This edition of The CCI Newsletter was originally shared with CCI’s subscriber community on November 1, 2024. 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.

Dear Innovator,

Earlier this month, Geoffrey Hinton joined the rarified club of Canadians who have won a Nobel Prize. Only 27 Canadians have received this honour in more than a century since the prize was established.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world, and Hinton is universally recognized as one of the key individuals who created this transformational technology. We should all be proud of his accomplishment, and the fact that it happened under the roof of one of our most prestigious institutions, the University of Toronto.

We can foster ground-breaking achievements as a country.

But as Hinton gets his plaudits, it’s worth taking a moment to think about the legion of innovators who have come behind him, taking his brilliant invention and running with it. While Canada celebrates its inventors, it often fails to maintain the support needed for innovators to reach their full potential.

Let’s break this down. Inventors like Hinton are the dreamers and builders, the people who come up with groundbreaking ideas, test them, and bring them to life. They belong to that rare breed that pushes humanity forward—think Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie. They deserve their glory. But what happens after the award is also important: it opens doors and access to more funding to keep inventing, researching, and exploring.

Innovators are special for being able to commercialize those inventions, turning ideas into commercial successes, and creating jobs and wealth effects along the way.

Canada has a good track record of supporting and celebrating inventors, but our governments often fail to champion the innovators.

This lack of support has a ripple effect. Our best researchers and inventors often want to see their breakthroughs commercialized by Canadian firms, translating their discoveries into global success stories. But when Canadian companies face limits on their potential, it’s inevitable that inventors will look elsewhere—to organizations with the same limitless potential they see in themselves.

That’s why Hinton ultimately wound up working for Google. It’s why the technology he developed was commercialized primarily by foreign multinationals. It’s why OpenAI is an American company, in spite of being co-founded by Ilya Sutskever, another brilliant Canadian who graced the halls of U of T.

We know what it looks like when our leaders really champion an industry. We see it when politicians pile in to support electric vehicle manufacturers in Ontario. We see it when the Alberta government throws their support behind the oil sands. We see it when politicians of all stripes go to the mat for dairy farmers.

But in the technology sector, we see something else.

Why does this matter? When Canada puts its mind to it, we can be absolute world-beaters. Geoffrey Hinton proves this. As a country we are enormously proud of our academic institutions and our world-leading research. And as a result, we have produced global excellence.

But as a country, we have not decided that we want to be similarly successful in the global marketplace. It’s no wonder that Canada is in a productivity crisis. This crisis is solved at the firm level. We need companies that can scale, commercialize ideas, and sell them globally. That's what innovators do. They take the raw brilliance of inventors and turn it into wealth effects for the entire country.

Here’s the thing: an innovation economy needs two types of people—inventors and innovators. Sometimes they’re the same person, but more often than not, they’re different. If Canada is serious about being a player in the global innovation race, we need to champion both. Otherwise, we’ll continue to be a country where great ideas are born, but rarely turned into global success stories.

Keep Innovating,

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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INNOVATION UPDATES

Fall is often the busiest time of the year for politics and policy, and this year has been busier than most.

Just in the past month we've seen elections in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and a nail-biter in British Columbia. And just this week Nova Scotia has called an election too.

In Ontario, the government released their fall fiscal update, which didn't have a particularly strong emphasis on innovation policy. Among the most interesting policy announcements out of the Ontario government recently has been the province's Life Sciences Strategy. In addition to targeting $24 million to help life sciences companies scale-up, the program creates a Health Innovation Pathway for procurement, designed to get innovative products and services deployed in the Ontario health care system. This reflects exactly the kind of

In Ottawa, the Liberal government is struggling with dismal polling, international tensions, and persistent confidence motions from the Opposition. The government’s ability to get things done is rapidly diminishing. With everything in a holding pattern, it's hard to say when the government will deliver their fall economic statement, but we're hoping to see a substantial update on the Scientific Research & Experimental Development tax credit when the fall mini-budget is delivered.

