TELUS joins Zone Startups Calgary to Help Drive Growth and Innovation in the Startup Ecosystem

TELUS joins GE Canada and Ryerson Futures to foster growth in the Internet of Things, communications, and digital industrial sector

CALGARY, Oct. 23, 2017 /CNW/ - Zone Startups Calgary is pleased to announce TELUS as the newest key contributor to its startup network. The Zone Startups Calgary program, formed by GE Canada and Ryerson Futures, accelerates growth of startups in the digital industrial space, energy industry, smart cities, and clean technology. Startups participating in the program will now have access to TELUS experts and business units, leading-edge equipment and wireless technology to help expand their businesses even faster.

"The addition of TELUS as a corporate contributor will broaden our innovation mandate and provide the startups in our program with an even bigger competitive advantage," says Joe Martini, Director of Zone Startups Calgary. "TELUS will work closely with Zone Startups Calgary and GE Canada to provide participating startups with increased market access for expedited technical and commercial validation, visibility into new business opportunities as well as increased access to subject matter experts and mentors."

"TELUS has a long history in Alberta of fostering innovation and we are proud to build on that legacy through this partnership to support the development of next-generation technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices and big data applications," said Brent Allison, Senior Vice President of TELUS Business Futures. "We look forward to working with Zone Startups Calgary participants, fellow supporters and contributors to develop promising ideas into commercial successes for the benefit of our economy and community."

In addition to supporting Zone Startups Calgary, TELUS continues to support Albertans throughout the province by providing the resources they need to innovate, like access to high-speed, reliable Internet. The company recently announced a $4.2 billion investment in communications infrastructure across Alberta through 2020 to extend its gigabit-enabled TELUS PureFibre network and strengthen its 4G LTE wireless service. To support the next wave of IoT, TELUS is testing next-generation 5G wireless service and piloting standards-based Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technology, a key enabler of advanced IoT ecosystems.

"TELUS joining Zone Startups Calgary is a testament to quality of the innovation ecosystem that we are building here at GE's Customer Innovation Centre," explained Gandeephan Ganeshalingam, Chief Innovation Officer with GE Canada. "This is a space where we work on real-world problems for our customers and Zone Startups Calgary is a critical part of that solution – even more so now with TELUS' valuable contributions."

About Ryerson Futures
Ryerson Futures Inc. (RFI) operates corporate accelerator programs focused on growing and investing in early-stage technology companies. RFI's programs include Zone Startups Calgary in partnership with GE and TELUS, Zone Startups Sports + Media in partnership with Rogers, and Zone Startups India including programs with Axis Bank, the Bombay Stock Exchange, and Lodha Group. RFI is also the accelerator program and seed fund connected to the DMZ at Ryerson. Since 2013, RFI companies have raised over $285MM in external financing. For more information about Ryerson, visit ryersonfutures.ca and for more information about Zone Startups Calgary, visit http://calgary.zonestartups.com.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $13 billion of annual revenue and 12.8 million subscriber connections, including 8.7 million wireless subscribers, 1.7 million high-speed Internet subscribers, 1.3 million residential network access lines and 1.1 million TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video. TELUS is also Canada's largest healthcare IT provider, and TELUS International delivers business process solutions around the globe.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed over $482 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 7.7 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Created in 2005 by President and CEO Darren Entwistle, TELUS' 12 Canadian community boards and 5 International boards have led the Company's support of grassroots charities and have contributed more than $60 million in support of 5,595 local charitable projects, enriching the lives of more than 2 million children and youth, annually. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

SOURCE Ryerson Futures