From catering and clean tech to cutting-edge biotech, Ottawa entrepreneurs continue to raise the bar.
This May edition of the Ottawa Business Success Snapshots blog feature spotlights Spiderwort Biotechnologies Inc., a local innovator pushing boundaries in regenerative medicine and the incredible journey of My Catering Group – from backyard BBQs to securing major museum contracts and creating positive community impact, to becoming one of the region’s top growing companies for 2025.
Explore how these businesses are driving forward and growing while giving back and shaping the future from right here in Canada’s capital.
Spiderwort Successfully Completes Biocompatibility Testing for CelluJuve™; Building Opportunities in Regenerative Medicine
Spiderwort Biotechnologies Inc. is a promising biotech company bringing transformative medical technologies to the National Capital Region.
Their work focuses on developing cellulose-based medicines to support soft tissue regeneration that has the potential to improve damaged or aging tissue and spinal cord injuries. The company recently announced a major milestone in the development of CelluJuve™, a proprietary cellulose-based dermal filler solution.
This new technology will help to preserve and provide structural integrity in facial tissue. Spiderwort completed ISO 10993 biocompatibility and human skin safety testing, meaning they are one step closer to clinical trials!
This success validates Spiderworts’ innovative biotechnology behind CelluJuve™ and provides strengthened support for their other regenerative cellulose products in development, like CelluBridge™, which targets spinal cord rejuvenation.
In addition to ISO 10993, Spiderwort completed other safety tests that confirmed it is a stable, non-toxic, and non-mutagenic technology.
This milestone advances Spiderwort’s mission and highlights Ottawa’s growing leadership in biotechnology and health innovation. Invest Ottawa is proud to support companies like Spiderwort, which are making critical impacts in these emerging sectors! ·
- To learn more about this achievement, read Spiderwort’s press release.
- Are you an Ottawa founder? Invest Ottawa’s Venture Path program can help support you on your growth journey. Find out more.
From Backyard BBQs to High-Profile Contracts – My Catering Group
From humble beginnings in the Ottawa area hosting cooking demos at events, golf tournaments and even his uncle’s business storefront, Derick Cotnam, founder of My Catering Group, has built one of Ottawa’s fastest-growing catering companies.
They recently made it official, taking third spot in the Ottawa Business Journal’s recently announced 2025 Fastest Growing Companies awards. And with a vineyard property in the portfolio and several high-profile contracts being renewed, the future for this community-minded catering business is limitless.
Big Contracts Powering Sustainable Growth
Rooted in hospitality, determination, and community connection, the company is the internal catering partner of every federal museum in the downtown core, including prestigious venues such as the Canadian Museum of History and Canadian War Museum, as well as the Canadian Museum of Nature.
And just recently, the company announced that it has secured a new multi-year contract to remain the internal catering partner for the History and War Museum.
Derick said the recent extension is the company’s biggest milestone to date, as it secures the location for his central production kitchen at the museum and turns a year-to-year relationship into a long-term partnership, equating to a big win for Ottawa’s small businesses.
“All these properties, they were only ever taken by big multinational conglomerate institutional caterers – billion-dollar publicly traded, non-Canadian-owned companies,” he said. “I started this company in my mom’s kitchen,” he said in surprise. “It’s just a big deal for small businesses.”
Supporting Community with Culinary Impact
The company’s impact also extends far beyond providing next-level food options at Ottawa events and public spaces. My Catering Group worked closely with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) by supporting the CHEO For the Kids Gala in the past three years, and recently signed on to sponsor CN Cycle for CHEO for the next three years.
In partnership with Ottawa Tourism, Derick and his team are also supporting La Tablée des Chefs — a national not-for-profit helping to fight food insecurity and promote food education such as nutrition and food autonomy to children through school-based programs.
Each year, La Tablée des Chefs holds signature Les Grands Tablées events in Quebec, Toronto and Montreal to raise funds to support locally-delivered programs. And now with support from My Catering Group and others, the organization will launch its first Ottawa-based Grand Tablée Gala on October 20, 2025, in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of History.
The event will bring together top local chefs, culinary students from Algonquin College and other institutions, and community partners to raise funds for food recovery and culinary education programs in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, which Derick feels is a particularly important element of the program.
“The money doesn’t leave the Ottawa area – it stays here,” he said. “I think it’s a really great thing for the region, and it’s just also like really promotes awareness about food recovery, that there’s a lot of people that can’t feed themselves.”
Building on a Strong Foundation
Derick credits the provincial government-provided Starter Company program delivered by Invest Ottawa as an early catalyst in 2014, helping him to form a solid foundation for his business, helping him network and navigate the Ottawa business community while building the skills needed to run a business.
“Going to different accounting, bookkeeping and marketing entry-level, one and two-hour sessions, I not only learned some good base information, I got to meet some other really great entrepreneurs and stay in touch throughout the years, which is pretty cool,” he said.
What’s Next
Derick is excited at the possibilities that arrived with the 2023 purchase of Le Vignoble de Chelsea, a 24-acre vineyard property 20 minutes from downtown Ottawa, which includes 5,000 grapevines, a 110-person capacity venue and capabilities to produce maple syrup.
While it’s still early days, the property opens the door to long-term opportunities in wine and maple syrup production — a venture he sees as a creative and personal investment for the future.
But for now, while he’s still keeping his eye out for the next opportunity, Derick says his focus for now is working with what’s in
“Really, it’s just refining what we have right now,” he said. “And leveraging the most out of that. We’ve grown a lot and there’s a lot of responsibilities in what we have right now.
- To learn more about My Catering Group visit their website here.
- To learn more about Starter Company Plus, a provincial government entrepreneurship program supporting early-stage non-tech Ottawa-based businesses – visit this page.
- For more info on the first Ottawa edition of La Grande Tablée and to get tickets, visit this page.
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