This week we were also proud to host innovators from Atlantic Canada for CCI's first N.L. Productivity + Prosperity Summit. The event brought together CEOs and government leaders for a day of conversations about how we can drive prosperity through growing innovative technology firms in Atlantic Canada.
Thank you to to our sponsors for making this event possible — Crossbeam Education, TechNL, the St. John's Airport Authority and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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THE BIG READ

Throughout 2024, CCI has been talking a lot about government procurement as a key tool to drive innovation and economic growth. We've explored this idea in our two landmark reports, Buying Ideas and Building Winners.

This month, CCI Director of Policy and Research Laurent Carbonneau laid out the broader perspective. Innovation policy is essential for economic growth, and a robust and secure economy is essential for national security. Countries that take a strategic view of these factors are the countries that thrive in the global economy.

Read Laurent's full Mooseworks post here.

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THE BIG DEAL

In the tech sector, the media often focuses on venture capital raises and we all know why. Big valuations, and big Series A funding numbers are a clear vote of confidence for a growing company.

But something we heard from CCI members at our CEO Summit this fall is that we should all pay more attention to revenue. In the life of a business, a big customer deal is far more important than a big investment round.

Plurilock, headquartered in Vancouver, is an important Canadian cybersecurity company, and a CCI member. Earlier this month, CEO Ian L. Patterson announced a nearly $20 million deal with a S&P 500 enterprise.

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SCALE-UPS TO WATCH

In October we were happy to add a number of new members to the Council of Canadian Innovators:  

• Artificial Agency, led by Co-Founder & CEO Brian Tanner, is an Edmonton, Alberta based company that is redefining the gaming landscape with its AI-powered behavior engine.
  
  
• Staffy Health Inc., led by Founder & CEO Peter Faist, transforms healthcare staffing with an on-demand platform that links healthcare organizations to qualified professionals, enabling centers to fill shifts swiftly and seamlessly.

• Smile.io, led by Co-Founder & CEO Mike Rossi, is a Waterloo, Ontario based company that is redefining customer loyalty with its platform, allowing businesses to create engaging loyalty programs.

Here are a few other scale-ups doing exciting things in Canada:

Borrowell CEO Andrew Graham helped make credit scores free for Canadians. Now he wants to make borrowing easier too

Sanctuary.AI CEO Geordie Rose describes how the company is approaching artificial intelligence, and the role that humanoid robots will play in advancing the state of the art.

Xanadu CEO Christian Weedbrook is at the leading edge of quantum computing, and sees an important opportunity for Canada.

Lightspeed Commerce CEO Dax Dasilva talks about the company's deepening partnership with 7Shifts, as they work to become the operating system for commerce.

Redbrick CEO Tobyn Sowden and Plusgrade CEO Ken Harris recognized among 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards

Loop Financial CEO Cato Pastol explains why small business may be missing out on the benefits of international banking access.

Protexxa among the project selected for government funding among by the National Cybersecurity Consortium

And finally, we'd like to recognize all the CCI members who were recognized in this year's Globe and Mail top growing companies list. This list is truly a record of the incredible entrepreneurs and innovators that Canada has to offer.

Santé numérique Smile

Certn
Klue
Connect&GO
Miovision
Knak
Nubinary
Jane App
FutureFit AI
Staffy Health
Lightspeed Commerce
Jobber
Viral Nation
Petal

Novarc Technologies
Identos

Electrovaya
ThinkOn
Borrowell
encricle
Stemcell
Alaycare
Coveo
PointClickCare
Giatec Scientific
Acuity Insights
Smile.io
Geotab

Congratulations innovators! Keep growing!

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DISPATCHES

One of the most important aspects of a thriving tech ecosystem is building the connections to ensure that innovators are part of a robust network. When CEOs come together to share knowledge and talk about strategies for growth, good things happen.

The CEO Summit is an important annual event to bring together Canada's leading innovators; it's a venue for networking, dealmaking, and meaningful public policy discussions. If you missed this year's gathering in Montréal, check out Seen & Heard at the CEO Summit.

Thank you to the sponsors who make this event possible, Roynat Capital Scotiabank, CPA Ontario, Brion Raffoul LLP, National Bank of Canada, RBCx, TD Innovation Partners, CDPQ, Deloitte Ventures, and Digital Nova Scotia.