OCTOBER 2023
ADVANCING AI EDUCATION RETOOLING THE WORKFORCE FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
TECH’S TOP 100 THE SECTOR’S BIGGEST B.C.-BASED EMPLOYERS
2023 TIAS CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF B.C. EXCELLENCE
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FEATURES
6 COLUMN: JILL TIPPING
A message from BC Tech’s CEO
8 REAL ESTATE REALITIES
Tech rethinks downtown office space needs
10 ADVANCES IN MUSIC TECH
Creativity and sound in the 21st century
12 COLUMN: ANDREW REID
Rival Technologies’ CEO on harnessing AI
13 RETOOLING TECH’S WORKFORCE
People will need skills to take advantage of AI
15 COLUMN: SUE PAISH
DIGITAL’s CEO on the need for collaboration
17 2023 TECHNOLOGY IMPACT AWARDS
Meet the finalists in this year’s awards program
24 COLUMN: TODD SAYERS
The power of non-dilutive funding in cleantech
26 COLUMN: SHAYNA RECTOR BLEEKER
EV fleet leasing and ownership considerations
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It is –as it nearly always is – an interesting time for tech and a particularly fascinating time for those who use it.
Some of the most interesting discussions we’ve had in our weekly newsroom meetings this year concerned ChatGPT – its promises and perils for us as journalists, and its risks and opportunities for the industries and businesses we cover at BIV.
Of course, as is becoming undeniably clear, ChatGPT and tools like it are really the tip of a tech iceberg, the full scope of which remains out of plain view as we hurtle toward it. Artificial intelligence and generative-AI tools are powerful and, even with our limited access to early versions of these tools, it’s hard to imagine a future without them.
While AI has certainly dominated discourse in 2023, it is not the only ad-
vancement in the world of technology worth noting.
We consider AI’s impact on computing education, and how its power can be harnessed by businesses, in the pages ahead. But we also take a look at the power of certain funding models for cleantech, at how developments in the area of music technology are unlocking opportunities for independent artists, and at tech companies’ and tech talent’s needs in terms of in-person, downtown office space. BIV’s partner in this publication, BC Tech, is this year celebrating 30 years of its Technology Impact Awards program. A good portion of this magazine is dedicated to highlighting the 2023 award finalists and winners, as well as the 51 industry leaders who were recently inducted into the BC Innovators Hall of Fame.
There are many other pieces of content to discover in this year’s magazine. As always, we are grateful to the industry leaders who support this editorial effort with their time, insight and commentary. We are also thankful to the organizations in our province that recognize the value of publications like this one, and find ways to support them.
Though they rely on older technologies, it is still a thrill to see our publications printed on paper and physically in the communities we serve, and in the hands of readers like you.
Thank you for picking up our 2023 BC Tech issue.
Hayley Woodin Editor in chief, BIV hwoodin@biv.comAs we celebrate BC Tech’s 30th anniversary, it is a time to reflect on the origins of the tech industry in B.C. and how much tech has grown not just as a sector but as a strategic priority for every business. Today, every company is a tech company.
Earlier this year, BC Tech established the BC Innovators Hall of Fame in partnership with the Province of B.C. It serves as a reminder that the achievements of today are built on the shoulders of giants. The 51 inspirational leaders inducted to the Hall of Fame span the full history of B.C.’s tech sector from its early beginnings through its growth into the major economic force it is today.
What might the next 30 years bring as B.C. builds its clean industrial future?
The first part of the transition is already behind us. In the last three decades a massive shift occurred as B.C. rapidly became a knowledge and service-driven economy. Today the province’s service sector (which includes tech) accounts for 80 per cent of B.C.’s jobs, 75 per cent of its GDP and more than 50 per cent of its exports.
The next shift lies ahead. Who are the innovators who will match the vision of our 51 Hall of Famers and seize the opportunities of the future?
We already know that technology will be the main source of private-sector job growth in the next decade, according to the B.C. government’s Labour Market Outlook. With
220,000 British Columbians currently employed in tech, the sector will continue to create more than 15,000 new jobs a year.
We can’t afford to under-invest or take for granted the opportunity at hand. B.C.’s talent pipeline is critical infrastructure, as important to the services economy as roads, rail and ports are to the goods economy. If we don’t have the talent, the jobs will simply be created elsewhere.
And it isn’t only B.C.’s services industries that will benefit. It will be equally as important for B.C.’s goods industries to have access to a talent pool of tech-savvy workers to deploy the technology and innovation needed to complete globally.
Source: State of the BC Tech Nation 2022
Source: State of the BC Tech Nation 2022
In the last three years, BC Tech has tripled our member numbers through a relentless focus on accelerating member success. Our track record of delivering high-impact programming is second to none: BC Tech members grow notably faster than the industry average, and an independent third-party audit found that for every $1 invested in BC Tech programs, the return on investment was $14 in incremental GDP.
At BC Tech we believe that together, we can build a new economic narrative for B.C. To do so we must:
1. Embrace technology and innovation as the critical drivers
Source: BC Tech Member Success Report 2023
of economic growth and job growth in B.C. in the coming decade.
2. Invest in capturing better data about B.C.’s economy, particularly in technology, innovation and the knowledge economy.
3. Expand funding to equip more founders with the scaleup skills needed to grow into the anchor companies of tomorrow.
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to realize the potential of technology and innovation for the benefit of all British Columbians, and we must seize it. ç
The result is a changing landscape in office real estate that sees mostly larger companies investing in new space.
“Some companies are still holding on hiring. But we are seeing a lot of companies picking up hiring again, especially in the major tech hubs within Canada like Vancouver and Toronto. We’re definitely seeing those larger and mid-sized companies starting to pick up again and say it’s time to kick things off with hiring,” says Char Stark, senior talent acquisition specialist with recruitment firm Beacon HR.
Higher interest rates and inflation have resulted in weaker venture capital investment. This in turn means less hiring capacity at tech companies, says Ilya Brotzky, CEO and founder of the global technology hiring platform VanHack Technologies Inc.
“What investors are looking for right now is not necessarily growth, but profitability. So, a lot more companies are scaling back or sitting tight in terms of their hiring for trying to get more profitability,” he says.
Brotzky also says he believes that hiring efforts will increase this fall, especially compared to the “quiet summer” that he has seen.
Large technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. have made a considerable push to bring workers back into the office.
“That’s having a trickle-down effect and people are trying to get employees back into the office and it’s happening very reluctantly.… It’s a sort of push and pull,” says Omar Visram, co-founder and CEO of Enkel Backoffice Solutions Inc., a tech-enabled bookkeeping service based in Vancouver.
Amazon asked that all of its employees return to its offices three or more days per week in February of this year. The global tech giant will also be moving employees into its new Vancouver office,
which spans an entire city block. It is located in the former Canada Post building on West Georgia Street.
“The narrative evolves as we speak. As it stands, there is a strong desire from the executive level at most tech firms … to bring their staff back to the office,” said Andre Alie Day, an associate with commercial real estate firm CBRE’s high technology facilities group, in an email.
“Each company’s approach is slightly different, and all will encompass a hybrid element to it at this stage; but the value of the in-person collaboration and productivity of work in the office versus working at home has led to businesses starting to pull back on their remote work flexibility.”
For small and medium-sized companies that don’t have Amazon’s deep pockets, spending money on office space is not a priority, according to Brotzky.
“They can use that money for other things, and the fact that they don’t have to work in offices is a benefit that they’re using against larger companies who are perfect to go to the office,” he says.
At Victoria-based Certn, a technology startup that provides background checks, mandating in-person work would “absolutely” harm recruitment efforts, says Carla Arthur, Certn’s director of talent acquisition.
Visram says many of his employees prefer remote work. He describes how the company is offering pay differentials to incentivize employees to return to the office full-time.
“Most of our people don’t work in the office. We do have a physical office here in Vancouver, where over the past few years we’ve had some people working hybrid. We’re moving away from hybrid to either your full time in the office or you’re working remote,” he says.
