# Velocity

Velocity is an Accelerator / Incubator based in New York, Canada.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Accelerator / Incubator
- **Headquarters:** New York, Canada
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
- **Founded:** 2008
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** velocityincubator.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/velocity

## About

Velocity is an SEC-registered investment adviser in New York, NY, registered since 2022. The firm manages $2.1 billion in assets, with $2.0 billion on a discretionary basis. It has 13 employees and 12 investment advisers.

## Sectors

- Enterprise Software
- AI/ML
- Hardware & IoT
- Digital Health

## Questions

### How does Velocity differ from a traditional venture capital fund?

Velocity operates primarily as an accelerator and incubator, not as a fund with disclosed assets under management. It provides workspace, prototyping labs, mentorship, and corporate connections to early-stage startups, often without taking equity at the point of entry. Investment capital comes through the separately managed Velocity Fund and through introductions to the program's network of alumni angels and Canadian institutional venture firms.

### What is Velocity's relationship with the University of Waterloo?

Founded inside a UW residence in 2008, Velocity functions as the university's primary startup-creation engine. It draws almost exclusively from UW's engineering, math, and computer-science faculties, leveraging the world's largest co-operative education pipeline to identify technical founders before they reach the commercial market. The program now operates from a dedicated facility in Kitchener's innovation district.

### What stages does Velocity invest in or support?

Velocity targets pre-seed and seed-stage companies, often supporting founders before incorporation. The program focuses on the earliest phase of company building — idea validation, prototyping, and initial customer discovery — and graduates companies toward angel rounds and seed-stage institutional investors across Canada and the United States.

### Which sectors does Velocity explicitly focus on?

Velocity concentrates on enterprise software, connected hardware and IoT, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and digital health. The accelerator's recent expansion of its hardware lab capacity signals a deliberate commitment to capital-intensive, IP-heavy physical-technology companies that benefit from prototyping infrastructure and manufacturing partnerships.

### What are some notable companies that have come through Velocity?

Prominent graduates include Kik Interactive, which raised significant capital from Tencent; North, the augmented-reality hardware startup acquired by Google in 2020; and ApplyBoard, the Kitchener-based international-student recruitment platform that achieved unicorn status. The portfolio collectively has raised more than $2 billion in outside capital.

### Who runs investment and program decisions at Velocity?

Velocity's leadership has historically drawn from experienced entrepreneurs and operators within the Waterloo ecosystem. Specific named principals are not currently disclosed on the organization's public-facing materials in a way that allows for precise attribution, but the program operates with a director-led structure and an investment committee tied to the separately managed Velocity Fund.

## Related profiles

- [Velocior Ventures](https://altss.com/profile/velocior-ventures)
- [Velocity Fund Management](https://altss.com/profile/velocity-fund-management)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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