MaRS Discovery District has slashed its senior ranks and is resetting its business model as one of Canada’s largest innovation support organizations heads into a potential funding crunch and seeks to re-establish its raison d’être.
Ms. Nankivell through a spokesperson declined to confirm the number or scope of layoffs or elaborate further on her plans, but said in her statement: “Our path forward necessitates changes towards a more agile and lean organizational structure that reduces hierarchy and leaderships roles in favour of a reallocation of resources to support programming that more effectively supports founders, fosters even greater ecosystem collaboration, and ultimately increases our impact.
The organization, which receives nearly two-thirds of its $30-million in revenue from provincial and federal grants, has faced controversy over its real estate and questions about its sprawling mandate and effectiveness in helping Canadian tech startups scale up into large economic contributors. A key question has been whether it is more of a real estate operation or a taxpayer-funded agency that stimulates innovation.
Meanwhile, MaRS reached the end of a two-year extension of its funding agreement with the Ontario government on March 31 that had seen the province kick in $10-million – more than a third of total revenues for each of those years, while a portion of its federal government funding for a small business-assistance program called MyStartr ran out on Dec. 31. Its future government funding situation is uncertain.
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