Eigen innovations: Driving efficiency

Scott Everett became interested in cars as a boy working on the family farm. His parents sold the farm, but his love of cars eventually led him to mechanical engineering and now to work in the automotive industry.

His Fredericton-based company, Eigen Innovations, uses artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to help automotive parts manufacturers be more efficient. “We want to accelerate the number of parts produced per hour,” says Everett. To do this, Eigen is analyzing data that many factories already collect, in addition to data from its own sensors, such as video images, to help increase production.

No matter how efficient production becomes, things like introducing a new material can be expensive. Everett’s technician assesses the impact – “It can automatically detect when something changes,” he says – and tells plant personnel “how to run their machines better.”

Hopper: Pay less, travel more

When is the right time to book? Airline and accommodation prices fluctuate, and early adopters don’t always get the best deal, so “buying tickets and hotel rooms is a huge thrill,” says Frederic Lalonde, founder and CEO of Hopper, a solution provider.

Having already founded an online hotel booking company (sold to Expedia in 2002), Lalonde realized that budget-conscious travelers would appreciate knowing when to pull the trigger. It took six years and $12 million, but since 2014, Hopper has been using artificial intelligence to analyze online price data and predict the best time to book.

Lalonde admits that his business model is different: “We only make money when people buy from us, but three-quarters of our resources are dedicated to telling people not to book.” Despite this, he says, more than 100 million trips have been organized through Montreal-based Hopper, making it the most used travel app in North America.

FI.SPAN: the best business banking

Lisa Shields launched FI.SPAN in Vancouver with one goal in mind: “We don’t want business banking to be bad,” she says. That can be a daunting task, but she’s making progress.

Shields, a longtime fintech entrepreneur, founded the company in 2016 to address the many frustrations small business owners have with vendor-related transactions. Typically, when a company needs to pay a supplier, it sends a file with payment instructions to its bank. The bank has to act on those instructions, report whether the money was successfully transferred, and then someone has to enter the information into the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. “It’s really old school,” says Shields.

To make life easier for both the bank and the business, she creates application program interfaces (APIs) that allow financial institutions to connect directly to a company’s ERP system, quickly sending and receiving the data they need to complete transactions. Businesses know almost instantly if a payment has been processed.

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Toronto, the second largest tech cluster in North America, has become a prime location for business expansion. Here are 7 reasons why company registration in Canada is recommended for successful business founders.

1. International connections
   A company domicile in Toronto places your business in the heart of North America’s economic and financial centers, in close proximity to New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Working in Toronto gives you the ability to communicate and travel to many major cities and regions quickly and easily.

Not only is Toronto physically close to major cities, but international trade agreements (ex: North American Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union) open doors to over a billion consumers in North America, South America and the European Union.

Toronto and Canada are globally recognized destinations for business people.

2. technological innovation
   Canada has a long history of technological innovation. The MaRS Discovery District was recently named the world’s leading gas pedal and has provided skills training and a network of 1’000 high-growth potential startups that collectively generated over $1.3 billion in revenue between 2008 and 2015. It is one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs and home to entrepreneurs creating the next generation of growing Canadian companies.

Toronto is also home to one of the leading technology industries on the continent with a thriving startup community and over 14’000 established businesses, including tech giants such as Microsoft, IBM Cisco, Google and Facebook.

3. Ease of doing business in Canada
The World Bank Group ranks Canada as the second best country in the G20 for starting a business and sixth best in the world. Canada also ranks high on ease of getting credit and protecting the rights of minority investors. KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives report indicates that Canada has the second highest cost of doing business among the countries studied, behind only Mexico. The cost of starting a business is reported to be 75% of the cost to do so in the United States.

4. State support for entrepreneurship
   Tax incentives. Foreigners who set up a company in Canada are still eligible to apply for tax credits that can be spent on employees engaged in R&D, material purchases and contract overhead. Specific examples include the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit program and a separate industrial tax credit program.

Government subsidies: The Canadian government is working hard to create and support successful startups. Forbes reported that the Canadian government provides a return of up to 65% of companies’ investments in the innovation sector, giving it a distinct advantage over other regions.

5. Abundance of talent
   Canadian education is free and well-funded by the government. Canada consistently ranks as a leader in a wide range of education-related indicators, including:

• the percentage of the labor force with a post-secondary education,
• skills recognized by the World Economic Forum’s Human Capital Index,
• the educational attainment of Canadian schoolchildren.

Toronto is a favorite place for talent immigration from around the world, making it the best city to do business. Every year, thousands of talented people from around the world choose this city as their new home. Toronto’s deep, diverse and globally connected talent pool of skilled and highly educated individuals is the driving force behind its economic prosperity and constant drive for innovation.

6. Toronto-Waterloo Corridor
   The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is the equivalent of Silicon Valley, with approximately 15’000 companies and 200’000 employees. It is among the top 20 technology clusters in the world and is the second largest in North America. This is primarily because it connects Canada’s largest city, Toronto, to its leading center of innovation and research, Waterloo.
7. Canada’s growing startup ecosystem
   Canada’s tech ecosystem continues to grow and shows no signs of stopping despite COVID-19.

Ontario’s three leading innovation centers are working together to drive a new wave in Canada’s tech ecosystem, with the goal of bringing to the surface a new generation of companies with over $100 million in capital each.

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Whether you’re looking for funding or expert advice, Innovation Canada offers programs and services to help your business innovate, create jobs and grow the economy.

• The Business Benefits Finder is a tool you can use to get a customized list of everything the government can do for your business.
• Innovation consultants provide free one-on-one assistance to help you choose the most appropriate innovation programs and services. If you are registered and creating a new innovative product, process or service, an advisor can help you find funding, expertise, equipment and global opportunities.
• The Strategic Innovation Fund invests in innovative businesses, helping you to expand, research, develop and commercialize cutting-edge ideas and collaborate in new ways.
• Innovative Solutions Canada allows the Government of Canada to partner with eligible small businesses and innovators to help with the early development, testing and validation of prototypes that solve problems.
• The Clean Growth Hub provides companies pursuing clean tech projects with a personalized guide to answer questions, discuss options, or introduce themselves.
• The Accelerated Growth Service provides high-growth companies with a single point of contact for all government programs and services.

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