“If you mandate in office, you’re limiting your recruitment jurisdiction. There are people that want to be in the office and people that don’t want to be in the office. So, I’d say it probably ends up being a limiting factor if you mandate one way or the other.”
Economic uncertainty and a push to get more employees to return to physical office spaces are influencing the recruitment efforts of B.C. technology companies.
Even as companies decelerate from hyper growth hiring, tech talent demand persists – and may complicate in person work mandates Omar Visram Co founder and CEO Enkel Backoffice Solutions Inc
As companies navigate post-pandemic workplace adjustments, some technology companies are using new, first-class office spaces to incentivize a return to in-person work, according to Day.
“There is a real trend in flight to quality, with A/AAA class buildings that feature the modern building standards that companies are looking for achieving higher occupancy rates among employees and lower vacancy,” Day says.
Stark also notes that one of the biggest incentives for employees to return is personal connection among team members.
According to Amazon, there has been positive feedback regarding employee connectedness when staff are in the office. The Post includes dedicated “Team Suites” where employees can brainstorm and collaborate. It also has dog parks, sports courts and outdoor spaces as added amenities. ç
YOU MANDATE IN OFFICE, YOU’RE LIMITING YOUR RECRUITMENT JURISDICTION. THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT WANT TO BE IN THE OFFICE AND PEOPLE THAT DON’T WANT
For artists, technology platforms developed by a Vancouver music tech company are unlocking new insights and opportunities
But even if an artist’s song gets streamed 100,000 times on Spotify, at US$0.003 to US$0.005 per stream – depending on whether streams come from free or premium accounts – those plays would only generate between $400 to $680 for the artist – a sum that likely wouldn’t cover the cost of recording the song in a professional studio.
Streaming doesn’t pay very well, and it’s a very crowded space. While it may sound old school, getting a song on the radio is still the best way of getting your music heard, says Fred Vandenberg, CEO of Destiny Media Technologies Inc., a Vancouver music-tech company that provides a platform, Play MPE, that artists and record labels use to get their songs in front of radio station program directors, music journalists, A&R (artists and repertoire) departments and other music industry doyens and curators.
“I think smaller artists tend to think that Spotify is the way to go, when it really isn’t,” Vandenberg says. “If you get on the radio, that exposure is to the entire audience of the radio. You get on Spotify, then who knows who hears it?”
Cate Horsley agrees, and she has a unique vantage point, having worked both sides of the music business.
Horsley is not only the marketing manager for Play MPE, she is also a user – a singer-songwriter and leader of the band Chalcedony, and founder of her own independent record label, Aura Aurora Records. She has also worked with other record labels, as well as the artist management company S.L. Feldman and Associates.
Radio still matters, she says, adding it also pays better than streaming.
“These are still music industry gatekeepers, and if you can prove that you can get on the radio, that’s going to speak way more highly than like, ‘I paid this fake promo company to get me on Spotify playlists,’” Horsley says. “All that stuff can be so fake. You cannot fake a radio programmer adding your song to radio.”
Play MPE started out in the early days of the internet and dawn of the digital music era, when peer-to-peer file sharing platforms like Napster wreaked havoc on the music industry by enabling music piracy. Destiny Media developed technology that protected digital music files so that songs could be sent to record labels, radio stations and music journalists in a format that prevented them from being copied and pirated.
“The original idea of that technology was to counteract Napster for file sharing,” Vandenberg says. “It would lock your content – your music – to a device.”
Over the years, Play MPE’s massive catalogue of radio station program directors, music journalists and A&R departments became the company’s mainstay business, providing a music distribution service for record
labels. Three of the world’s largest record labels – Warner, Sony and Universal – use Play MPE.
As the business evolved, Vandenberg says the company realized that smaller labels and independent artists just didn’t have the same capacity as big record labels, so Destiny Media Technologies began providing them access to the Play MPE platform as well.
An Indie country artist, for example, can use Play MPE to get his or her music into the hands of A&R departments, country radio stations and music journalists in the U.S. for about $850. That’s the most expensive offering, as the country music market in the U.S. is huge. Distribution lists for genres with smaller markets, like jazz or metal, are a lot cheaper.
But as Vandenberg notes, one of the first things an artist using the service wants to know is this: Did my song actually get played on the radio?
If it did, and if it got played often enough, and if the artist belongs to a performing rights organization (in Canada, that would be SOCAN), then he or she would get a royalty check, albeit several months later. But at present, that royalty cheque and any information on where the song may have received airplay can take a year or more to be delivered to the artist.
So, Destiny Media has developed a new platform called MusicMTR that will give artists more granular real-time data on radio play.
Until radio stations started broadcasting online, it was simply impossible to monitor every radio station in the country. Now, it’s possible.
“Now most radio stations duplicate their signal on the internet, so you can listen digitally,” Vandenberg says. “So we started developing this algorithm a couple of years ago to listen to radio stations digitally and then track what songs are being played by listening to an Internet signal.”
In July, MusicMTR was launched in beta in Canada only.
“Anybody who wants to see if their song’s played in Canada, we are listening to around 800 stations, and you can see when your song is played,” Vandenberg says.
Horsley says she believes radio tracking could become an important new tool that allows artists to see who is playing their music, and cultivate relationships with stations and DJs through social media. The platform could be used to find out which cities have stations playing an artist’s song or songs, perhaps leading an artist to decide to put that city on a tour itinerary.
“I used to know an old manager friend,” Horsley says. “She’s like, ‘You want to see where those little sparks are bursting into flames and you want to focus on those areas.’ With the radio tracking, that is concrete evidence of where things are popping up.” ç
Given that Spotify dominates about a third of the world’s streaming market, indie artists can be forgiven for thinking the key to success is getting their original music on the Sweden-headquartered company’s playlists.Fred Vandenberg is CEO of Destiny Media Technologies Inc., a Vancouver music-tech company that provides the Play MPE platform • CHUNG CHOW
AI can save time and unlock powerful customer insights
ENGAGE: IMPROVE THE PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE WITH AI
AI and large language models will amplify the impact of our conversational approach with intelligent follow-up questions, copy refinement and tone adjustment. Authoring conversational surveys is a unique skill. That capability is native to applications like ChatGPT and would add real value to our platform.
Using AI to author conversational surveys and enhance our customers’ ability to engage participants will boost response rates, foster lasting relationships and improve the overall brand experience of research.
UNDERSTAND: COMBINE THE POWER OF AI AND MOBILE TECH TO UNCOVER DEEPER INSIGHTS
Data quality is a challenge. Decision makers want to know that the feedback they use to make decisions comes from people, not bots. Ensuring confidence in the insights we generate is a priority.
Using mobile’s native capabilities like video provides an additional validation layer. When feedback from a human is validated by video and confirmed by AI, the value of that unstructured data increases exponentially. The authenticity of the response is verified, and our customers can act with greater confidence.
OPTIMIZE: REDUCE REPETITIVE TASKS AND GET INITIAL IDEAS WITH AI
Like many tech CEOs today, I am focused on making AI a core part of our strategy along two vectors: Using AI to facilitate business operations and incorporating it into our core offering.
From our people and culture teams to sales, AI offers easy wins when it comes to increasing efficiencies, facilitating administrative tasks and refining communications. Prompting takes practice and as you improve, you can increase the complexity of the tasks you complete.
Unlike Google search, I find the iterative, ongoing nature of ChatGPT helps me craft internal communications and improve my responses to challenging questions. If you haven’t tried it yet, I suggest you give it a shot. It’s a tactical application that saves me hours a week.
When I founded Rival Technologies, we built a conversational market research platform that global brands like Kimberly-Clark, Amazon, Meta and Diageo use to better understand the attitudes and opinions of their customers. Our mission is simple: Rival the status quo of the market research industry by transforming boring surveys into meaningful mobile engagements. When ChatGPT was released, it immediately caught our attention because, like the Rival platform, it is conversational by design.
