# DMZ

> DMZ is a VC fund in Toronto backing Software and Information Technology. See 169 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Total investments: 169
- Last investment: Dec 2025
- Lead investor: 22%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ryersondmz/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/ryersondmz
- Website: http://dmz.ryerson.ca/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RyersonDMZ/

DMZ is a VC fund in Toronto focused on Software and Information Technology. The DMZ at Ryerson University is a business incubator for tech startups in Canada. It helps startups build businesses by connecting it with customers, capital, experts, and a community of entrepreneurs and influencers. This means creating an environment where people can focus on scaling businesses.The DMZ at Ryerson University was founded on 2010and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for DMZ. Shizune tracks 9 team members at DMZ. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/digital-media-zone?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 53 | 31% |
| Information Technology | 24 | 14% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 19 | 11% |
| Internet | 18 | 11% |
| E-Commerce | 17 | 10% |

219 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pre-Seed | 94 | 56% |
| Grant | 32 | 19% |
| Seed | 30 | 18% |
| Non-equity Assistance | 9 | 5% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 1% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Canada | 131 | 78% |
| United States | 16 | 9% |
| Hungary | 3 | 2% |
| Brazil | 2 | 1% |
| Jamaica | 2 | 1% |

15 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Abdullah Snobar | Executive Director | 11 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/abdullah-snobar |
| Balaji Gopalan | Entrepreneur In Residence | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/balaji-gopalan |
| Chris Adams | Entrepreneur In Residence | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chris-adams |
| Krysten Connely | Marketing and Communications Manager | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/krysten-connely |
| Mano Kulasingam | Entrepreneur In Residence | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mano-kulasingam |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reeku | Reeku provides automated rent recovery for modern apartment residents. By partnering with STR-friendly landlords and REITs, Reeku manages short-term rental bookings, guest logistics, and turnover on behalf of tenants, helping them offset rent with zero effort. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| Knead Technologies | Knead Technologies is a technology company that provides logistics software solutions to connect food waste with the reuse of foods. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| AEO Vision | Aeovision helps brands track and boost their visibility within AI-powered search results like ChatGPT and Perplexity, allowing companies to monitor brand sentiment, analyze competitors and refine their digital presence. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| Zeroma | Zeroma is building the audience infrastructure for the AI era, where identity, privacy, and intelligence converge – enabling brands and publishers to transform consented zero-party data into live, deterministic audiences. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| Quotograph | Quotograph provides an AI-powered construction management platform that turns visual site data into automated reports and operational tools. The system ingests photos, videos, blueprints, drone imagery, and other visual inputs, then generates takeoffs, instant estimates, and project summaries. Construction teams use it for dynamic planning andbudgeting, materials and resource tracking, and predictive maintenance and safety alerts. The platform supports general contractors, subcontractors, specialty trades, and suppliers with workflows for bidding, project tracking, and site risk monitoring. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| TrainingGround | TrainingGround.ai is an AI-powered platform that helps educators turn lesson plans into adaptive, culturally responsive learning paths for students. It is designed to strengthen literacy and numeracy while supporting student identity and future-ready skills. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| ClassClown | ClassClown is an AI-powered management platform for tutors and other educational institutions. Their aim is to help automate and optimize many of the day to day administrative tasks tutors are doing manually. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| Access2pay | Access2Pay provides cloud-based point-of-sale and payment solutions for municipalities, specialty retailers, franchises, and independent software vendors. The platform supports multi-location POS, integrated eCommerce, inventory and sales management, and real-time reporting. Access2Pay offers municipal and government payment processing thatintegrates with existing ERPs and supports compliance with tax and data protection regulations. The company provides tailored POS setups for franchise chains, appliance and electronics stores, and other retail operators. It supplements its software with implementation services, staff training, and tiered 24/7 technical support. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| Manela | Manela helps companies support employees during parental leave by providing personalized plans and resources that encourage a more inclusive workplace and support family well-being. |  | Non-equity Assistance | Dec 11, 2025 |  |
| BetterTable | BetterTable is a food sustainability benefit company helping hotels and restaurants kitchens prevent food waste, reduce carbon emissions and improve the bottom line. | $7.3K | Grant | Jun 08, 2025 |  |

10 of 169 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Ontario Centres of Excellence](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ontario-centres-of-excellence) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [RFI](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ryerson-futures-startup-accelerator) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [Techstars](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/techstars) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [BMO Capital Markets](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bmo-capital-markets-corp) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Meta](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/facebook) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mars-investment-accelerator-fund) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does DMZ invest in?

DMZ invests primarily in Software, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Pre-Seed and Grant stage. Most of the 169 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact DMZ?

Public channels for DMZ include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at DMZ?

The team at DMZ includes Abdullah Snobar (Executive Director), Balaji Gopalan (Entrepreneur In Residence) and Chris Adams (Entrepreneur In Residence), among 9 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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