FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1st, 2017
Contact: Amir Farahi Email: amir@fillspaces.com Phone: (226) 448-9763
FillSpaces.com Granted Ontario Centre of Excellence SmartStart Seed Fund
LONDON, ON – Ontario’s FillSpaces.com, a commercial space marketplace, has been awarded the SmartStart Seed Fund from the Ontario Centre of Excellence (OCE). This is a fund that is granted to Ontario's next generation of entrepreneurs in order to take their start-ups to the next level.
FillSpaces.com is an online platform that has removed the barriers associated with discovering and booking commercial spaces through a safe, seamless and stress-free process. Users can access affordable spaces and are able to book and pay for them directly online. Underutilized spaces can be shared through this platform to provide owners with revenue on the side and help offset ownership costs.
“The SmartStart Seed Fund is a great opportunity for ambitious, young entrepreneurs like FillSpaces.com to access the funding that can help take their innovation to an international market by developing their skills while growing their start-up,” says Dr. Tom Corr, OCE’s President and CEO.
“SmartStart helps the next generation of entrepreneurs to develop prototype products, source their first customers and solve business needs while accessing the great business networks and resources in Ontario’s innovation ecosystem.”
“We are proud to support bright and innovative entrepreneurs through OCE’s SmartStart Seed Fund,” says Peter Fragiskatos, Member of Parliament for London North Centre. “The Government of Canada wants to ensure that Canadian entrepreneurs have the skills and resources they need to succeed and become global market leaders, while creating jobs here at home.”
Working with Propel Entrepreneurship at Western University, founders Amir Farahi, Matt Ross and Dale Inverarity say they will continue to improve their software and processes to help FillSpaces.com become the global commercial marketplace for unique spaces. “This is an exciting opportunity for us and we believe that it is a viable solution to economic, cultural and technological stagnation within cities that have been hit hard by the recession,” says Farahi. “We imagine people accessing a network of spaces for their creative ideas, whether it is for an event, a pop-up store or an artistic production,” says Ross.
FillSpaces.com will be using the funds from OCE's SmartStart Seed Fund program to add more features to their website and experiment with marketing channels.
“The OCE fund will help FillSpaces.com attract external talent to build and improve scaling systems, ensure payments are robust and integrate a strong and sustainable sales funnel into the application,” says Inverarity.
SmartStart Seed Fund is a program that provides both seed funding and support for entrepreneurship skills training to help recipients grow their start-ups and make them investment and customer ready. It is an initiative that is supported and co-funded by the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, and the Government of Ontario, as part of its Ontario Youth Jobs Strategy.
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