Much like any disruptive new technology, AI must be considered within the parameters of the business you have created – your mission, vision, purpose and, of course, the core value you deliver to your customers. In my industry, as in many others, the opportunities for AI are overwhelming. So we chose to look at AI through the lens of our core brand promises: Engage, understand, optimize, and inspire.
Our core customers face daily challenges: Shifts in priority, huge volumes of work and constant pressure to do more with less – faster.
AI is an exceptional assistant. When applied correctly, it can empower our customers to utilize their human intelligence, think critically, evolve best practices and focus on strategy and storytelling.
INSPIRE: INCREASE SPEED TO INSIGHT WITH AI
Global brands are awash with data and starving for insights that inspire action. We’re currently launching new capabilities on our platform that use AI to rapidly analyze vast volumes of “open-ended responses.” These include free-form written customer comments and video feedback on our platform. What could take 30 to 40 hours of analysis now takes minutes. Every data point, from first to last, is analyzed with the same rigour and focus, eliminating researcher bias and burnout.
Output is organized by themes and verbatims are included to validate the summaries. The result is the ability to tell stories that inspire better decision making and reinforce the enterprise value of customer feedback.
C ustomer opinion data, analytics and insight are ground zero for AI. Transactional data enhanced with the rich, first-person feedback as we collect is rocket fuel for generative AI. Our early experiments with AI show real promise. More importantly, they have demonstrated our ability to deliver on our promises to our customers. And that is a solid place to start, or build from, for any company looking to incorporate AI into their business ç
Andrew Reid is founder and CEO of Rival Technologies.
The development and adaptation of artificial intelligence has created challenges for tech educators as they explore ways to prepare their students to adapt to a fast-changing industry.
Educators from local B.C. institutions say they have integrated AI in the courses they are teaching and have made updates to the way they interact with their students, but there is no course that can teach everything about AI given how quickly it is advancing.
“We are working through it and changing what we do.… Now we’re going to use certain courses that have a lot of flexibility in what we can teach them around using AI tools to help a software engineer,” says Aaron Hunter, director for the Centre for Cybersecurity at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).
Last year, the institute had a five-week project to have students solve particular problems in a creative way using available AI tools. BCIT has also added AI components to their programs to teach students about fundamentals of AI, machine learning and predictive analytics, which have been popular.
“Then broadly, our other electives are just being impacted more and more by it. Both things are teaching the students how to write AI, as opposed to teaching the students how to use AI for their other topics,” says Hunter.
Lighthouse Labs, a Vancouver-based coding education organization, has also integrated AI education into their existing programs.
“AI’s going to put every school on its toes in terms of keeping up with what is changing in the job market,” says Jeremy Shaki, CEO of Lighthouse Labs.
“As we looked at AI within Lighthouse, we absolutely had to integrate the proper LLMs [large language models] into the workflow of our students. We had to make sure that we’re teaching them how to use AI tools proficiently and showing them instances
CONTIUES ON PAGE A14
The development and adaptation of artificial intelligence has created challenges for tech educators as they explore ways to prepare their students to adapt to a fast-changing industry.
AI and the speed of its development are disrupting computing education
AI’S GOING TO PUT EVERY SCHOOL ON ITS TOES IN TERMS OF KEEPING UP WITH WHAT IS CHANGING IN THE JOB MARKET
Jeremy Shaki
CEO, Lighthouse Labs
CONTINUED FROM PAGE A13
of where they are using AI that’s not working, ... making sure that we’re introducing resources for students to keep up with all the changes.”
Although both BCIT and Lighthouse Labs have added AI to their existing courses, they haven’t made fundamental changes to their curriculum or offered an AI-specific course, due to how fast the technology and the industry around it is involving.
“Fundamentally, as of this moment, we still need software engineers who know the whole subject. We haven’t gotten to the point where the knowledge we embedded is unnecessary, but we are preparing, because we know some of that will become unnecessary,” Hunter says.
Shaki also says the speed of change in AI is much faster than any curriculum can keep up with, so it’s more important to help students develop a good foundational understanding of how to use it properly instead of teaching them specific AI tools.
“People can be really good at one tool and then all of a sudden, those tools are going to change because they’re changing so rapidly,” says Shaki.
“They need to be very curious and interested learners,” he adds. “There’s still a lot of room for growth on this side. For any professional right now, this stuff is changing too quick.”
Hunter says AI has been a major disruption for computing education as some of the basic coding tasks he used to ask students to do can now be easily done by AI tools.
“It changes the way we have to teach. We have to focus on having the students explain, for example, how their code works, and we have to get them to engage with us in a way so that they can show us not just that they can hand in the work, but they understand what it does,” he says.
Shaki says he believes AI will not replace tech workers but put in more emphasis on their capabilities to use AI properly and explain to their clients how it works.
“I think that we’re still going to want people who are strong in terms of their knowledge of how software works, even if they’re not necessarily people who are going to be writing code from scratch,” Shaki says.
“The communication aspect is just going to be increasingly important. A big part of software development may end up being explaining how software works and why it makes the decisions.” ç
Telephones, insulin, snowmobiles, peanut butter, sonar, electron microscopes, canola, walkie-talkies, Blackberry and the Canada-Arm. These are Canadian innovations that in many cases changed the world. Even the electric lightbulb, although its innovators could not afford to advance it and thus sold the rights to Thomas Edison. The rest is a history of missed opportunity.
Canadian innovators have long persevered and (usually) quietly, delivered world-changing innovations in an environment that is challenged to celebrate their innovation and impact. Canadian Business Investment in Research and Development (BERD) has steadily declined since the early 2000s when it was 2.02 per cent. While we cannot change the past, and if we are going to tackle societal challenges in ways that capture opportunity for Canada, we need to create an environment where business is encouraged and inspired. Where investment in Canadian innovation delivers the products and services the world needs, developed and retained here at home. This mindset is the basis of collaborative innovation.
DIGITAL, Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, focuses on accelerating innovation through a model that has connected over 1,200 organizations spanning industry, academia, governments and not-for-profits. We focus on technologies that address some of society and industry’s biggest challenges through de-risking investment via results-based co-investment and ensuring the customer voice is at the table.
Since 2018, our members have collectively developed nearly 500 Canadian intellectual property assets; over 150 products and services; upskilled more than 7,000 Canadians into well-paying, high potential jobs; and attracted more than $820 million in investment after completing projects with DIGITAL. These resulting achievements are furthering our advancement towards a net-zero society, building a healthier Canada and creating the digitally skilled workforce Canada needs to win in the digital world.
I want to single out a few examples of how DIGITAL is accelerating innovation and inspiring industry to deliver meaningful digital solutions.
To accelerate the rapid delivery of new housing, we’ve joined
forces with the Government of B.C. to make B.C. a North American leader in digital construction and permitting through the digitization of the building code. The initiative also focuses on adoption of technologies that accelerate the positive impact of construction and related sectors by working more effectively with regulators.
In collaboration with Dias Geophysical, Fireweed Metals, Simon Fraser University, Mitacs, Microsoft and BHP, Richmond-based Ideon Technologies is pioneering world-leading mining technologies with their “Earth X-Ray.” The subsurface intelligence technology allows mining companies to identify, map and monitor critical minerals down to one kilometre beneath the Earth’s surface, thus reducing ‘hit-and-miss’ drilling and decreasing associated environmental impacts. Four out of five of the world’s largest mining companies, including project partner BHP, are already utilizing this Canadian-made technology at multiple sites around the world.
Led by Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in collaboration with industry partners such as Vancouver International Airport, RBC, Telus and more than 30 others, industry and academia are investing in large-scale professional education initiatives that are rapidly skilling over 1,000 Canadians for innovation leadership roles. The initiative has already seen a 95-per-cent placement rate with 30 per cent from underrepresented groups, and with the potential to scale and deliver training in up to 70 countries and 30 languages.
