The federal government is renewing support for its Scale-Up Platform program with a commitment of $47.5 million announced earlier this month.
All three innovation hubs responsible for the Scale-Up Platform saw leadership changes this year.
The funding will be dispersed across the three regional innovation hubs responsible for the program; Communitech, MaRS Discovery District, and Invest Ottawa. Through the Scale-Up Platform, innovation hubs help entrepreneurs in high-growth sectors access capital, talent, markets, and mentorship services.
According to the federal government, the goal of the platform is to accelerate businesses’ growth and create new Canadian “anchor firms,” defined as those that generate $100 million in annual revenue or more, and attract billions in investment.
“This renewed investment enables us to extend critical resources to even more entrepreneurs, empowering them to drive impact and build the next generation of Canadian anchor companies,” MaRS Discovery District CEO Alison Nankivell said in a statement.
The funding renewal is a few million dollars shy of the federal government’s initial commitment of $52.4 million when it launched the program in 2019. The program also doesn’t have a publicly stated goal this time around; in 2019 the federal government said Scale-Up Platform would support 30 companies in southern Ontario achieve $100 million or more in revenue by 2024.
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As of June 30, 2024, Invest Ottawa claims it had 82 scaling firms in its ScaleUp program that had raised a combined $1.39 billion in capital. One of those scaling companies is compliance software company Assent, which celebrated hitting $100 million USD in annual recurring revenue earlier this year. MaRS claims its Scale-Up Platform supported ventures have generated over $9.8 billion in revenue and attracted $16 billion in capital.
All three innovation hubs responsible for the Scale-Up platform saw leadership changes this year.
After announcing the leadership change last December, former BDC Capital senior vice president Nankivell took the reins of MaRS this past March. Since then, Nankivell has presided over multiple rounds of layoffs as the innovation hub looks to “rethink its business model.”
Invest Ottawa officially named Sonya Shorey as its president and CEO in June, who had held the role in an interim capacity following the departure of Michael Tremblay in November 2023.
Most recently, Communitech announced CEO Chris Albinson was departing his role after three and a half years of service. In the meantime, Communitech CFO Jennifer Gruber is serving as interim CEO while the organization’s board begins the search for a new permanent leader.
Feature image courtesy FedDev Ontario via LinkedIn.