Focus Academy Partners Expand to Toronto to Support International Deep-Tech Commercialization in Canada and the U.S.
New Canadian presence strengthens Focus Academy Partners’ ability to support science-based companies pursuing market validation, partnerships, pilots, and commercialization across North America.
New Canadian presence strengthens Focus Academy Partners’ ability to support science-based companies pursuing market validation, partnerships, pilots, and commercialization across North America.
TORONTO, ON and SAN FRANCISCO, CA — June 1st, 2026
Focus Academy Partners, a market development and technology commercialization firm supporting science-based and deep-tech companies entering North American markets, today announced the launch of its Toronto office, expanding the firm’s operating presence across Canada and the United States.
The Toronto presence strengthens Focus Academy Partners’ ability to support international companies commercializing into the Canadian market, the U.S. market, or both. The expansion comes as more science-based ventures seek localized validation, pilot opportunities, regulatory and commercial guidance, corporate partnerships, and market-entry support before making significant investments in local teams or infrastructure.
Focus Academy Partners works with companies across life sciences, healthcare, climate, food and agriculture, advanced materials, and industrial deep tech. Its programs support market-entry strategy, stakeholder discovery, regulatory and commercial pathway assessment, pilot planning, customer engagement, and partner development.
“Toronto strengthens our base to support international founders and companies entering Canada, the United States, or both,” said Kate Gunning, Managing Founder of Focus Academy Partners. “For science-based companies, commercialization is not just about introductions. It requires regulatory awareness, customer validation, partner development, pilot design, and a realistic path to revenue in each market.”
The expansion also reflects Focus Academy Partners’ long-standing cross-border operating experience and Canadian roots. “As a Canadian founder who has spent years helping international companies navigate North American markets, this expansion is both personal and practical,” said Jayaranjan “J” Anthonypillai, Managing Founder of Focus Academy Partners. “Canada is not just a gateway. It is a major innovation and commercialization market, with strong opportunities across healthcare, climate, food and agriculture, advanced materials, and industrial deep tech. We help companies determine whether Canada, the U.S., or both best align with their growth strategy.”
Focus Academy Partners collaborates with international accelerators, government economic development agencies, corporate innovation teams, and company builders to help emerging technology companies validate market opportunities and build practical commercialization pathways.
The Toronto office will serve as a Canadian base for international cohorts, corporate partners, and ecosystem stakeholders seeking to connect scientific innovation with market access, customer discovery, pilot development, and commercial execution across Canada and the United States.
About Focus Academy Partners
Focus Academy Partners is a specialized market development and technology commercialization firm supporting international science-based companies and founders entering Canadian, U.S., and broader North American markets. The firm provides hands-on strategic and execution support across market validation, commercialization readiness, stakeholder discovery, pilot development, and partnership building.
Led by Managing Founders Kate Gunning and Jayaranjan “J” Anthonypillai, Focus Academy Partners supports life sciences, healthcare, climate, food and agriculture, advanced materials, and related deep-tech sectors through a global network of advisors, technical specialists, operators, and commercialization experts.
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Focus Academy and Silicon Valley in Your Pocket Launch Fem-Focus - A Joint Venture to Disrupt Funding Inequity
Aiming to reduce gender inequity in capital raising, Focus Academy (Focus) today joined forces with Silicon Valley in Your Pocket (SVIYP) to create a novel program to empower women founders globally. Focus is a global activation hub located in San Francisco; SVIYP is a Silicon Valley based virtual incubator providing start-up coaching to entrepreneurs globally. With its combined expertise, the joint venture, known as Fem-Focus, will streamline access to capital for women founders and help them overcome common biases that hinder fundraising success.
Fem-Focus
Aiming to reduce gender inequity in capital raising, Focus Academy (Focus) today joined forces with Silicon Valley in Your Pocket (SVIYP) to create a novel program to empower women founders globally. Focus is a global activation hub located in San Francisco; SVIYP is a Silicon Valley based virtual incubator providing start-up coaching to entrepreneurs globally. With its combined expertise, the joint venture, known as Fem-Focus, will streamline access to capital for women founders and help them overcome common biases that hinder fundraising success.
