FREDERICTON–PLATO Testing is getting ready for a busy couple of months.
The country’s only Indigenous-led and staffed technology services company has secured a $2-million investment from Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, a venture capital firm based in Vancouver that invests in companies making positive social and environmental impacts.
According to PLATO founder Keith MacIntosh, the funding gives Raven an increased ownership share in PLATO and will support the training and employment of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students as software testers across the country.
MacIntosh told Huddle about more developments that will help PLATO achieve what has been its ultimate goal from the start–to become a majority Indigenous-owned company.
He called Raven the first investor to take a larger stake in the company but said there are conversations with other partners happening as well.
“We’re in discussion with five Indigenous community partners interested in investing in the company,” confirmed MacIntosh.
He cites several reasons for PLATO Testing to become 51 percent Indigenous-owned: it would put money back into the hands of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis groups and also open up doors for future procurement.
“We’re trying to set an example and show ways that Indigenous people can continue building capacity and have technology jobs,” said MacIntosh. “To do that we need clients, and it’s easier for federal government and big corporate clients to work with us as a fully recognized Indigenous company.”
Having majority Indigenous ownership would bring PLATO to a whole new level of possibility. The federal government recently committed to a mandate that at least five percent of federal procurement must be sourced from Indigenous-owned businesses.
Meeting growth challenges
Scaling is also MacIntosh’s priority throughout 2022, with the Fredericton-based company continuing to deliver full-service software testing services to clients throughout the pandemic.
“We have grown probably 75 to 80 percent through the pandemic,” said MacIntosh. “That growth is just going to accelerate and this money to scale lets us do it. I honestly see that growth just taking off at a much higher rate than it already has.”
PLATO’s train-and-employ model, building capacity through delivery of its Software Tester Training Program, is an eight-month course consisting of five months of in-class training followed by a three-month internship with one of the PLATO’s corporate clients.
“We grew at a pretty good rate in the last couple of years for a bunch of reasons,” said MacIntosh, who points to PLATO’s ability to channel its programming remotely as key over the past 24 months.
PLATO currently employs more than 50 full-time Indigenous software testers and MacIntosh says it plans to double its headcount in the next 12-to-18 months. He said many existing partners have already asked about how to deliver the same training models for massive IT needs for skilled workers in cloud services and cybersecurity.
“Can we do it in big data and machine learning kind of stuff?” said MacIntosh, who is also CEO and founder of Professional Quality Assurance Ltd. “There’s a combination of factors, but suddenly tech workers in general are in high demand right now,” he answered.
Finding talent, a common concern
MacIntosh attended this past week’s Digital Innovation Summit, in St. Andrews and suggested the event could not have come at a better time, considering PLATO’s growth goals.
On a path to become 51 percent Indigenous-owned, PLATO Testing founder Keith MacIntosh says the Fredericton-based company grew almost 80 percent during the pandemic and has plans to double its headcount before the end of 2023. Image: Contributed.
“What we’re training and doing with the First Nations people here in the province can expand into the general population in rural communities,” he said.
Finding new talent for software testing, or for future IT roles, is going to start with finding talent in places that have been under the tech radar.
“The same thing happens with rural kids who grew up on the farm or worked in the woods, you don’t have those jobs anymore, but they still want to live in those communities.”
PLATO Testing’s strength is its willingness to work with First Nations and other places where talent is tougher to come by.
“Any company can go to Toronto and find 100 people, but can you find a way to go to Juniper and get three people and make it worthwhile?” asked MacIntosh.
Right now, PLATO Testing is offering its software training courses around the country.
“We just finished running one in Victoria, and one in Vancouver, Kamloops – and we start in Calgary next week,” he said.
MacIntosh says PLATO is planning on running six classes this year in its testing space. He believes If the company can expand toward cybersecurity and cloud-based training, it may allow enough interest and organization to effectively run one class each month.
PLATO Testing is striving to build a network of 1,000 Indigenous software testers across Canada, though one area where MacIntosh wants to continue to deliver on, is the work opportunities that come with the training.
“We certainly can take in folks who have had all kinds of jobs, even people that have finished a university degree maybe not in technology, but in history or arts – and we can train them in a different training course to bring them in and get them into technology,” he said. “There’s just so many opportunities in digital technology right now.”
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas:[email protected].
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.
“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”
Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.
Tesla dominates sales of electric vehicles in the U.S, with 48.9% in market share through the middle of 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Subsidies for clean energy are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022. It included tax credits for manufacturing, along with tax credits for consumers of electric vehicles.
Musk was one of Trump’s biggest donors, spending at least $119 million mobilizing Trump’s supporters to back the Republican nominee. He also pledged to give away $1 million a day to voters signing a petition for his political action committee.
In some ways, it has been a rocky year for Tesla, with sales and profit declining through the first half of the year. Profit did rise 17.3% in the third quarter.
The U.S. opened an investigation into the company’s “Full Self-Driving” system after reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.
And investors sent company shares tumbling last month after Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi at a Hollywood studio Thursday night, seeing not much progress at Tesla on autonomous vehicles while other companies have been making notable progress.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.
The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