There should be no limits placed on the reach and scale of world-changing digital technology, and that’s why the next phase of DIGITAL’s evolution will involve diversifying our investors. Seventy per cent of our co-investments are helping Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises scale-up their R&D. With the support of our consortium, many of these ventures are now ready to go after global applications, customers and markets, yet lack resources amidst current global downturns in VC funding.
There’s an opportunity for new investors to come to a table laden with uniquely robust market opportunities. Collaboratively nurtured and developed by hundreds of Canada’s most innovative minds, these opportunities span technologies such as augmented reality, digital twins, data platforms and AI, all of which are seeing explosive growth. With our partnerships across all levels of government, innovators have unique opportunities to engage directly with the public sector as a customer base.
The examples above are only a fraction of the innovations DIGITAL’s members have developed. To prospective private and public partners with similarly grand ambitions and talent to match – our door is always open and ready to welcome the best and brightest. ç
For 30 years BC Tech has played a part in the journey of many BC Tech icons and success stories and each year we are proud to highlight BC’s incredible tech community at our annual Technology Impact Awards. Past finalists say that being nominated for a TIA provides an unparalleled opportunity to build their profile and accelerate their success and we are excited to share the stories of this year’s finalists.
Presented in partnership with Microsoft Startups are the lifeblood of BC’s tech sector and BC Tech is thrilled to celebrate 10 finalists for the #2023TIAs Company of the Year – Startup award. Visit the BC Tech website to learn more about this year’s winner and runner-up finalists!
Active Witness is a cutting-edge cloud-based access control platform that revolutionizes safety for buildings and businesses of all sizes. Our innovative multi-factor solution combines QR Code and face authentication technology to ensure that only authorized personnel gain access to restricted areas. With our mobile app, administrators can effortlessly manage users, permissions, and restrictions at any door in seconds. Say goodbye shareable, copyable, and stealable credentials.
ethos is a white label platform that enables consumer brands to offer digital assets (NFTs) through a fully branded experience that includes real-world utility. Added utility such as discounts, free shipping, early access, or special products when holding a digital asset makes ethos the chosen partner for leading brands who want to reward and grow their customer base. Whether a brand’s customer is a crypto pro, or it is their first time engaging with a digital asset, our platform allows for an intuitive transaction for all.
podcasters advocating for Newsly on a weekly basis), and digital radio making it an audio super app. The app Is already on both mobile stores. Newsly was chosen as one of Canada's top 15 consumer application companies and ranked #1 on the US App Store "Listen to news".
Airble is a charter aviation marketplace that provides passengers with exclusive travel options for private or shared flights, air tours, and empty-leg deals for both business and leisure travel. Airble connects air operators and their fleet to passengers who want alternatives to commercial travel or want to explore their own backyard through an air tour experience. The Airble marketplace is a single-commit platform that automates the charter flight planning and booking processes for users and service providers, allowing them to browse, book and pay with ease.
Knowbie is a North American leader in standardized alcohol training for the food and beverage industry. Our gamified micro-learning platform simplifies hospitality training and boosts staff confidence in selling alcohol - a profitable aspect of the business. Knowbie's modern app delivers essential training, resources, and engaging narratives on alcohol brands. The first standardized alcohol training developed by the industry for the industry, Knowbie is dedicated to advancing the career prospects of all restaurant employees and driving positive culture change in the sector. Founder and CEO, Crystal Hamilton, is a certified Sommelier with years of experience in service training best practices.
Origen Air provides a sustainable natural air purification solution. By enhancing the natural ability of plants to improve air quality, Origen Air’s Pinnacle™ system uses live plants to effectively supply fresh, clean air to indoor spaces. Origen Air’s multi-barrier approach to effective indoor air purification delivers measurable increases in human performance, health, wellness, and energy efficiency. Made for both commercial and residential spaces alike, Origen Air launched their products in 2022 that are well received across Canada. The next stage of growth for this startup is manufacturing scale-up and international expansion.
In the $264B recession proof beauty market, new brands are being launched daily. Blanka's technology makes it easy for brands of any size to source and customize the highest quality beauty products - with no minimums. Since coming out of beta less than a year and a half ago, Blanka has onboarded over 14,000 brands and reached over $77k in monthly revenue, driven entirely by organic marketing and without the use of paid advertising. Founded by a 2x entrepreneur and 30 Under 30 recipient, Blanka's platform is the wholesale hub and fulfillment partner for branded beauty.
myMomentum is a platform that enables companies to build happier & healthier teams. Through wellness challenges, daily tips, and rewards our app provides a fun, easy way to engage & motivate your employees. Through easy, fun challenges, daily tips, and rewards we increase well-being, engagement & retention at the workplace.
VoxCell BioInnovation is revolutionizing the drug development process by creating human-like vascularized cancer tissue models. We have created Canada's first high-resolution 3D bioprinter with a resolution 10-20X higher resolution than the smallest blood vessel in the body. The combination of the bioprinter with out proprietary bioinks and vascularization software produces a vascularized, artificial biopsy sample that allows for researchers to inject drugs directly into the vasculature and analyze how that drug behaves in a more human-like environment. These models will allow drug developers to identify unviable drug candidates earlier, saving time and money in the drug development process.
Newsly is an audio content and personal newscaster mobile application. It picks the top trending articles on the web on topics you choose and reads them to you in a natural human voice using AI Technology. Also, we have podcasts on our app (and created a community of hundreds of
Founded in 2020, WiiBid is the 1st online, direct to consumer, auctioned mortgage marketplace. Since launch in January 2021, WiiBid has received over 300 applications, $50 Million in mortgage requests and closed more than $50M in funding.
Presented in partnership with Osler Winner
Fatigue Science is the premier provider of predictive fatigue management technology, enhancing safety and productivity in mining sites, trucking fleets, and shift workers globally. Our award-winning Readi platform uses Machine Learning and biomathematical modelling to predict worker fatigue, pioneering the practice of "predictive" fatigue management. We are proud to deliver a 20x ROI for the major global firms we serve, including Newmont, Minsur, Marcobre, Thiess, MMG, and Alcoa. As the 2022 Winner of the National Safety Council's Safety Innovation Award, we continue to lead the industry, safeguarding lives and optimizing working hours worldwide.
subsurface intelligence platform that integrates proprietary detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to provide x-ray-like visibility underground. By transforming muon data into reliable 3D density maps, Ideon helps geologists identify, characterize, and monitor mineral deposits with confidence. This reduces risk and cost of traditional methods, while saving time, optimizing return, and minimizing environmental impact across the mining value chain.
or supplement biological function inside the body with the aim of treating currently incurable diseases such as type 1 diabetes as well as genetic and acquired liver diseases.
Forward's highly accomplished team delivers application and cloud security solutions, focusing on mid-sized organizations in Finance, E-commerce, and Health. Our Eureka DevSecOps offerings provide the product and services that help teams build and operate software securely in the cloud. The Eureka DevSecOps platform makes managing application and cloud security tools, processes, and issues simple and effective, while the service helps with achieving DevSecOps transformation goals. As the world rapidly adopts software, the need for more effective ways to address security rise accordingly. Forward provides what is required for companies to reduce risk, gain market share, and increase profitability and privacy.
IKOMED is a Vancouver-based company developing groundbreaking medical technology. Our FDA cleared system component, AEGIS, incorporates a high-speed electromechanical shutter with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce X-ray radiation in fluoroscopy by over 60% while maintaining image quality. This reduction in radiation exposure makes procedures safer for both patients and medical staff. AEGIS is sold commercially in the United States and our revenue has more than doubled in the two years since its introduction. We are also developing ATMOS, a proprietary device for a non-invasive treatment of emphysema using radiofrequency (RF) heating, which is currently on the path to clinical trials.
Presented in partnership with Clio
DarkVision Technologies provides world leading BC-Based acoustic imaging for industrial asset inspection. Its solutions operate in the toughest environments on earth to provide comprehensive insight on the condition of critical infrastructure. Its innovative and proprietary technology delivers exceptionally detailed 3D images and measurements of downhole well perforations, connections, casing damage, FCDs, wall thickness, and wellbore restrictions at submillimeter resolutions regardless of fluid clarity.
