BVX 2026 Spotlights Brampton’s Health-Tech Innovators with $80,000 in Awards
Mitacs Health Innovation Showcase finalists, judges, partners, and BVZ team
BRAMPTON, ON — September 10, 2026 — Three Brampton health-tech startups have been awarded a combined $80,000 in award value and support through the inaugural Mitacs Health Innovation Showcase at Brampton Venture Expo (BVX) 2026, hosted by Brampton Venture Zone (BVZ).
Athel AI (external link) , LBx Bio (external link) and LOCVM (external link) were named winners following a live pitch competition featuring five finalists from BVZ Launch, the incubator's health-focused startup program. The Showcase culminated in a surprise announcement that the total award value had increased to $80,000 — $10,000 above the $70,000 originally announced.
The awards recognized startups demonstrating strength across clinical innovation, deep-tech commercialization and scale-up potential.
2026 Mitacs Health Innovation Showcase Winners
Athel AI (external link) — Clinical Excellence Award | $35,000
Founded by Alex Arrazaghi, Athel AI is a clinical intelligence platform that automates medical intake using specialized conversational AI agents. The platform captures complex patient histories through natural-language interactions and structures the information for integration into electronic medical records.
Alex Arrazaghi, Founder of Athel AI receiving the Clinical Excellence Award from Denise McClure (City of Brampton) and Wilson Luo (Mitacs)
LBx Bio (external link) — Pegmatis Deep Tech Award | $30,000
Founded by Mussab Tauseef, LBx Bio is developing a fast, low-cost point-of-care liquid biopsy platform designed to bring molecular cancer diagnostics closer to the clinical setting.
Mussab Tauseef, founder of LBx Bio receiving the Pegmatis Deep Tech Award from Denise McClure (City of Brampton) and Ed Becze (Pegmatis)
LOCVM (external link) — Scale-Up Innovator Award | $15,000
Founded by Angelique Bernabe, LOCVM is a healthcare locum marketplace connecting physicians with locum opportunities while helping clinics find verified temporary coverage more efficiently.
Angelique Bernabe, Founder of LOCVM, receiving the Scale-Up Innovator Award from Denise McClure (City of Brampton), Roshni Wijayasinha (Prosh Marketing) and Usha Srinivasan (TMU)
The Road to the Top Three
The first round, held in August 2026, brought together all 10 startups from the BVZ Launch cohort to pitch their solutions. Five startups advanced to the final round at BVX 2026: Alex Arrazaghi, Founder of Athel AI; Mazhar Shahen, Founder of NewGen Health; Sahil Manjania, Founder of DIA Labs Canada; Angelique Bernabe, Founder of LOCVM; and Mussab Tauseef, Founder of LBx Bio.
The five finalists pitched live before investors, industry leaders and members of Brampton’s innovation ecosystem, with Athel AI, LBx Bio and LOCVM emerging as the three award recipients.
Meet the Judges
The judging panel brought together expertise spanning clinical healthcare, health technology, commercialization, investment and entrepreneurship:
- Nirojini Sivachandran, MD, PhD, FRCSC (external link) — Vitreoretinal Surgeon, Toronto Retina Institute
- Sundar Manku (external link) — Co-Founder & CEO, MedaKi
- Leo Mui (external link) — Network Manager, INOVAIT
- Iana Dogel, PhD, MBA (external link) — Doane Grant Thornton
- Christina Yeh (external link) — VP, Programs & Strategic Partnerships, OBIO
Building Brampton’s Health Innovation Ecosystem
The launch of the Innovation Showcase reflects Brampton Venture Zone’s growing focus on health innovation and commercialization, connecting early-stage founders with the capital, mentorship, industry expertise and networks required to move from promising ideas to market-ready solutions.
For the three winning startups, the awards provide resources to support their next stage of development. More broadly, the Showcase creates a platform for emerging health-tech companies to gain visibility with investors, industry partners, healthcare leaders and the wider innovation community.
The Showcase also builds on Brampton’s growing health and life sciences ecosystem and BVZ’s role in connecting entrepreneurship, industry and innovation within the city.
Congratulations to all five finalists — Alex Arrazaghi (external link) , Mazhar Shahen (external link) , Sahil Manjania (external link) , Angelique Bernabe (external link) and Mussab Tauseef (external link) — for representing the next generation of health innovation emerging from Brampton.
Partners Supporting the Health Innovation Showcase
The Mitacs Health Innovation Showcase was delivered with support from:
- Mitacs (external link) — Health Innovation Showcase Partner
- Pegmatis (external link) — Deep-Tech Commercialization Partner
- Prosh Marketing (external link) — Marketing Advisory Partner
- Invest Brampton — Economic Development Partner
Through these partnerships, BVZ Launch founders gain access to expertise, commercialization support, mentorship and resources that can help accelerate their path from startup to scale-up.
About Brampton Venture Expo
Brampton Venture Zone, part of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Zone Learning network & powered by the Brampton Innovation Zone, supports early stage startups in building, commercializing and scaling innovative companies while strengthening connections between startups, industry and the broader innovation ecosystem.