The challenges for women entrepreneurs are formidable: According to Pitchbook, sole female founders receive only two percent of funds raised. The number is higher if the co-founder is male. The outlook for follow-on funding is even grimmer. The Fem-Focus program examines the causes of these inequities and prepares women to address them head-on.
The Fem-Focus program will work with global female founders to break through gender barriers, overcome bias (inherent and implicit), disrupt funding inequities, and empower participants with “investor readiness”. Using a hybrid model that has been successfully deployed over the years by the Joint Venture partners, Fem-Focus supports women founders through virtual coaching sessions and a live program that gathers participants in San Francisco for an in-depth immersion experience.
“The bias is real and presents significant barriers for female founders,” says Focus Academy’s Managing Partner, Kate Gunning “We aim to reverse the trends by equipping founders with novel strategies to bypass obstacles, and connecting them directly with relevant, qualified, and interested investors”.
“We’ve built this model on a strategic framework where every female founder will receive an investor readiness assessment that provides scoring and feedback across the nine dimensions of a business. Most importantly, participants gain access and introductions to a wide network of unbiased investors,” added Kal Deutsch, Partner at SVIYP
The experienced team has delivered programming and collaborated with many organizations world-wide to offer a cost effective and beneficial mechanism for company success. Fem-Focus will work with founders, VCs, and organizations to close the gap and increase the likelihood of founders being assessed on the strength of their products/services, market need and commercialization potential, as well as their ability to execute, not on their gender.
To find out more contact Fem-Focus at team@fem-focus.com and sign up for the upcoming free webinar on Negotiating Your Value with Confidence!
Contact: Kate Gunning (415) 378 9831
About Focus Academy:
Focus Academy is an innovation hub located in San Francisco, CA. preparing emerging international companies to enter and thrive in the US and global markets by providing business, market, and product development programming. At the core of Focus Academy is the belief that being part of an active community with a deep knowledge base of launching innovative technologies is critical to entrepreneurial success. Thriving entrepreneurs in our collaborative support system continue sharing best practices on operations and growth while expanding their market reach with successful product development and business strategies. www.focusacademy.bio
About Silicon Valley in Your Pocket:
Silicon Valley in Your Pocket powers a self-paced accelerator program that helps high-potential founders build their startups, achieve traction, and become investor-ready. Their virtual accelerator platform and proprietary investor-readiness evaluation framework empowers their global community to achieve traction for their startups and can help them make solid connections with their network of angel investors, VCs, and strategic partners. To learn more, visit: https://siliconvalleyinyourpocket.com/.
Focus Academy Teams Up with Europe Based Afortiori Development Expanding Access to Global Clinical Expertise
Focus Academy LLC, a global activation hub catalyzing innovation for science and technology, today announced a strategic partnership with Afortiori Development, Ltd. a full-service CRO, specializing in the design, planning and management of clinical trials and post-market clinical follow-up studies that are essential for regulatory approval and market uptake of healthcare products.
Focus Academy LLC, a global activation hub catalyzing innovation for science and technology, today announced a strategic partnership with Afortiori Development, Ltd. a full-service CRO, specializing in the design, planning and management of clinical trials and post-market clinical follow-up studies that are essential for regulatory approval and market uptake of healthcare products.
Focus Academy works with founders and innovators in the science-based technology sectors and prioritizes bringing Health and Medtech products to market in the most effective and efficient manner. The newly formed partnership means that clients can directly access a reputable and experienced international CRO team and their network of trusted partners. Afortiori Development offer both strategic clinical development consulting support for clinical trial design and development as well as a full-service clinical trial solution specifically designed to support clients’ trials in a flexible, cost-effective way. The team support healthcare innovators to navigate the complex world of healthcare product development and maximize their chance of success.
Commenting on the partnership, Afortiori Development CEO Dr. Nicola Wall said, “Afortiori Development are delighted to be working in collaboration with Focus Academy in San Francisco. The expertise available through Focus Academy means that our clients can gather the appropriate knowledge to inform the type of data that they will need to gather as part of their clinical evidence. We are excited to establish this partnership with Focus Academy in an important market in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.”