MineSense is a Vancouver, BC-based, pioneer in digital mining solutions, supplying real-time, sensorbased ore sorting that is revolutionizing mining globally. Our signature solution is ShovelSense®, a robust "smart shovel" that scans and measures the grade of material in every bucketload. ShovelSense collects real-time, ore characterization data with each scoop, providing accurate and instant, critical information needed to drive data-driven optimization from the mine to the mill. The increased real-time visibility and orebody knowledge provided by ShovelSense, developed in BC, delivers more critical minerals and reduces the processing of waste material, minimizing energy and water consumption and chemical reagent use.
Ideon Technologies uses the energy from supernova explosions to image down to 1km beneath the Earth's surface. A spinoff from TRIUMF (Canada’s particle physics lab), Ideon is a world pioneer in cosmic-ray muon tomography. The team developed a
Aspect Biosystems is a biotechnology company pioneering the development of bioprinted tissue therapeutics to transform how we treat currently incurable diseases. Aspect is creating these next generation cell therapies by applying its full-stack tissue therapeutic platform, which combines the company’s proprietary bioprinting technology, therapeutic cells, biomaterials, and computational design. Aspect’s bioprinted tissue therapeutics are designed to replace, repair,
ScalePad partners with MSPs to deliver the masterful IT experience that clients expect. ScalePad’s innovative asset lifecycle management, business intelligence & analytics, business continuity & disaster recovery, and governance, risk, & compliance solutions surface hidden risks and actionable opportunities, delivering automated analysis and insights that improve service delivery. ScalePad has received recognition and awards in various categories, including DattoCon Best
Revenue Opportunity, SMB Best Revenue Model, and SMB Channel All-star. In 2022, ScalePad was listed as a top-growing company on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list and received certification with Great Place to Work™.
Presented in partnership with Blakes Winner
STEMCELL Technologies is Canada’s largest biotechnology company with 2,200 talented staff globally (1,700 of whom are located in Vancouver). STEMCELL develops specialized cell culture media, cell isolation systems, instrumentation, primary cells, services and accessory products for life science research. We deliver 2,500 products directly in 22 countries and via distributors to 90 other countries. Over our 28-year history, sales revenues have grown at 20% per year.
STEMCELL is currently on track to exceed its Fiscal 2023 revenue target of $500 million. By 2030, sales are projected to be $1 billion with approximately 5,000 employees.
compliance. The platform helps companies achieve regulatory compliance, reduce risk and expand their businesses by enabling verification of more than 5 billion people and 300 million businesses across 195 countries. In a world where all businesses will be digital, Trulioo empowers everyone to join the global economy. The Trulioo global identity platform drives growth for organizations by leveraging world-class technology that accelerates and streamlines verification, opening the digital door for everyone on the planet.
Visier is the global leader in people analytics, providing on-demand answers to people-powered businesses. Behind every great brand, product, or idea is the Human Truth, and the Visier People Cloud reveals the fundamental questions and actionable truths capable of elevating your employees—and your business—to new heights. Founded in 2010 by the pioneers of business intelligence, Visier has 25,000 customers in 75 countries around the world, including enterprises like Adobe, BASF, Bridgestone, Electronic Arts, McKesson, Merck KGaA, and more. Visier is headquartered in Vancouver, BC with offices and team members worldwide.
East Side Games started as an independent studio in East Vancouver in 2011. Today, we’re part of East Side Games Group and we’re a game developer, publisher, and technology provider. We enable creators to successfully deliver memorable mobile gaming experiences that players engage with every day. Through our proven tech kits and brand partnerships, our games empower passionate fan bases to explore their favourite content in a fun, convenient medium, available in the palm of their hands. We’re fans first, making this adventure extra special. Our games and team have the same goal: to be inclusive and for everyone.
Presented in partnership with MDA Winner
Based on environmentally friendly solid sorbent technology, Svante’s carbon capture and removal solutions offer companies in heavy emitting, hard-to-decarbonize industries a commercially viable way to capture and remove CO2 emissions. With the captured CO2 concentrated to pipeline grade purity, what was once considered a waste by-product of industrial processes is repurposed into new carbon-neutral commodities or safely transported and stored underground.
Audette provides a data-as-a-service platform to facilitate the decarbonization of the commercial and residential real estate sector. Our team of engineers, developers, building scientists, and product specialists help different constituencies look at a broad portfolio of buildings and identify actionable interventions to reach net-zero carbon emissions. We are on a mission to decarbonize the commercial real estate sector - one of the biggest polluters globally. Since inception in 2019, we have grown to a team of 36, served customers across Canada, and partnered with multiple cities to tackle GHG emission reductions in the built environment.
Vancouver-based Invinity Energy Systems manufactures high-throughput vanadium flow batteries for large-scale energy storage projects at commercial businesses and on the grid. The company is active in all major global energy storage markets and has over 65 MWh of systems already deployed or contracted for delivery across over 70 sites in 15 countries. Invinity's flow batteries are safe, reliable, and economical, and run continually with no degradation for over 25 years, making them suitable for the most demanding applications in renewable energy production. These batteries are currently being installed at Canada’s largest solar powered VFB project in Chappice Lake, Alberta.
Trulioo is the identity platform global businesses turn to for growth, innovation and
Founded in 2010, Vancouver-based Semios offers Precision Agriculture as a Service™ that includes real-time crop data and pest management tools for growers of tree fruit, nuts and other permanent crops. Leveraging a network of sensors that provide more than 500M data points measuring climate, soil moisture, insect and disease activity daily, we apply big data analytics and machine learning to reduce and mitigate crop risks for growers. Semios continues to grow its crop management platform by partnering with other leading decision-aid farming solutions to deliver more value to growers under one login.
Presented in partnership with Accenture
Winner
AbCellera is breaking the barriers of conventional antibody drug discovery to bring better medicines to patients, sooner. AbCellera’s engine integrates expert teams, technology, and facilities with the data science and automation needed to propel antibody-based medicines from target to clinic in nearly every therapeutic area with precision and speed. AbCellera provides innovative biotechs and leading pharmaceutical companies with a competitive advantage that empowers them to move quickly, reduce cost, and tackle the toughest problems in drug development.
to provide comprehensive insight on the condition of critical infrastructure. Its innovative and proprietary technology delivers exceptionally detailed 3D images and measurements of downhole well perforations, connections, casing damage, FCDs, wall thickness, and wellbore restrictions at submillimeter resolutions regardless of fluid clarity. Well operators are overcoming challenging well integrity issues, increasing completions performance, and ultimately saving time and reducing costs.
Presented in partnership with PwC Winner
Cymax Group Technologies is a leading eCommerce technology and logistics services platform for furniture vendors and retailers. Our products include Freight Club, the all-in-one shipping platform, and Channel Gate, the AI-powered multichannel platform. When combined with best-in-class marketing expertise and personalized account support – we simplify the eCommerce and freight experience. Cymax Group’s commitment to technical excellence is an appealing draw for furniture manufacturers and retailers seeking support navigating the complexities of multichannel eCommerce. This focus is fundamental in empowering more furniture vendors and retailers to lead in an increasingly competitive market.
InTime is the leading scheduling & workforce management software for public safety. With over 25 years in the public safety sector, InTime has proven expertise in understanding the complex needs of law enforcement, corrections, dispatch, and fire agencies. InTime is comprised of a breadth of capabilities and modules, the core of which are staff scheduling, timekeeping, and overtime management. InTime’s fully integrated Wellness solution also enables agencies with proactive fatigue management using scheduling data and an on-demand resource library designed to support staff’s wellbeing. With InTime, agencies can increase productivity, reduce costs, ensure compliance, and support staff wellness.
