Oct
24
2019

Start-up businesses continue to benefit from Ignition Fund

Matthew MacKay, Minister of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture and 2019 Ignition fund recipients

Thanks to the Ignition Fund, Chelsey Lake, a digital marketing strategist, designer and developer, will be able to offer small businesses scheduling and ticketing services for their websites.

“Successfully securing an Ignition Fund grant has been pivotal in propelling our business forward,” said Lake, owner of Lake Designs and Strategies. “Our booking software will enable small businesses to have an affordable, modern solution to appointment booking that will improve sales and decrease no shows. With the financial support from the Ignition Fund, we are better situated for success when we enter the market in the coming months.”

Lake is one of 10 recipients who received a $25,000 grant in this year’s round of funding. This year’s 10 new Ignition Fund recipients are:

  • Lake Designs and Strategies
  • Chow Time Pet Foods Inc.
  • Innovation for Lawyers Inc.
  • TopFeed Industries
  • Common Man Seafood & Microcannery
  • Van Kampen’s Greenhouses
  • Au Naturel Solutions 
  • Scout
  • Camp Awesome; and 
  • An animal health company for the enhanced management of livestock.


“The key to entrepreneurial success is the drive of the individual and the strength of their idea. As a former entrepreneur myself, I recognize the importance of government supporting small businesses because that drive and those ideas represent the future of our provincial economy.”

- Matthew MacKay, Minister of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture

Since the Ignition Fund launched in 2014, the program has funded 58 companies .For more information visit: Ignition Fund.

Media contact:
Hillary MacDonald
Department of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture 
902-394-6368
hpsmacdonald@gov.pe.ca (link sends e-mail) 

Backgrounder 

Lake Designs and Strategies (Chelsey Lake and Michael Kogan): A user-friendly solution for websites that will provide functionality for the scheduling of services and provisioning for event ticketing.  

An Animal Health Company for the Enhanced Management of Livestock (Daniel Hurnik DVM, Scott Dingwell and Curtiss Littlejohn): A veterinary device for management of pigs on farms to result in higher welfare for both pigs and their providers. 

Chow Time Pet Foods Inc. (Zack Montreuil): An all-natural dog food nutrition and flavour enhancer. 

Innovation for Lawyers Inc. (Jacinta Gallant): Offering resources, training and innovative tools for lawyers working in collaborative family law practice.

TopFeed Industries (Vaughn Murphy): An online platform for use by small scale food producers who run food subscriptions like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) or CSA farms to enable efficiency in the marketplace. 

Common Man Seafood & Microcannery (John and Jordan McIntyre): Processes and exports premium smoked PEI oysters in single-serving tins for distribution to high-end restaurants and specialty food stores. 

Van Kampen’s Greenhouses (Mike Cassidy): Production of a liquid bio-stimulant extracted from sea lettuce, in collaboration with UPEI’s Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, for introduction to the consumer market to encourage plant growth.  

Au Naturel Solutions (Simonne Cormier):
The development and manufacturing of all-natural alternative health products and securing system. 

Scout (Adam Bent): Craft Cannery & Purveyors of Sustainable Seafood.  

Camp Awesome (Gavin Hall): A curriculum based series of educational books, teaching resources and interactive tools designed for early years school-aged children.  

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