IO Ignition is a 10-week bootcamp run by Invest Ottawa, designed to help early-stage tech founders move from idea to validation. This spring, founders in the 31st cohort tested their assumptions with real customers and refined their business models, culminating in the Pitch Finale, Heat Wave, where each founder pitched live to a panel of judges and a room of investors and community members. ROASYS won the Ignition Grant.
Drivers still wait at red lights when the other road is empty. That is the problem we pitched.
Most traffic signals still follow timing plans set in advance, so they can't respond when traffic changes. Adaptive systems exist, but for many Canadian cities the cost of new hardware puts them out of reach. ROASYS is software that makes signals adaptive using the controllers and detectors a city already has, and keeps them running when some sensors fail. In simulation using real traffic data from a major Toronto road, it cut waiting at intersections by up to 50 percent. With only three minutes on stage, the challenge was to explain this simply enough for everyone in the room to follow.
The competition was strong. Founders across the cohort presented ventures at very different stages, and after ten weeks of customer discovery, the pitches were clear and well prepared. For ROASYS, the grant matters most for what it makes possible next, which is taking the system from simulation toward a pilot on real streets.
Wrapping Up with Key Insights
Winning the Ignition Grant showed that experienced judges see real value in ROASYS. The program also gave us something just as useful. Through customer discovery, traffic professionals told us clearly what they need before adopting a new system: they want to see it working on their own roads. That is the next step for ROASYS, and this grant helps us get there.