CheckingIn supports the health and wellbeing of organizations and communities through innovative and responsive wellness technology. We provide digital solutions that empower and uplift organizations and communities to better wellbeing outcomes. We are an app-based technology partner to Indigenous communities, businesses, non-profit and public sector organizations across North America. Our products and services are inclusive, approachable and accessible, addressing the unique health needs of the groups they serve.
DarkVision Technologies provides world leading acoustic imaging for industrial asset inspection. Its solutions operate in the toughest environments on Earth
TELUS is a dynamic, world-leading communications technology company with $18B in annual revenue and 18 million customer connections spanning wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment, video, and security. Our social purpose is to leverage our global-leading technology and compassion to drive social change and enable remarkable human outcomes. The numerous, sustained accolades TELUS has earned over the years from independent, industry-leading network insight firms showcase the strength and speed of TELUS’ global-leading networks, reinforcing our commitment to provide Canadians with access to superior technology that connects us to the people, resources and information that make our lives better.
The C.O.D.E. Initiative Foundation is a female-founded non-profit with the goal of Create Opportunities and Define Education. Our mission is to provide inclusive and accessible digital literacy and STEM-STEAM educational opportunities to underserved youth, especially those with neurodiversities, disabilities, girls/women and people of colour. We introduce students to these skills from a young age to provide them with important life and job skills and also teach them problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork in a supportive and empowering environment.
Lighthouse Labs is committed to training the next generation of tech talent through innovative educational programming and initiatives. As technology and innovation accelerate and disrupt industries across nearly every sector, the organization aims to provide individuals with the necessary skills for lasting careers in a digital workforce. Lighthouse Labs has already equipped over 40,000 individuals with the tools to succeed by offering handson tech education, soft skills training, career services, mentorship, and wraparound ser-
vices. With the support of skilled instructors and mentors, Lighthouse Labs continues to empower students to launch careers, and contribute to British Columbia’s economy.
Thrive Health is a digital healthcare platform company with a mission to make healthcare work better for everyone. The company provides an interactive patient engagement solution that enables healthcare providers to build custom clinical workflows, and offers patients enhanced access to their health data. Thrive Health’s innovative technology is designed to put patients at the center of their care, and empower data-driven clinical decisions. Thrive Heath’s platform meets or exceeds FIPAA, HIPAA, PIPEDA, and NIST requirements, is SA S 70 Type II compliant, and is ISO 27001 certified. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and operates across North America.
Presented in partnership with SAP
confidence and ease while gaining the flexibility they need to cater to their customers. Binary Stream's team and culture of continuous improvement have led to a sustainable success that is built on further with every iteration. Over the past year, Binary Stream was able to forge many new relationships across the world that have led to hundreds of successful products implementations at industry-leading companies.
Pagefreezer is on a mission to make the Internet a safer place. We offer solutions that simplify compliance and litigation by automatically archiving websites, social media, mobile text messages, and enterprise collaboration platforms for every stage of the information governance lifecycle and for e-discovery needs. By enabling organizations to create and share transparent records of their communications, quickly and easily in our dashboard, in real-time— accountability online is achievable. Our customers include major banks and financial institutions, enterprise food and beverage companies, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and some of the largest government agencies in the world.
Founded in 2018 by BC tech-entrepreneur Kevin Collins, Charli AI is a first-of-its-kind intelligent content platform that supercharges workflows across the enterprise. Its proprietary Generative AI platform Ancaeus has the game-changing ability to deliver scalable, enterprise-wide applications for AI –an elusive option for businesses until now. Charli AI is the only Generative AI platform with proven ability to deliver accurate and fact-based content, bringing weeks of work down to minutes. With tedious tasks out of the way, teams can focus on critical aspects of the business and do what they do best.
Winner
Trulioo is the identity platform global businesses turn to for growth, innovation and compliance. The platform helps companies achieve regulatory compliance, reduce risk and expand their businesses by enabling verification of more than 5 billion people and 300 million businesses across 195 countries. In a world where all businesses will be digital, Trulioo empowers everyone to join the global economy. The Trulioo global identity platform drives growth for organizations by leveraging world-class technology that accelerates and streamlines verification, opening the digital door for everyone on the planet.
Presented in partnership with AbCellera
INETCO Systems Ltd is a global provider of real-time solutions for payment monitoring, payment fraud and cybersecurity detection & prevention for the payments industry. Companies using our software include Moneris, Blueshore Financial, American Express, and Walmart. We help financial institutions, payment providers, government agencies and retailers in over 40 countries unlock the full potential of their payment data. Our innovative technology makes real-time transaction data workable for payment fraud and cyberattack detection and blocking, performance monitoring and customer journey insights across omni-channel payment network environments. Our marquee product, INETCO BullzAI, launched in September 2021 and now dominates our pipeline.
Winner
Headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbia, Binary Stream is a Gold-Certified Microsoft Partner developing innovative solutions for common business problems. Binary Stream's solutions help thousands of companies run their financial processes with
Aspect Biosystems is a biotechnology company pioneering the development of bioprinted tissue therapeutics to transform how we treat currently incurable diseases. Aspect is creating these next generation cell therapies by applying its full-stack tissue therapeutic platform, which combines the company’s proprietary bioprinting technology, therapeutic cells, biomaterials, and computational design. Aspect’s bioprinted tissue therapeutics are designed to replace, repair, or supplement biological function inside the body with the aim of treating currently incurable diseases such as type 1 diabetes as well as genetic and acquired liver diseases.
As the global leader in 3D scanning and inspection, LMI Technologies works to advance quality and productivity with 3D sensor technology. Our award-winning, FactorySmart® laser, snapshot, and line confocal sensors improve the quality and efficiency of factory production by providing fast, accurate, reliable inspection solutions that leverage smart 3D technologies. Unlike contact-based measurement or 2D vision, our non-contact solutions add 3D shape information that is critical to achieving 100% quality control. We also offer turnkey AI-based solutions to deploy the power of deep-learning-driven visual inspection into your industrial production processes.
The BC Innovators Hall of Fame recognizes the key role of innovation to BC’s economy and the leaders that have left a legacy on this province, enriching our technology and innovation ecosystem and building a stronger BC economy. Our 51 inductees are:
Greg Aasen Mark Betteridge Judy Bishop Jeff Booth Michael Brown Kathy Butler Ward Chaplin
David Demers Klaus Deering
Norman Durieux Gordon English
Farris Haig
Andrew Harries Roy Henderson
Judi Hess Ryan Holmes
Moe Kermani Hugh Kay
Paul Lee Julia Levy
John Macdonald, Gordon MacFarlane Greg Malpass
Amos Michelson Jack Newton Josh Nilson
Greg Peet Shahrzad Rafati Firoz Rasul Jonathan Rhone
Don Rix Geordie Rose Shannon Rogers Roy
Laurie Schultz
Norm Francis
Don Mattrick Warren Roy
John Seminario Gerri Sinclair Keith Spencer Ken Spencer Jim Spilsbury Morgan Sturdy
David Sutcliffe
Shafin Tejani Bill Thompson Ralph Turfus James Topham
Mossadiq Umedaly Alan Winter
These grants strike a balance between near-term needs and research independence.
What do Atlas Power, HTEC Invinity Energy Systems and Takachar have in common? To anyone following B.C.’s tech scene, the answer may seem obvious: All four are rising stars in the province’s clean energy sector. But dig a little deeper, and another similarity emerges: They’re all recent recipients of the kind of dynamic non-dilutive funding that is vital in this fast-growing and globally competitive industry.
Every innovative company wants to make money, but unlike those in more financially driven sectors – fintech, insurtech, retailtech and so on – the goals of clean energy firms are to balance business success with an altruistic benefit of the highest order: Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, in turn, combating climate change. Achieving that goal tends to require extensive and enduring research and development, yet when a cleantech company’s equity is diluted by venture capitalists (VCs) and angel investors looking for quick returns, its priorities can shift from innovating to reaching profitability as soon as possible.
