NBIF Invests in Gemba
SAINT JOHN, N.B. — The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) is investing in a Saint John-area company whose software-as-a-service product is already being used by a variety of major industry players.
Gemba Software Solutions will receive a $750,000 venture capital investment from NBIF, bringing their funding level up to $1.5 million. Gemba’s parent-company Innovatia is also investing $750,000.
The software-as-a-service product, Procedure Flow, reduces the amount of time companies have to spend on training their employees by providing them with visual process maps that guide them through complex processes with small hyperlinked flowcharts.
“Gemba’s customers have been able to decrease cross training time by over 75 percent and reduce the time it takes for new employees to become competent by 50 percent,” said Gemba’s CEO Daniella Degrace.
Procedure Flow is already being used by companies including Wyndham Worldwide, Bulletproof, Mariner Partners, Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, and HealthConnect.
“Companies with large workforces and multiple products have big challenges when it comes to providing up-to-date information and the decision points their service agents need to collaborate and fix problems,” said NBIF CEO Calvin Milbury.
Milbury says that investing in Gemba Software can have a positive effect on businesses in other industries as well.
“If an existing New Brunswick company develops an innovation that can benefit other industries, putting the intellectual property into a new company and growing that company is something we want to encourage and support.”