The CCI Newsletter: January 2025

This edition of The CCI Newsletter was originally shared with CCI’s subscriber community on January 2, 2025. To receive our monthly briefing on the scale-ups shaping Canada’s future, the policies that matter, and insights you won’t find anywhere else—subscribe here.

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Dear innovator, happy new year!

I'm not going to make any specific predictions about 2025.

We've got a looming federal election in Canada, and an incoming administration in Washington that will almost certainly create some economic upheaval.

But here’s what I can say with confidence: CCI will continue to stand as the champion of Canadian tech, and in September, we’ll celebrate a major milestone—our 10-year anniversary.

I'm thinking about how much we've grown as an organization over that decade, but we've also never wavered from the basic idea that brought our original members together to form CCI back in 2015:

• Innovative scale-up companies headquartered in Canada are the greatest engine for wealth creation in the 21st century.
• Active government policy plays a critical role in creating the conditions for success in every thriving innovation economy.
• Homegrown innovative prosperity is the only real path for Canada to remain strong, sovereign, and able to deliver the quality of life that we all value.

Many of the issues that were central to our founding remain just as relevant today. The recent improvements to SR&ED that the government enacted in December—raising thresholds for claims and expanding eligibility—are the result of more than seven years of relentless advocacy. These changes are real wins for innovators, driving meaningful investment in research commercialization.

We’ve also been encouraged by movement on federal procurement policy. Ottawa’s decision to adopt buying targets for small and medium-sized businesses—and specifically for innovative firms—is a step in the right direction. This is an area where we dug in deeply throughout 2024, and we’ll continue pushing hard in the year ahead for procurement policies that truly work for innovators.

From day one, CCI has been about building a network of Canadian scale-up innovators, organizing for victory, and speaking with one voice to drive meaningful change. Advocacy is often a long game. Whether it’s SR&ED, access to skilled talent, or government procurement, we are your voice for smarter, better policies that serve Canada’s innovation economy.

At CCI, we celebrate the excellence of Canada’s innovators every day. If you’re working to drive growth through innovation and research commercialization, you are making Canada a better and more prosperous place. As a country, we’re not always great at celebrating our entrepreneurs, but at CCI, we know how vital you are to our future.

As we step into the new year, you can count on us to be your strongest advocate, your loudest champion in the halls of power, and the voice for smart innovation policies that support your growth.

Come what may this year, you can count on CCI to have your back. Thank you for your support.

Keep growing,

Benjamin

Benjamin Bergen is the President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a national member-based organization reshaping how governments across Canada think about innovation policy, and supporting homegrown scale-ups to drive prosperity. If you are interested in learning more about the Council or joining our cause, get in touch.

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SCALE-UPS TO WATCH

This December, we were thrilled to welcome several new members to the Council of Canadian Innovators:

• Zafin, a Vancouver-based fintech company led by CEO Charbel Safadi. Zafin is  driving transformation in the financial services sector, providing banks worldwide with advanced technology for core banking modernization and product and pricing management.
  
  
• 4AG Robotics, a hardware company headquartered in Salmon Arm, B.C., led by CEO Sean O'Connor. Designed to integrate seamlessly with existing farm infrastructure, 4AG builds fully autonomous, AI-driven, mushroom-harvesting robots.

In November, Duncan Weatherston, CEO of Smile Digital Health, sat down with CCI President Benjamin Bergen, to talk about the challenges and opportunities of working with data and software solutions in health care. Check out our 5 Questions profile of Duncan here.

In December, The Globe and Mail published an extensive look at Canada’s $100-Million Club — a showcase of large technology companies that have achieved more than $100 million in annual revenue. The article highlights some of Canada’s leading innovators and, notably, features several CCI members, including AlayaCare, ApplyBoard, Clio, eSentire, Financeit, FreshBooks, Geotab, Giro, Global Relay, Hopper, Jane, Jobber, Koho, Magnet Forensics, Miovision, Plusgrade, PointClickCare, Questrade, Redbrick, and Ross Video.

Here are a few other highlights from CCI members recently:

• Well Health plans clinic-management spinoff after $50.4M equity raise
• Plurilock CEO Ian L. Paterson has a new podcast called "Code and Country"
• Loop launched Canada’s First Multi-Currency Credit Card for SMEs
• The slow-burn startup: How TextNow scaled to success
• Petal acquired Dobsi Medical billing
• Bits In Glass awarded the Appian Europe 2024 Industry Award for Insurance Partner Impact Excellence
• Boast.ai announced a partnership with Rippling to automate R&D tax credit filing
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DISPATCHES

In December, CCI convened over a dozen CEOs and innovation leaders at Queen’s Park for a series of high-impact meetings with Ontario politicians and senior civil servants. Global innovation experts agree that strong collaboration between private sector firms and public sector leaders is a defining feature of every successful technology hub.

With Canada’s innovation economy at a critical juncture, CCI’s Director of Ontario Affairs, Skaidra Puodziunas, reflects on the key priorities from December’s lobby day and outlines what lies ahead in 2025 for Ontario’s government and the homegrown innovators driving growth in the province. Read her dispatch from our Ontario bureau here.

Happy reading!