“Focus Academy clients hail from both the USA and overseas, oftentimes seeking to leverage their home market studies for regulatory approval in different international markets. We firmly believe in building evidence, and our partnership means that we can offer clients the ability to access expertise to understand their potential markets and the needs of the customers in those markets to inform their clinical development planning.” added Kate Gunning, Co-founder of Focus Academy.
Both companies are actively involved in managing and advising international acceleration programs and frequently tapped for their market and clinical development expertise. In response to the needs of the science-based innovation community, Dr. Wall, CEO, will also serve as an expert Clinical Development Advisor on the Focus Faculty of word-class advisors.
For more information, please contact Kate Gunning:
(415) 378 9831
Focus Academy Partners With Kilobaser to Open U.S. Office
Austrian company, Kilobaser, developers of the world’s first personal DNA and RNA synthesizer, today announced the opening of their first U.S. office in downtown San Francisco. Kilobaser, committed to democratizing DNA and RNA synthesis, have commercialized their RNA and DNA synthesizers to enable genomic researchers rapid access and accelerate research while saving time and cost.
Commenting on the partnership, Focus Academy Co-Founder J. Anthonpillai said, “This is a great opportunity to bring this powerful tool to the start-up community. The utility and efficiency of Kilobaser’s technology will allow a diverse community of researchers and entrepreneurs to accelerate their scientific research, bringing value to their investors and customers alike.”
Austrian company, Kilobaser, developers of the world’s first personal DNA and RNA synthesizer, today announced the opening of their first U.S. office in downtown San Francisco. Kilobaser, committed to democratizing DNA and RNA synthesis, have commercialized their RNA and DNA synthesizers to enable genomic researchers rapid access and accelerate research while saving time and cost. The new San Francisco office and demonstration site will showcase the industry-leading microfluidic desktop synthesis technology and streamline support and distribution for customers across the USA.
Focus Academy is a global activation hub catalyzing innovation for science and technology. Located in downtown San Francisco, the Focus team provide a vibrant space, flexible laboratories, targeted business support, and access to a rich community empowering founders and technologists to develop, validate, and grow their innovative businesses.
Kilobaser’s microfluidic LOC (lab-on-a-chip) DNA & RNA synthesis technology overcomes the shortcomings of today’s organic chemistry-based synthesizers: It reduces reagent consumption 100-fold through the use of reagent cartridges to enable synthesis of DNA, RNA, Probes, and modified oligos on demand. The result is a very affordable personal desktop synthesizer that makes synthesis faster and easier than ever before with no training needed. Kilobaser’s desktop synthesizer creates ready-to-use DNA oligos (20mers) in just 1 hour, RNA oligos in just 2 hours and requires only 2 minutes of hands-on time while providing far superior user experience over the novel enzymatic methods today.
“We’re proud to open our new chapter of DNA & RNA synthesis technology in San Francisco. Any researcher is now able to make custom DNA Oligos in just 1 hour on their bench. This will greatly accelerate new discoveries in many areas such as therapeutics and synthetic biology. We’re truly democratizing DNA & RNA synthesis with our very affordable Kilobaser synthesis platform.” said Alexander Murer, CEO and cofounder of Kilobaser.
Commenting on the partnership, Focus Academy Co-Founder J. Anthonpillai added, “This is a great opportunity to bring this powerful tool to the start-up community. The utility and efficiency of Kilobaser’s technology will allow a diverse community of researchers and entrepreneurs to accelerate their scientific research, bringing value to their investors and customers alike.”
About Kilobaser:
Kilobaser was founded in Graz, Austria in 2014 with a vision to cut down waiting time and costly delays to oligo synthesis by designing a device for making custom DNA and RNA primers in the lab. The user-friendly software and easy-to use device utilize a specialized microfluidic chip to produce ready to use oligos within one hour.
About Focus Academy:
Focus Academy is a global activation hub catalyzing innovation for science and technology. Focus Academy enables emerging international companies to enter and thrive in the US market by providing in-depth business, market, and product development support together with a vibrant space and integrated founder community. At the core of Focus Academy is the belief that being part of an active community with a deep knowledge base of launching life sciences technologies are key to success. This support system allows entrepreneurs to continue sharing best practices on operating and thriving in the US.
Event: Digital Health in 2020 - What's New? What's Next? What's Normal?
