Avalon Holographics secured over $1 million dollars in funds through provincial grants from Newfoundland and Labrador, continuing a decade-long regional trend that has seen the area becoming a global tech hub.
In 2024, Avalon Holographics was close to another in a fairly long line of breakthroughs. With more than 50 patents to its name and proprietary technology that already confirmed it as one of the global leaders in holographic technology, its NOVAC table display was getting closer and closer to completion. The $3.9 Million project had been in development by some of the brightest minds in the field, and Avalon just needed a final push to propel NOVAC forward. The answer came in the form of $1 million in grants from one of the most unlikely tech giants in the world, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Over the last decade, Canada has seen explosive growth in its tech sector. Between 2020 and 2022 alone, its tech workforce increased by 15.7%, far outstripping even the United States, which recorded a tech growth of 11.4% over that same period. Hundreds of thousands of jobs poured into the country, with Ontario and Quebec seeing historic numbers of tech people relocate to the Toronto and Montreal metros.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s second least populated province, flew past them both.
In 2023, Newfoundland and Labrador reported a year-over-year increase of 16.3% among its tech workforce. It was part of an ongoing, decades-long strategy to create a new tech hub in Canada’s easternmost province. And it is clearly working.
Since 2010, the once-overlooked Newfoundland and Labrador has seen its population stabilize, unemployment rates decrease, and new investments flood the area. In the last decade, the region has recorded over $780M in investments in tech companies alone, attracting tens of thousands of skilled workers. It also made a conscious effort to cultivate a robust startup scene, with funding going to everything from AI to robotics to cybersecurity. It leaned heavily into education as well, investing tens of millions on programs to help train the next generation of talent. The result is a thriving tech scene with an ambitious tech community, creating world-changing technologies.
So, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see one of the leading holographic display companies call the area home.
To help complete work on NOVAC, in 2024 the Department of Industry, Energy and Technology (IET) of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador awarded Avalon Holographics $1,023,575. Leveraging the IET grant. IET grants are designed to minimize the technical and financial risks for companies that require significant amounts of research and development, and show a huge potential commercial upside. And the financial potential for holograms is undeniable. The holographic market is currently valued at roughly $3.4 billion, and conservative estimates suggest that it will hit $32.2 billion by 2032.
For Avalon Holographics, the goal remains the same: introduce the world’s best holographic display table. The technology behind NOVAC was already far along enough to create a working prototype, but the IET grant helped it to go one step further. With the financial assistance of the local government, Avalon Holographics was able to make the NOVAC table more portable and accessible without compromising the visual quality.
Thanks in part to the IET grant, Avalon Holographics built new versions of the NOVAC display, including a demo unit currently operating on campus at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and another coming to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025. Additional funding announcements are expected soon.
