In early 2023, a Québec City-based company chose to do what most others avoid: it shrank.
“Engineers love writing code. They didn’t become CPAs for a reason.”
For years, internet service provider (ISP) Oxio served roughly 40,000 subscribers and generated tens of millions in annual revenue. While running that business, the team built its own internal operating system to manage the ISP’s operations, which included customer management, revenue, billing, and more.
Over time, leadership came to believe that its in-house software showed long-term promise. So, they sold the ISP business to Cogeco Connexion, and relaunched as Gaiia, a standalone software company.
“We went to less than $1 million in revenue and a single customer,” said Erin Bury, who joined Gaiia as Head of Finance shortly after the $100-million Oxio sale.
Gaiia offers an all-in-one software platform that replaces the legacy infrastructure most ISPs rely on to run their businesses. With Gaiia, challenger ISPs can manage everything from reporting and analytics to network monitoring and inventory.
A sizable seed round after the sale of Oxio meant that the newly formed Gaiia had fewer cash-flow concerns than a typical seed-stage company. But now, the team was significantly smaller.
Bury was tasked with preserving Gaiia’s runway with a very lean finance function, to put it mildly. “We’re a finance team of one,” Bury said. On top of that, the company needed to invest in its growing engineering team without having to constantly raise new venture capital and dilute its equity.
Gaiia was already familiar with the federal government’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive program, designed to encourage Canadian businesses to conduct their R&D in Canada. Back in the Oxio days, the company claimed those credits by working with Boast, a SaaS platform that uses AI to streamline R&D tax credit filing.
As a software startup, Gaiia also became eligible for another program: Québec’s Développement des affaires électroniques tax credit, also known at the time as CDAE. Prior to that program’s pivot to focus on businesses adopting AI, CDAE offered credits for activities related to the design and development of computer systems and software.
“Anything that extends our runway helps us grow,” Bury said. “We’re growing so quickly that adding a month or a quarter of runway potentially has a huge impact on our valuation.”
Accessing both programs, however, requires more than checking a few boxes. SR&ED requires detailed technical documentation to demonstrate experimental development, while CDAE involves certification with provincial authorities and a formal review process.
For Bury, who was already managing a full finance function alone, the prospect of layering on more administrative complexity carried risk, and pulling engineers into prolonged documentation exercises also would have undermined the productivity the company was trying to protect.
“Engineers love writing code,” Bury said. “They didn’t become CPAs for a reason.”
“Without Boast, I would have struggled significantly more—both from a technical understanding of the program and from a language perspective.”
So, Gaiia turned to Boast. Instead of imposing strict time-tracking requirements or letting the burden cascade to product teams, Boast structured the claims process around simplified data collection and direct one-on-one work with technical leadership.
“I like how the team is pragmatic,” Bury said. “There’s just a more of an understanding of how startups are actually working that is very helpful.”
The company’s customer base has expanded significantly since the sale of Oxio, though most of that base is now in the United States. Boast also helped the company reconcile its SR&ED claims to account for US dollars.
Bury remains close to the claims process, but estimates she only spends roughly eight hours on SR&ED per cycle, which has given her more bandwidth to manage Gaiia’s broader finance initiatives. “The amount of money we received felt proportional to the time invested,” she added.
While Gaiia is a francophone company, Bury does not speak French, which would have made CDAE’s certification process an added hurdle. Boast’s bilingual team members helped guide her through that stage and establish a foundation for future claims.
“Without Boast, I would have struggled significantly more—both from a technical understanding of the program and from a language perspective,” Bury said.
“For the CDAE specifically, the Boast team was clear at the start about what to expect,” she added. “They framed it as ‘this is topping up on top of SR&ED—it’s not going to be the same amount, but if we’re already doing the work, there’s no point leaving this money on the table.’ And it was really, for me, the easiest money we don’t want to leave on the table.”
Bury is now preparing the company for a Series B raise targeted for this year. The cost of building and the revenue it generates are moving closer together, and Bury believes the R&D incentives enabled by Boast have allowed the company to convert its experimental work into capital that preserves optionality.
“Finance is often a cost centre,” Bury said. “So any grants I can secure that mean I cost the company nothing—even though it’s really R&D salaries being recovered—that feels good.”
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Feature image courtesy Gaiia.