Focus Academy hosted a panel discussion on the changing face of behavioral and physical health and wellness in a pandemic with Irish Technology and HealthTech leaders - Alison Darcy of Woebot Labs, Conor Heneghan of Fitbit, and Trina Histon of Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute.
Focus Academy hosted a panel discussion on the changing face of behavioral and physical health and wellness in a pandemic with Irish Technology and HealthTech leaders - Alison Darcy of Woebot Labs, Conor Heneghan of Fitbit, and Trina Histon of Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute.
For a video of the event, click HERE.
Background:
In April 2018, Focus Academy and the Irish Network Bay Area brought together a group of distinguished Irish scientists and leaders working at the forefront of digital health to discuss how the landscape was changing. Little did we know how much our lives would be altered in just 18 months, how the development of digital health solutions would rapidly accelerate, and how pervasive and critical these solutions would become in our daily lives.
Maintaining our health and wellness as well as the health and wellness of our friends, families, and communities has become a key focus since COVID 19 came on the scene and swept across the globe at frightening speed.
On December the 10th, our panel of experts reconvened to discuss the effects the pandemic has had on mental and physical health in terms of digital health solutions.
Moderator: Kate Gunning, Managing Partner, Focus Academy, in partnership with Irish Network Bay Area
Focus Academy Launches Digital Health Studio
Focus Academy’s Digital Health Studio will provide rapid access to community and workspace solutions, advance the development of innovation, and catalyze collaboration in the fast growing Healthtech sector.
With the 2020 launch of the Digital Health Studio, the Focus team has partnered with Mason Hayes & Curran, a business law firm with offices in Dublin, London, New York and San Francisco. The Studio provides legal and regulatory insights as well as updates on the EU requirements for digital health technology developers.
FOCUS ACADEMY LAUNCHES THE DIGITAL HEALTH STUDIO TO ACCELERATE DIGITAL HEALTH TECHNOLOGY: PARTNERS WITH MASON HAYES & CURRAN, IRELAND
Focus Academy’s Digital Health Studio will provide rapid access to community and workspace solutions, advance the development of innovation, and catalyze collaboration in the fast growing Healthtech sector.
Since its inception in 2018, Focus Academy has worked to provide a collaborative space and support programs for Biotech and Healthtech acceleration in San Francisco by providing a forum for information exchange, developing initiatives to enhance business success, and serving as a landing pad for international innovators.
With the 2020 launch of the Digital Health Studio, the Focus team has partnered with Mason Hayes & Curran, a business law firm with offices in Dublin, London, New York and San Francisco. The Studio provides legal and regulatory insights as well as updates on the EU requirements for digital health technology developers. With the merging of health-related services and technology comes several challenges and legal considerations. To keep up to date with regulatory obligations to ensure compliance and patient safety, the partners plan to host regular webinars and discussions together with in-house workshops and modules.
The first webinar scheduled for 10 AM PDT on Thursday, Feb 27th, will address the following:
· The application of the EU Medical Devices Regulation framework – how/when?
· How to distinguish a health app/software medical device from a wellness/fitness app
· Key IP considerations when preparing to market your app from both a protection and defence perspective
· The implications of using AI in your app
· Data issues and ensuring compliance with GDPR
· Cybersecurity considerations
Speaking ahead of the program, managing partner Kate Gunning commented, “Many of our clients are looking to the EU first for the processing of their Medtech and Healthtech devices. This webinar will help clarify the current evolving requirements and we’re delighted to have Mason Hayes & Curran provide their expertise from their Dublin office”.
REGISTER by clicking here: https://www.mhc.ie/digital-health-technology
About Mason Hayes & Curran
Mason Hayes & Curran is a business law firm with 90 partners. The firm understands the challenges international organisations face when investing or locating in a foreign country and assist them during initial establishment and in meeting their ongoing legal and commercial imperatives. They have offices in London, New York and San Francisco, three of Ireland’s most important conduits for inward investment to Ireland. The firm has Ireland’s largest technology team, providing cutting-edge advice to leading technology companies and has one of the country’s leading Healthcare & Life Sciences practices, with a wealth of expertise in advising organisations in the healthcare, pharma, biotech, medical device, digital health, cosmetics and food sectors.