Guelph, Ont., MP Lloyd Longfield announced $261,250 in funding for Innovation Guelph to support women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement was made on Monday during the International Women’s Day Guelph-Wellington and The YMCA of Three Rivers’ Women of Distinction event.
“Innovation Guelph has developed into a leader in supporting Canadian women’s innovation and entrepreneurship,” Longfield said in a statement.
“Since its inception, Innovation Guelph has provided opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect with experienced
mentors to help encourage, guide and support the development of innovative products, services or solutions in
Guelph.”
The funding is a top-up to the $1,879,983 that the organization received in 2018 through the federal government’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES).
Along with providing coaching and networking, the funding will help businesses with start-up and scale-up as well as access to new markets.
“The pandemic has highlighted specific challenges that the WES top-up funds have enabled us, with our partners, to meet by executing impactful programming elements customized for the women business leaders we support,” said Innovation Guelph CEO Anne Toner Fung.