For the past five years Accelerate Okanagan has been offering a program that connects new technology entrepreneurs with experienced mentors on an ongoing basis.
In 2011, Kelowna company “bananatag” developed software to track e-mails to see if they’ve been opened and read. It now sells the software to large companies that want to track their internal communications.
“In 2013 we had about three or four people working on it,” CEO of bananatag, Corey Wagner said. “Now we’re 35 people.”
Bananatag credits a lot of that success to joining the mentorship program called the Venture Acceleration Program through Accelerate Okanagan.
“We’ve had over 100 companies locally on this program in the last five years and those companies have created about $15 million in revenue,” Andrew Greer, program strategist with Accelerate Okanagan said.
Greer says the impact of the tech industry is actually changing the face of the community.
He points to the rise of the nearly completed Okanagan Centre for Innovation being built in Kelowna, which will house several technology companies under one roof.
“Specifically in Kelowna, 10 percent of office space is full of tech companies. You can’t walk downtown without running into people who work for tech companies,” Greer said. “That was really different five years ago.”
The Okanagan was the first region in B.C. to offer the mentorship program, but it has since spread to eight other regions around the province.
The Venture Acceleration Program website says it has helped to create over 1,600 jobs province wide, generating over $80 million in revenue.