Xchange

What Makes
the Xchange
Different From
Other Programs?

Summerside Xchange is uniquely based on providing real-life testing and experimentation environments in which start-ups, companies, researchers, and developers work directly with us here at the community of Summerside and its infrastructure to advance product testing, development, and integration in a real-world setting.

Join The Program

LIVING LAB

Who can
apply
to the
program?

Through Summerside Xchange, start-ups will enter our “accelerator environment” for a fixed period of intense, rapid, and immersive education. The result? Speeding up the life cycle of their companies (and their offerings!) by compressing years of learning-and-doing into just a few short months. After all, why try and fail in the real-life market when you could test and succeed in Summerside Xchange?

If you are an early-stage company, we want to partner with you!

Prospective applicants should have at least one working prototype to apply; this is to ensure that they are best-positioned to take advantage of the resources that the city of Summerside has to offer.

As the goal of our program is to increase the adoption of innovative next-generation technologies (and accelerate their deployment at scale), we recruit clients from local, regional, and global start-up ecosystems and also have assembled a team of support providers, local entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, university research labs, and industry bodies to ensure that successful applicants have support networks all around the globe.

While we accept start-ups from most disciplines, we are particularly interested in innovative solutions within the following areas:

Electric storage and grid Integration
Electric vehicles
EV car charger solutions with battery storage
Security and surveillance
Appliance control
Residential environmental controls
Smart home innovation
Medical home care solutions
Solar energy integration
Biofuel from waste
Advanced IT development
Interoperability for big data

What Will You Get?

Validation and Low-Risk Experimentation

Do you have your MVP but are not sure if it works in a real-life setting? Summerside Xchange directly lowers this risk by permitting successful applicants to tap into our city’s existing infrastructure in order to conduct research, interviews, and experimentation to fine-tune their products ahead of launch.

“First Customer” Opportunities

Do you already have a validated product but are struggling to deploy it in a real-life setting? If so, we here at the city of Summerside are here to help you work alongside firms in order to use budget displacement or third-party seed funding to support “first customer” opportunities!

Innovative Workspaces

Are you seeking an innovative workspace that encourages experimentation? Summerside is a small but innovative city with a significant enabling infrastructure that encourages the growth of companies just like yours.

Business Development

Are you on the lookout for business development opportunities? We have a significant knowledge base in the form of case studies on the green economy, tech, and collaboration of enterprises that successful applicants can learn from and build on.

A Stakeholder Network

Do you wish you had a network of key decision makers? Look no further than our team here at Summerside Xchange, who provide access to key decision makers (such as like-minded lawyers, accountants, and industry experts) with quick turnaround times.

How Does
the Summerside
Xchange
Work?

As Summerside Xchange is a highly hands-on program, we take on only a select few start-ups per year. While the program length varies from 3 to 6 months depending on the successful applicant’s needs, applicants are accepted on a rolling basis yearly.

The Summerside Challenge Program are issues that the City of Summerside would like to resolve using open innovation methods and partnering with innovation-driven businesses in providing solutions to specific technology challenges that the City has identified as worthy of finding solutions.

Both the Summerside Xchange and the Summerside Challenge Program utilize the same application format.

Have further
questions?

Reach out to the Summerside Xchange team at

Here is our application process:

STEP ONE Application Form outlining general conditions associated with your technology solution — Xchange/Challenge Program guarantees a 15-day feedback

STEP TWO Involves members of the evaluation team usually technical, financial leads, private/public partners and members of the Xchange Board in assessing the technology solution and commercial opportunity

STEP THREE Interactive company presentation to the Xchange team

STEP FOUR Acceptance into Xchange/Challenge Program and finalization of work scope

MOST WORK SCOPES AND MEMBERSHIP INTO THE Xchange/Challenge Program INVOLVE PRODUCT PILOTS, TRIALS, PROOF OF CONCEPTS, FIRST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES, IN-DEPTH CUSTOMER TESTING AND VALUATION OF PRODUCT CLAIMS. COMPANIES RECEIVE HANDS-ON SUPPORT WITHIN A RAPID CUSTOMER TESTING ENVIRONMENT.