Demo Day Toronto: A Powerful Stop on The Road to Summit
On March 5, Movement51 was pleased to bring our founders together in Toronto for a special Demo Day as part of The Road to Summit series.
The room was filled with energy, curiosity, and capital-minded conversations as founders from Founder Lab Cohort 6 took the stage to showcase the ventures they’ve been refining through nine weeks of focused preparation.
More than a pitch event, this was a moment to celebrate what happens when women founders are equipped with the tools, strategy, and support to participate fully in Canada’s capital economy.
The Road to Summit Comes to Toronto
Toronto’s stop on the tour was a powerful reminder of the strength of Canada’s innovation ecosystem. The room was filled with founders building across industries, investors looking for their next opportunity, and community members committed to supporting women in venture.
At the centre of it all were the founders themselves — sharing their vision, their traction, and the strategies they’ve developed through Founder Lab to prepare for raising capital.
Inside Founder Lab: Building Capital Readiness
Our Founder Lab is a 9-week capital readiness program, designed to equip early-stage founders with the strategy and structure needed to raise investment with clarity and confidence.
Throughout the program, founders work through:
Governance and venture structure
Capital strategy and investor alignment
Financial preparation
Data room readiness
Pitch development and storytelling
Investor communication and diligence preparation
Each week builds toward Demo Day, the moment founders step onto the stage ready to share their venture with the broader ecosystem.
The founders who presented in Toronto represent the future of Canada’s innovation economy: companies solving real problems, creating new markets, and building scalable ventures.
Celebrating Our Audience Choice Award Winner
One of the most exciting moments of the evening was the presentation of the Audience Choice Award, voted on live by attendees in the room.
This year’s award went to Reema Rachel Khithani, Founder of The Hira Collective, whose venture resonated strongly with the audience.
The Hira Collective is a curated digital wellness platform connecting clients with vetted, ethical, and culturally rooted holistic practitioners. The platform simplifies how people discover and book care, while empowering underrepresented practitioners with greater visibility, sustainable income, and a supportive community.
Through this work, The Hira Collective is helping redefine wellness as an accessible, inclusive, and integrity-driven economy — expanding who gets access to care and who gets to build businesses within the wellness industry.
Congratulations, Reema.
What Demo Day Represents
Demo Day is more than a showcase. It’s a turning point.
It represents the moment when preparation meets opportunity, when founders who have spent weeks refining their strategy step forward to share their ventures with investors and the broader ecosystem.
Events like this reinforce what we see every day at Movement51: when women founders have access to the right tools, networks, and capital strategy, momentum follows.
From founder to funder, and to our incredible partners - Alberta Innovates, IRAP & TD - helping bring this event to life.
What’s Next: Founder Lab Cohort 7 Is Official
The next chapter is already underway.
Founder Lab Cohort 7 has officially been announced, welcoming another group of ambitious women founders preparing to raise capital with structure, strategy, and support.
Over the coming weeks, these founders will move through Movement51’s capital readiness framework — refining their governance, financial strategy, data rooms, and investor narratives as they prepare for their next stage of growth.
And this cohort will have an exciting opportunity ahead: many of these founders will take the stage at XX Summit in Calgary on June 1, where they will showcase their ventures as part of the growing national movement to increase women’s participation in the capital economy.
Looking Ahead to Fall 2026: Join the Waitlist
Applications for the fall are not open yet, but the waitlist is.
If you are a founder preparing to raise pre-seed or seed capital, now is the time to signal your interest.
Join the waitlist