Harley Finkelstein for Angel Investor of the Year. Winners were awarded in 11 categories, including six new categories like top social impact startup, top hardware company, and best enterprise transformation.

«2016 was a big year for Top Hat, between securing our latest funding round and introducing more educators and students to our platform. We’re honoured to take home the top award of the night for Startup of the Year,» said Mohsen Shahini, Top Hat’s co-founder and CAO. «This year will be even bigger for the company as we try to change the way academic content is created and distributed

Top Hat’s education platform provides students with mobile-friendly versions of learning materials, and last month the company announced $29.5 million in Series C funding. The platform is used by over 500 educational institutions around the world, including the University of Toronto and Cornell University. Angel Investor of the Year was awarded to Harley Finkelstein, COO of Shopify, who has invested in over a dozen companies including SkiptheDishes, a finalist for Startup of the Year, and Akira, an app that uses video to connect patients and doctors. He’s also one of the Dragons on CBC’s Next Gen Den.

«I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 17, and I know that without capital, startups don’t have a fighting chance to succeed. In recent years my work with Shopify has allowed me to invest in up-and-coming Canadian startups, and I’m excited to be recognized for those investments tonight,» said Harley Finkelstein, Shopify COO and Canadian Startup Awards Angel Investor of the Year. «This award means a lot to me because it highlights the need for entrepreneurs to pay it forward to the next generation of startups, something I’ve committed to doing throughout my career

Several new categories were added for this year’s awards, including an award for Social Impact, which was presented to Toronto-based Figure1, the social network that allows healthcare professionals and students to share medical cases with others in the medical community. The award for Best New Startup went to Smooch, the Montreal-based messaging platform that raised $10 million in funding in August 2016. Michael Katchen, CEO of fintech company Wealthsimple, was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year.

«We’re thrilled to present some of the country’s top companies and entrepreneurs with an award that recognizes their contributions to the startup community,» said Robert Lewis, Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes. «This year’s awards program was the largest yet, and that reflects the growth in Canadian tech and innovation in 2016.»

Startup of the Year    

Top Hat

Entrepreneur of the Year       

Michael Katchen, Wealthsimple

VC Firm of the Year

Real Ventures

Angel Investor of the Year     

Harley Finkelstein

Employer of the Year

Clio

New Startup

Smooch

Social Impact 

Figure 1

Hardware

Ecobee

Technology Innovation

Goldmoney

Enterprise Transformation    

Scotiabank

Mobile App

Ritual

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