Brampton’s Health Tech Innovators Take the Stage at the BVZ Health Innovation Showcase 2026

BRAMPTON, ON — Brampton’s growing healthcare innovation community came together on August 13 for the BVZ Health Innovation Showcase 2026, hosted by Brampton Venture Zone (BVZ) by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) at the TMU School of Medicine in Brampton.

The evening brought together healthcare entrepreneurs, clinicians, investors, industry leaders and ecosystem partners to spotlight 10 emerging HealthTech and MedTech companies from the 2026 BVZ Launch cohort and the technologies they are developing to address real-world healthcare challenges. The showcase marked the first round of competition for the cohort.

Following the event, five finalists will advance to Brampton Venture Expo (BVX) 2026 on September 10, where they will pitch live for the opportunity to receive up to $70,000 in non-dilutive funding.

10 HealthTech Startups Building the Future of Healthcare

The 2026 BVZ Launch cohort reflects the breadth of healthcare innovation emerging through BVZ, with companies working across cancer diagnostics, remote patient monitoring, surgical technology, AI-enabled healthcare, senior care, metabolic health and healthcare workforce solutions.

The 10 companies and founders who presented were:

• LBx Bio (external link)  — Mussab Tauseef (external link) : Developing a fast, low-cost, point-of-care liquid biopsy platform designed to detect cancer within the same clinical visit.
• NewGen Health (external link)  — Mazhar Shahen (external link) : Building a device-enabled SaaS platform that moves prenatal screening and chronic disease monitoring from the clinic into the home.
• Oakwood Biology — Siyuan (Simon) Li (external link) : Developing a hybrid electrocautery device combining monopolar and bipolar functionality to streamline surgical workflows and reduce operating-room costs.
• DIA Labs Canada (external link)  — Sahil Manjania (external link) : Developing a medical device that monitors inflammatory biomarkers in moderate-to-severe asthma patients to support more personalized treatment.
• PatientCompanion (external link)  — Christy Lee (external link) : Building a digital health solution designed to improve communication between patients and care teams.
• WiseLoop (external link)  — Tishya Parikh (external link) : A physician-founded, responsible AI-powered platform developing communication infrastructure for senior living communities.
• Athel AI (external link)  — Alex Arrazaghi (external link) : A clinical intelligence platform using conversational AI to automate medical intake and structure patient information for electronic medical records.
• AcceptingMD (external link)  — Dr. Wael Guirguis (external link) : A digital patient-intake platform designed to streamline clinic referrals, reduce administrative burden and improve patient access.
• Seranthia Inc. — Nikhil Gupta: Developing Olvi, a clinically informed nutrition and wellness companion focused on personalized metabolic health.
• LOCVM (external link)  — Angélique Bernabé (external link) : Building a platform that connects physicians with clinics that need them.

Together, the cohort demonstrates how early-stage Canadian founders are approaching healthcare challenges from multiple angles — combining medical technology, artificial intelligence, digital platforms and new models of care.

Healthcare & Innovation Leaders Join the Judging Panel

The founders presented their companies before a multidisciplinary panel of judges bringing expertise across healthcare, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, clinical practice and non-dilutive funding.

The judging panel included:

Sundar Manku  (external link) — CEO and Co-Founder of MedaKi and Manager of Entrepreneurship Programs at Seneca Polytechnic’s HELIX incubator

Dr. Bibaswan Ghoshal (external link)  — Senior Director, Technology Adoption at OBIO

Leo Mui  (external link) — Network Manager at INOVAIT Canada

Dr. Nirojini Sivachandran (external link)  — Vitreoretinal Surgeon at the TMU School of Medicine

Dr. Iana Dogel, MBA (external link)  — Senior Manager, Tax (SR&ED) at Doane Grant Thornton LLP

Their collective experience provided founders with perspectives that extended beyond the pitch itself — from technology adoption and commercialization to clinical relevance, funding and pathways to scale.

Exploring the Entrepreneurial Healthcare Professional

The evening concluded with “The Entrepreneurial Healthcare Professional,” a conversation exploring the intersection of healthcare practice, research, entrepreneurship and innovation.

The discussion featured Dr. Jobin Varughese (School of Medicine) and Dr. Latchmi Raghunanan (BVZ alumna), with Andrea England (School of Medicine) moderating the conversation.

The panel highlighted the increasingly important role healthcare professionals can play in identifying unmet needs, translating frontline experience into innovation and helping build solutions that respond to challenges within the healthcare system.

Neelam Bance, a BVZ MedTech alumna, served as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

Building Health Innovation in Brampton

The Showcase also reflected the broader collaboration helping strengthen Brampton’s innovation ecosystem.

BVZ extends its thanks to Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh for joining the event and encouraging the founders ahead of their pitches, and to the Invest Brampton – Economic Development Office team for their continued partnership and support of entrepreneurship and innovation in the city.

As a partner of BVZ, the City of Brampton, through the Brampton Innovation District and Invest Brampton, continues to play an important role in creating an environment where entrepreneurs, technology companies, institutions and industry can connect and grow.

BVZ also thanks the TMU School of Medicine for hosting the Health Innovation Showcase. Bringing entrepreneurs into a space dedicated to the future of medical education created a fitting setting for a conversation about the future of healthcare innovation in Brampton.