Fredericton-Based Startup Receives Nearly $970,000 To Grow International Markets
FREDERICTON – Introhive, a software startup company based out of Fredericton with offices in four different countries, will receive about $970,000 in funding from the federal government to continue growing into foreign markets.
The money was granted through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the government’s agency responsible to create opportunities for economic growth in the region. The funding will be allocated for product development to meet specific geographical and global sales training for employees.
The agency contributed $918,745 through the Business Development Program for international market expansion and product development. The rest of the funding, a $50,000 non-repayable sum, was granted through the Regional Growth through Innovation (REGI) program’s Productivity ad Business Skills stream for global sales training.
Introhive will also undertake an international market expansion into the United States and Europe.
Matt DeCourcey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and Member of Parliament for Fredericton made the announcement at Introhive’s headquarters in Fredericton’s Argyle Place.
“Introhive’s software platform is innovative and unique, and has filled a need in the marketplace,” DeCourcey said.
The Business Development Program and the REGI are part of the federal government’s Innovation and Skills plan, a multi-year strategy to create well-paying jobs for the middle class.
“It’s all about supporting businesses grow, that’s the mandate of ACOA, helping businesses and organizations grow to help drive economic growth for the whole region,” DeCourcey said.
Since it launched in 2012, Introhive has experienced rapid growth. So far, it has expanded its team to 174 employees and has opened offices in Saint John, Halifax, Vancouver, the United States, the United Kingdom and India.
The company’s product, a platform that helps businesses automate routine tasks related to customer relationship manager (CRM) systems, is marketed to companies in nine countries. It combines data from a company’s calendars, emails, phone systems and other communications platforms to automatically feed records such as meetings with clients, their contact information and so on to the CRM system the companies use. This allows businesses to free up some time for their salespeople to do other work.
Last year, the company received $15.2-million (U.S.) in venture capital funding through a combination of equity financing from Lake Bridge and debt financing from an undisclosed investor in Toronto.
DeCourcey says ACOA’s programs help create more well-paying jobs, which means more people being able to work in Fredericton and the region and fill vacancies in high-tech innovative companies.
“Fredericton is the startup capital community of the country,” he said. “It is home to Canada’s most entrepreneurial university, UNB. There’s a lot of opportunities and the federal government looks to a place like Fredericton to invest in business growth, economic growth, which provides good jobs for people to stay and live and raise a family here.”