Building off of the success of their first partnership, BlackBerry and L-Spark have now announced the second phase of their joint accelerator program focused on Canadian startups working on connected vehicle technology.

"We're doubling down on our partnership with L-SPARK to position Canada's high potential SMEs as leaders in our competitive technology space," said Grant Courville, VP, Product Management and Strategy, BlackBerry QNX. "Collaboration is the key to our collective success and we are impressed with both the quality and breadth of participants that we were able to work with as part of the first accelerator program. BlackBerry QNX's software is the ideal platform for start-ups looking to build innovative solutions that solve real-world transportation industry issues."

"The first cohort of the BlackBerry/L-SPARK Accelerator was a great success for everyone involved and I am excited to launch this second cohort, and with BlackBerry's help, exceed our objectives again, while continuing to build a vibrant eco-system for BlackBerry's industry leading technologies," said Leo Lax, Executive Managing Director at L-SPARK. "The companies in the first cohort have secured multiple engagements with key customers as a result of their participation in this program and at least two of the companies had financing close after being involved in the accelerator."

In total, six companies will be selected to join the accelerator program. The program kicks off in December 2019 and will wrap up in April 2020. If you're looking to apply, you have until October 21, 2019, to get your application in. You can learn more and apply via the L-Spark site.

Press Release

BlackBerry, L-SPARK Launch Second Phase of StartUp Accelerator Program to Further Canadian Technology Innovation

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) and L-SPARK, Canada's largest software-as-a-service accelerator, today announced a second phase of their joint accelerator program, which aims to accelerate Canadian technology startups that are focused on vehicle connected services and cloud connectivity to the vehicle.

Following the success of the first cohort, which saw seven companies build and demonstrate prototypes in device security, sensor fusion (e.g. lidar, radar, cameras and GPS), functional safety, analytics, and other autonomous vehicle related technologies, the second phase of the partnership aims to once again help small and medium-sized technology enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses and bring new products to market using BlackBerry QNX technology.

Companies selected to join the next accelerator program will receive free licenses and training on BlackBerry QNX technology, which powers many of the world's most mission-critical embedded systems including nuclear power plants, surgical robots, class III life-critical medical devices, autonomous & connected vehicles, trains and traffic lights – systems that are required to operate safely, securely and reliably, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without failure.

"We're doubling down on our partnership with L-SPARK to position Canada's high potential SMEs as leaders in our competitive technology space," said Grant Courville, VP, Product Management and Strategy, BlackBerry QNX. "Collaboration is the key to our collective success and we are impressed with both the quality and breadth of participants that we were able to work with as part of the first accelerator program. BlackBerry QNX's software is the ideal platform for start-ups looking to build innovative solutions that solve real-world transportation industry issues."

"The first cohort of the BlackBerry/L-SPARK Accelerator was a great success for everyone involved and I am excited to launch this second cohort, and with BlackBerry's help, exceed our objectives again, while continuing to build a vibrant eco-system for BlackBerry's industry leading technologies," said Leo Lax, Executive Managing Director at L-SPARK. "The companies in the first cohort have secured multiple engagements with key customers as a result of their participation in this program and at least two of the companies had financing close after being involved in the accelerator."

L-SPARK will turn to the expertise of the National Research Council of Canada-Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), to reach out to companies that could benefit from working with the BlackBerry QNX product group.

For more information, or to apply to the next accelerator round, visit https://www.l-spark.com/accelerator/blackberry. Applications will close on October 21, 2019.