View All Stories

IMPACT Startup Visa Alumni Spotlight: November ’23

This image has an empty alt attribute, its filename is ISV-November-Newsletter-Graphics-1.png

Left to Right: My Tran (Sustainability-X), Sonali Sharma (Nugu), Leon Vercueil (Avo&Eve),  Hoa Vu Duc (Asean Lines Smart Route Inc.)

My Tran, Premium IMPACT Startup Visa Alumni Enters Her First Year in Canada with Her Company Sustainability-X

My Tran, Founder and CEO of Sustainability-X, moved to Canada in April of 2023. We had the opportunity to catch up with her at October’s IMPACT Startup Visa alum meet up in Vancouver, BC. 

Virtual community building is Sustainability-X’s forte: according to Tran, “it’s a cloud-based platform that helps businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), generate sustainability reports as well as evaluate and benchmark their environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities against standard ESG frameworks.”

Tran and her business partners are working with key partners to approach Canadian SMEs, and are promoting the company portfolio in business and academic communities. 

Sonali Sharma, Founder and CEO of Nugu Quickly Gains Notoriety in Canada 

Sonali, an ISV alumni from Fall 2020 cohort had her story featured in BC Business’s October issue, where her journey from a small village in South India to North America was beautifully captured. 

“Nugu was founded to create a sustainable future for local Indigenous communities and the greater global community. They collaborate with Indigenous craftspeople to build sustainable micro-factories. Each micro-factory uses circular and agile production processes to craft bespoke, design-led homewares”.

We can’t wait to see what’s in store for Sonali and Nugu. 

Leon Vercueil, the ISV Alumni Bringing the Purest Extra Virgin Avocado Oil to Canada through his company Avo&Eve

Originally from South Africa, Vercueil was a member of the Fall 2022 cohort of the IMPACT Startup Visa program. He has settled in Toronto and has been working to land his Farmer Produced Avocado Oil on Canadian grocery shelves.

Avo&Eve is the only Farmer-produced avocado oil in Canada, straight from the farm in Africa. They maintain accountability and mindful stewardship to control their entire process, to create the highest quality avocado oil with the best possible care for our planet. 

We recently met up with Leon in our Vancouver office and had the opportunity to film an interview with him. Stay tuned!  

Sailing into a port near you: Hoa Vu Duc, Founder and CEO of Asean Lines Smart Route Inc.

Vu Duc arrived in Canada in April of 2023. He’s a Shipping Logistics Specialist and the Managing Director of Asean Lines Smart Route Inc. The company offers a mobile app that uses machine learning technology to assist with shipment logistics that’s available on Android and iOS. 

The platform’s goal is to forecast shipping times by training algorithms on historical shipments. It combines data from multiple sources on the most important factors affecting schedule reliability, such as port congestion and holidays. Our team had the pleasure to meet him in person in our office in Vancouver, and he also joined us for our October ISV in-person meet-up!

Want to know more? Get our Entrepreneur Kit with answers to all of your questions. If you’re ready to apply to join the next cohort, click here.

Interested in relocating your business to Canada through our IMPACT Startup Visa Program? Attend our live info session event, register below!