BlackBerry announced today that they have decided to pair up with Canada’s largest software-as-a-service accelerator called L-SPARK to help other small and medium-sized technology enterprises or what is better known as SMEs with their overall business growth to help reach a larger and bigger market and to bring new products to market using BlackBerry QNX technology.
They have undertaken a bunch of task for the program and both of the companies will try to materialize them. For example, BlackBerry will help participating companies research and develop product prototypes in areas such as robotics, device security, sensor fusion (e.g. lidar, radar, cameras, and GPS), functional safety, analytics, medical devices, and autonomous vehicles.
Partnering with BlackBerry to accelerate the growth of high-potential Canadian SMEs is the most effective way to grow the next great, global, technology company. But more importantly, it is a great way to elevate the entire Canadian technology community to reach and thrive within the global marketplace. – Leo Lax, executive managing director, L-Spark
BlackBerry is equally excited to start off this program as stated by BlackBerry’s vice president of QNX engineering, Grant Courville. He said, “BlackBerry is proud to play an integral role in the growth of Canada’s innovation economy. The new accelerator program is a great opportunity for us to better interact and collaborate with Canadian software companies and help bring to market innovative products that will shape the way we’ll live, work and play in the future.”
L-SPARK will take the help of the NRC-IRAP to reach out to companies with business models and technologies that could benefit from working in this initiative. The program will continue for the duration of six months and for this six companies will be selected. BlackBerry’s QNX technology powers reliable and secure systems for companies like Audi, Cisco, Fiat-Chrysler, Ford, General Electric, Intuitive Surgical, Lockheed Martin and Siemens.
