Pitch to the Chief™ @ Spur (Waterloo) & Meet the VCs
Join high-signal founders pitching to police leaders (Chief's, Deputies, etc.) who actually live the problem and have the authority to greenlight tech adoption within public safety.
This event is built to compress months of guessing into one room. Founders get direct access to real end users in community safety. As a result: feedback is practical, specific, and tied to how policing actually operates.
Meet VCs who are actively investing and supporting startups: investors like Drive Capital are coming to meet founders early, understand what is being built, and source the next wave of startups in public safety, defencetech, and adjacent categories.
The judging panel includes:
Chief Kyle Johnstone - Aylmer Police Service
Deputy Chief Jeff Haskins - Cobourg Police Service
Naz Thakkar - Toronto Seed GM, Drive Capital
Agenda:
1:00 - 2:10 pm - Welcome and opening remarks + networking
*Surprise key note speech
2:10 - 2:15 pm - Introduction of judges and pitching rules
2:15 - 4:15 pm - Company pitches
4:15 - 4:45 pm - Judges deliberation + exhibitions
4:45 - 5:15 pm - Finalists announced
5:15 - 6:00 pm - Closing reception & networking
Policetech Accelerator, Capita, Fresh Founders, and SPUR Innovation Center are proud to support an event where collaboration between law enforcement and the innovation community can thrive.
The V13 Policetech Accelerator is a joint initiative of the Cobourg Police Service and Nventure committed to excellence in policing operations and leadership in community safety innovation.
Capita is an agentic law firm for startups and investors, trusted by hundreds of founders across Canada for everything from day-to-day legal ops to fundraising. Capita is backed by Drive Capital, Hyperplane VC, and ArchAngel Starforge Fund.
Fresh Founders is an exclusive, invite-only, mastermind group of founders, CEOs and high-impact individuals who are out to change the world.
SPUR IC: SPUR Innovation/Ventures is building the largest venture studio in Canada, backed by the data and compute infrastructure of the SPUR ecosystem.
This program is funded in part by the Government of Ontario through the Rural Ontario Development Program.