Non-dilutive funding, on the other hand, allows companies to maintain more control over their R&D activities. It takes three main forms: Loans, government subsidies and grants. Typically provided by banks or VCs, loans require R&D-hindering interest to be paid, while the tax breaks and other longer-term financial assistance delivered by subsidies rarely fit the trajectories of early-stage ventures. Non-dilutive grants, however, strike the ideal balance between near-term funding needs and R&D independence.
Compared to private investors, banks and VCs, government and not-for-profit grant issuers are more tolerant of investment risk and extended investment timelines that may or
may not yield game-changing results. This is especially true of clean energy solutions, given that all levels of government are focusing on accelerating Canada’s net-zero transition.
Like any investor, however, grant issuers have their own methods and strategic priorities. At the B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE), we leverage public and private partnerships and grants to fund clean energy solutions that have achieved a technology readiness level (TRL) between four and nine. The former is the first step in determining whether the individual components of a cleantech solution will work together as a system, while the latter involves technology that is proven through successful deployment in an operational setting. We are focused on advancing funding recipients’ TRLs by at least two stages, boosting the project value gained through grants by a factor of 10 within three years, and supporting projects with the potential to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions by more than seven megatonnes per year. We are taking greater risks than many private investors would tolerate, and the rewards are much greater on the commercial, societal and environmental impact
The good news for B.C.’s clean energy sector is that a growing number of startups are receiving this kind of flexible, innovation-friendly funding. This includes the introductory quartet, which recently joined five other clean energy innovators in sharing $5.2 million in non-dilutive CICE funding.
The diversity of these recipients is remarkable. Takachar, for instance, is making biomass-based chemicals and biofuels economically feasible by prototyping a small-scale, portable biomass conversion unit on tractors and pick-up trucks to process raw biomass on-site in remote communities. Invinity is accelerating the adoption of renewable energy by delivering vanadium flow battery storage for electrical grids worldwide, while HTEC is building hydrogen fueling stations that can withstand extreme weather conditions. Then there’s Atlas Power, which is engineering and field-testing a unique supercapacitor system that provides fast electrical response
and improves the reliability of utility systems to support renewable energy growth on power grids.
Beyond cash infusions, government and not-for-profit grants can also help cleantech startups overcome the challenges of early-stage development and commercialization by facilitating access to resources such as R&D labs and equipment, and by fostering connections and collaboration across the entire cleantech ecosystem. This includes tech accelerators and think tanks, companies of all sizes, government agencies, universities and other academic institutions, First Nations communities, inventors and entrepreneurs and, yes, private
investors, banks and VCs that are ready to lend support when the time is right.
As Canada grapples with the global climate crisis, we cannot afford to waste the commercial, societal and environmental potential of our home-grown clean energy solutions. So long as we continue to provide non-dilutive capital at the intersection of breakthrough and real-word implementation, I have every confidence that this forward-thinking approach will be rewarded in ways that are on, and beyond, the cutting edge. ç
Todd Sayers is deputy executive director of the B.C. Centre for Innovation & Clean Energy.
Own-versus-lease debate heats up amid financial, technical and sustainability pressures
SHAYNA RECTOR BLEEKER
World EV Day on Sept. 9 may have resonated more with fleet managers than it usually does. Its 2023 theme – “sustainable electric mobility” – is especially relevant as mounting consumer and government pressure to decarbonize collides with economic uncertainty and rising interest rates. The benefits of fleet electrification are well documented, but what about its financial and technical sustainability in today’s economic climate? How do fleet operators calculate that?
One way to mitigate the higher upfront costs of electric vehicles and supporting infrastructure is by leasing them. That said, ownership comes with its own set of advantages. Ultimately, organizations must weigh the benefits of leasing versus owning to determine how to balance capital expenditures (CAPEX), tax incentives and cash-flow requirements.
Ownership may make sense for organizations able to absorb CAPEX up front. However, cash on hand isn’t the only necessity, as owners need in-house expertise and knowledge around EVs and charging infrastructure to successfully transition their fleets. For those with limited resources, leasing may be a better option.
An organization’s interest in sharing risk with a lending partner, and involving industry experts in the EV transition, are other key factors. Entering into a contract with a lessor is a commitment, but that lessor can in turn bring value-generating experience and expertise to the table, as well as the reach needed to engage with global markets. At 7Gen, for instance, our clients range from office supply retailer Staples to last-mile delivery fleet GoBolt to multinational courier company DHL. In all these cases, 7Gen helps design, install and operate infrastructure to support fleets, apply for grants and subsidies, and strategize on placement and type of EV technology through a
lease-to-own model.
It should also be pointed out that organizations don’t have to go all-in on leasing or buying one or more EVs. Some may choose to buy a portion of their fleet’s vehicles and charging stations, and acquire the rest through lease-to-own.
To help guide those choices, here are the principal benefits of owning and leasing EV fleets:
PROS
Tax incentives: While it may be more expensive to own up front, organizations may save money in the long run by taking advantage of federal EV incentives that allow Canadian businesses to deduct up to $55,000 of the capital costs of zero-emission vehicles.
Provincial incentives vary, with Quebec and B.C. being the only two that offer rebates on large electric trucks. The CleanBC Go Electric Rebate (formerly SUVI) program offers up to $150,000 for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks, while Quebec’s Écocamionnage offers up to $200,000 per truck. Just remember that finding and applying for these programs isn’t always easy, and that applicants must adhere to reporting requirements.
Fleet control: Having control over a fleet’s assets is appealing in that purchased fleets generally avoid strict maintenance and repair timelines, and owners have more flexibility when taking vehicles for service.
Fewer strings attached: Owning avoids penalties or fees relating to vehicle mileage restrictions that come with certain types of leasing.
THE PROS OF LEASING EV FLEETS
Before proceeding, it’s important to understand the different types of leasing. With financed leases, the risk and return are assumed by the lessee, including asset ownership (or a guarantee on residual value). This enables organizations to leverage existing fleet replacement budgets for down payments, and then pay
down the lease from operational fuel and maintenance budgets. With operating leases, the risk, return and ownership are the lessor’s responsibility, which results in a higher monthly price to the lessee than a finance lease and limitations on mileage.
Tax incentives, credits and rebates: Not all federal and provincial tax incentives and credits apply strictly to owners. Aforementioned federal, B.C. and Quebec rebates, for instance, also apply to leased fleet vehicles. Lease payments are also tax deductible.
Steady cash flow: Instead of covering the full price of vehicles and infrastructure upfront, lessees cover depreciation and interest over the terms of leases. The result is a significantly lower down payment. Furthermore, EV lease payments can be made with the money saved on maintaining and fuelling internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.
EV and infrastructure certainty: Before an organization can even consider whether EVs will meet its needs, it must make sure the vehicles can travel as far and charge as quickly as needed, can carry the necessary payloads,
and that adequate charging infrastructure is in place. The issue with charging infrastructure is the high sunk cost when starting to build. The value of the resulting assets is only a percentage of total CAPEX, meaning financing rates are generally high. By adding EVs to the mix, those rates will improve.
Support and guidance: Leasing typically relieves organizations of the need to have equipment and staff to perform maintenance and repair work, and of taking responsibility for charging and charger management software. Crucially for the initial transition to EV, lessors like 7Gen are also able to leverage their expertise to help organizations choose the equipment that best suits their specific needs, as well as facilitate relationships with EV and charger manufacturers, software providers and utilities. These relationships may fall into place relatively easily for larger fleet operators, but others will find the learning curve and operations management burden to be too costly and time-consuming.
