Building the Future: A Recap of Nobellum's Transformative WISE 2025 Program

Written By Abiodun Arije

Nobellum's WISE (Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship) program has concluded its intensive 2025 cohort, empowering Black, women-led startups in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) with the advanced tools needed to protect innovation, increase sales and scale globally. Running from October 1st to November 29th, the eight-week bootcamp was a powerhouse of strategic knowledge, mentorship, and practical application, funded by the City of Toronto with key partnerships from Owning My and IPON.

Addressing the Gap: Why WISE Matters

Despite the massive potential of diverse entrepreneurs, women-led businesses remain chronically under-scaled due to limited access to the proprietary knowledge and digital tools required for global competitiveness. In Canada, only 17% of small and medium-sized businesses are women-owned, and women-led ventures still receive less than 2% of global venture funding. Globally, Black and racialized women often face the greatest barriers in adopting essential technologies like AI and securing their Intellectual Property (IP). The protection of IP is especially critical for these founders, as it is the foundation for securing innovation, boosting company valuation, attracting investment, and ensuring long-term market power. Nobellum's WISE program directly addresses this gap by equipping founders with the AI and IP strategies needed to automate sales, protect market share, and scale efficiently, transforming their ventures from local operations to globally competitive businesses. Nobellum’s WISE program is a direct intervention against these systemic challenges. 

Program Objectives

The WISE 2025 program was built around ambitious targets designed to create high-growth, protected ventures. Key Performance Indicators focused on ensuring tangible business outcomes, specifically aiming to increase participants' AI-led generation revenue by 30% over the next 12 months and ensuring the protection of innovation by training 8 women in Intellectual Property Literacy and Strategies, with a target of 50% applying for IP protection after the program. The 2025 curriculum was focused on giving founders a competitive advantage in the digital age: mastery of AI and Intellectual Property (IP).

The WISE Journey: Accelerated Mastery in 8 Weeks

The WISE program was structured as an intensive, 8-week Masterclass Bootcamp running from October 1 to November 29, 2025. The curriculum was designed to give founders accelerated mastery in the critical areas of Intellectual Property (IP), Finance, and cutting-edge AI strategy, ensuring they are sales-driven, investment-ready, and globally competitive. 

Sessions featured expert facilitators including:

Melisa Ellis (Founder & CEO Nobellum) leading the Program Orientation to introduce the WISE mandate and set the stage for the cohort's journey.

Roula Thomas (IPON Facilitator) on Intellectual Property Mastery (Intro to IPON), providing vital knowledge on protecting innovation. This partnership offered founders comprehensive support, including:

  •  Subsidized IP legal fees.

  • Pairing with expert IP lawyers for tailored advice.

  • Coaching and mentorship from IP specialists.

  • Workshops focused on registering IP, boosting company valuation, and attracting investors.

Calvin Pascall & our finance team on Financial Modeling and Venture Accounting, focusing on revenue models, financial strategy, and achieving investor readiness.

Claudette Hutchinson (Founder & CEO, Owning My) leading the AI Integration Masterclasses that covered:

  • Finance & Revenue

  • AI Governance, Prompting, and Think Tank

  • Marketing for Lead Generation to Sales

  • Ongoing Client Management

  • Development of the final 30, 60, or 90-day AIX Plan for scaling.

The program was further enhanced by the WISE Drop-In Series with Calvin Pascall, offering personalized, one-on-one sessions focused on revenue and networking. The journey culminated in the WISE Product Showcase (Demo Day) on November 29, 2025.

Voices of Transformation: The WISE Experience

The real measure of the program lies in the impact it had on the founders and the wider ecosystem. Hearing their experiences validates the model's success.

Remarks from the City of Toronto:

"The work you’ve done over the past eight weeks reflects the kind of forward-looking and thinking Toronto needs to stay at the forefront of innovation."

— Susana Vaz, Senior Manager, Strategic Planning, City of Toronto

Remarks from Owning My:

"By the end of WISE, every founder had transformed AI from a buzzword into a practical business tool. They found inspiration and a real advantage in bringing their ideas to life, automating their client acquisition process and sales pipeline."

— Claudette Hutchinson, Founder & CEO, Owning My (AI Masterclass Facilitator)

Founder Remarks:

"There are no words, truly none of how grateful I am. To actually see the vision of scaling happening in my business is so humbling for me. The impact for me is, my income will FINALLY become scalable, not limited by my hours."

— Nik-Keisha Moodie, Founder of NMCD Inc



"The WISE program was incredibly valuable to me both from an AI and intellectual property perspective. We are already applying these strategies to improve cost efficiency and scale our outreach to prospective clients, positioning us to achieve our target of 30% growth."

— Claire Odogbo, Founder of Riskophia

High-Value Founder Perks & Digital Toolkit

Beyond the core curriculum, the WISE program equipped founders with high-value, practical resources designed to accelerate market entry and professional growth:

  • LinkedIn Partnership Benefits: Through the WISE partnership, founders received complimentary LinkedIn Premium subscriptions and direct coaching on leveraging the platform for lead generation and professional networking from industry leaders like Sorit Seid, a member of the Product Showcase Expert Panel.

  • Sponsored Software and Tools (Whisper): Following the Showcase, founders received sponsored additional software and tools to help them continue building their tech stack, streamline operations, and increase sales capacity post-program.

The WISE Finale: AI Product Showcase

The entire eight-week journey culminated in the AI Product Showcase on Saturday, November 29, 2025. This private, virtual event, hosted by Nobellum, was the founders' chance to move beyond a traditional pitch and demonstrate the tangible results of their training. The event was intentionally kept private to safeguard and protect the valuable Intellectual Property (IP) developed by the founders during the program. The purpose of the showcase was to have founders present their AI Tool, highlighting the digital solution they are building or integrating; their Knowledge Base & Workflow, sharing the data that informs their solution and walking through the process of how the AI functions in action; and their IP Strategy, demonstrating how they are safeguarding and leveraging the intellectual property that underpins their innovations. 

Expert Review Panel

The presentations were reviewed by a hand-selected panel of AI specialists and industry leaders who provided strategic feedback from both a technical and consumer lens:

AI Specialists (Technical Lens):

Industry Leaders (Consumer/Business Lens):

Founders Showcasing AI Innovation:

The 2025 WISE program proudly supported eight exceptional women founders from the STEM and tech-enabled sectors:

The event concluded with Certificate Presentations by Nobellum leadership, which was followed by the distribution of sponsored additional software and tools to help the founders continue to build their tech stack and increase sales. The showcase validated that these founders are now equipped with strong AI and IP strategies, validated business concepts, expanded professional networks, and the confidence to communicate their value proposition as they scale.

Ready for Global Scale

By equipping women founders, especially those most underrepresented, with mastery in IP and the cutting edge of AI, Nobellum's WISE program is not just supporting individual businesses: it's actively building a more inclusive and high-performing innovation ecosystem for Canada.

Interested in Nobellum’s impact or supporting future cohorts? Visit nobellum.com/wise to learn more about the program and our mission.

Abiodun Arije
Next

From Advocacy to Action: How Canada’s $189 Million Fund Will Empower Black Founders