RANKED BY | Size of the deal in CAD
1, 2022 Telus acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of LifeWorks for $33.00 per LifeWorks common share, representing total consideration of approximately $2.3 billion, in addition to the assumption of net debt of approximately $600 million
5, 2022 D-Wave Systems Inc.'s business combination with DPCM Capital, Inc., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, in a deal with an implied value of US$1.2 billion
4 Audax Private Equity audaxprivateequity.com
5 Tepkri Sarsang A/S
Regency Retirement Resorts
Harbourfront Group of Companies / Harbourfront Wealth Management Inc harbourfrontwealth.com
ShaMaran Petroleum Corp
TSXV:SNM shamaranpetroleum.com
Ledger Corp., the parent company of Bitbuy Technologies Inc
October 11, 2021
January 11, 2022
July 14, 2022
September 9, 2022
July 12, 2021
September 14, 2022
4, 2022
25, 2022
Regency Retirement Resorts, the owners of a portfolio of active lifestyle retirement homes in the Okanagan, on the sale of nine independent-living retirement residents to Welltower Inc., a U.S.-based real estate investment trust that invests in seniors housing and other health-care infrastructure
The Harbourfront Group completes transaction with leading US-based investment firm Audax Private Equity
ShaMaran Petroleum Corp. announces closing of the acquisition of TEPKRI Sarsang A/S
The acquisition and integration establish WonderFi as a leading end-to-end consumer platform for people seeking access to crypto and decentralized finance. Pursuant to the arrangement, WonderFi acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of First Ledger
of a 40% minority interest in its subsidiary, Waterfront Shipping to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. for US$144.8 million. Methanex will retain the remaining 60% majority interest in WFS
secured US$135M investment from Summit Partners and acquired Later
Brands Company, Inc. acquired LEEF Holdings Inc. The initial payment of US$120 million to former LEEF shareholders was satisfied by the issuance of an aggregate of 758,274,035 common shares of Icanic Brands
McCarthy Tetrault NP $600 million
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; Stikeman Elliott LLP; Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Raymond James Ltd $475 million
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP; Vinson & Elkins Moelis & Company UK LLP; Jefferies LLC $221.22
24,
August 25, 2022
April 25, 2022
February 14, 2022
April 20, 2022
NP
January 14, 2022
15 WonderFi Technologies Inc. Coinberry Ltd NP July
The special committee of PODA Holdings Inc.'s US$100.5 milion sale to Altria Client Services LLC
Aurora acquired a controlling interest in Bevo Agtech Inc, one of the largest suppliers of propagated vegetables and ornamental plants in North America
1325996 B.C. Ltd. completed acquisition of and subsequent going-private transaction with Macro Enterprises Inc
MindBeacon shareholders received $1.22 of cash plus 2.285 common shares of CloudMD for each common share of MindBeacon. Pursuant to the arrangement, CloudMD has 287,675,749 common shares issued and outstanding, of which approximately 19.1% are owned by former MindBeacon shareholders
4, 2022 WonderFi Technologies Inc. acquired Coinberry Ltd, one of Canada’s leading crypto asset trading platforms registered with the Canadian Securities Administrators and Canada’s first pureplay licensed crypto broker, for $38.3 million
18, 2022
Brands bought Plus Products
Holdings
Fasken Agentis Capital Advisors $129 million
$123 million
Bindley, president and CEO Manufacturer of high-resolution cadmium zinc telluride semiconductor radiation detectors
Serge Goldenberg vice-president and general manager, integrated imaging solutions Designer and manufacturer of high-performance digital cameras for industrial,
in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Anna Liczmanska, lists@biv.com
officer
Rinaldi general manager, Vancouver, Sheena Johnson head of production, Vancouver, Chris Downs head of CG, Vancouver
Chow, CEO
Academy Award-winning visual effects and animation studio known for photoreal live-action visual effects, dynamic creature and character animation and full CG animation
effects (VFX) and animation companiy for the creation of feature film, television, and multiplatform content. Worldwide offices and studios across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia
Specializing
television and series
Interactive 565 Great Northern Way Suite 400 Vancouver V5T 0H8
Rob Cunningham, CEO, Peter Greenwood, CFO, Yggy King, CTO Game development studio responsible for Minecraft Legends, Hardspace:Shipbreakers, Homeworld 3, Crossfire:Legions, Minecraft Earth and others
London, U.K. 1991 2,500 NP 300 300 14 Titmouse 31 3rd Ave W Vancouver V5Y 3T8 P: 604-757-4203 F: NP titmouse.net
Stopa
Los Angeles, CA 2000 NP NP 260 296 15 Framestore 50 2nd Ave W, Vancouver V5Y 1B3 P: 604-874-8700 F: NP framestore.com Naomi
Galbraith chair, president and CEO, Neil Klompas president and COO2 Chris Astle, senior vice-president and CFO
4
Technologies Inc
Station St, Vancouver V6A 1B6
604-877-0713 F: 800-567-2899 stemcell.com
biopharmaceutical
dedicated to the development of next-generation multifunctional biotherapeutics
Eaves, president and CEO Privately held Cell separation, culture media, instruments, antibodies, education and contract assay services
Rafati chair and CEO
David Johnson, CEO, Richard Orazietti, CFO6 , William (Bill) Larkin, CFO7
Media technology company providing comprehensive, end-to-end solutions to increase viewership and drive revenue for creators
Engineers advanced natural gas engines and fuel systems
NP Complex technology systems integration company with expertise in security, audio-visual, networking, private wireless and unified communications
V6C
Wyatt, president and CEO
Rockwell executive vice-president, Dale Booth, CFO, Clay
Delivers zero-trust security
Nasdaq:BLDP
Develops
16 Appnovation
P: 604-568-0313 F: 604-568-0314 appnovation.com
Vancouver 2007 343/ 359 79/ 114 $104,946 $74,786 17 good natured
470
Products Inc
F: NP goodnatured.ca
Paul Sakrzewski, CEO
604-639-9700
Innovation Corp 8339
Vancouver 2006 NP/ NP NP/ NP $100,966 $61,132 18 Charter 2614
Michell, president NP Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Anna Liczmanska, Editorial Researcher, lists@biv.com
Telecommunications;
provider of technology solutions and services for business, government, health care and education
Landell, president and partner, Antonella Frustaci, vicepresident, connections and partner, Kelly Swan, vice-president, operations and partner, Christina Sarai, director, finance and administration, Bronwyn Mackay, creative director, Maxine Wu director, strategic services
1 Securiguard Services Ltd/Westguard Services Ltd 3292 Production Way Suite 201 Burnaby V5A 4R4
604-685-6011 F: 604-685-0013 securiguard.com
2 Commissionaires 595 Howe St Suite 600 Vancouver V6C 2T5
604-646-3330 F: 604-681-9864 commissionaires.bc.ca
3 GuardTeck Security Co 4445 Lougheed Hwy Suite 800 Burnaby V5C 0E4
778-379-9000 F: 778-379-9001 guardteck.com
4 GardaWorld 3185 Willingdon Green Suite 202 Burnaby V5G 4P3
P: 604-717-5580 F: 604-739-6623 garda.com
Darcy Kernaghan founder, Robin Chakrabarti, president and CEO Specializes in integrated security and safety solutions, security officers, K-9 security, mobile patrol, alarm response, loss prevention, emergency response and first aid, risk management, and labour dispute contingency planning
Chris Mitchell CEO, Commissionaires BC (mainland), Gary Paulson, CEO, Commissionaires VIY (Victoria, the Islands and Yukon) Premier guard services, patrol services, integrated security solutions, bylaw enforcement, non-core police services, training, fingerprinting services, background checks, pre-employment screening, technology and
Seth Fruson, president and CEO, Chris Gerela, COO, Shaun Wilson executive vice-president
Steve Hoffman vice-president of operations Pacific region
Security services for commercial towers, retail centres, educational and government facilities as well as mobile patrol, event security, security systems and security integration
Cash logistics, physical security, mobile
electronic security tags, undercover store detectives, uniformed guards, access control systems, burglar alarms, investigations, preemployment honesty screening, loss-prevention staff training, specialized training and seminars, risk
Sources: Interviews with above firms and BIV research. Other companies may have ranked but did not provide information by deadline. First published in Business in Vancouver on February 1, 2021. NP Not provided 1 -
Business in Vancouver makes every attempt to publish accurate information in the List, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Researched by Anna Liczmanska, lists@biv.com
