You may not see a storefront or a flyer for these businesses. Unless you need their services, you may never hear of them at all, but they’re leading Nova Scotia towards the top of Canada’s information and communication tech industries. These are three women-led, Halifax-based tech companies you should know about as they’re part of a cluster of startups attacking common business problems with innovative solutions.
Laurie Sinclair is the co-founder and CEO of Halifax-based Finazz, a startup that has developed an online financial analysis software that provides financial insights and helps guide decision making for small businesses. Contributed photo – Saltwire
The problem: How can I make the right financial decision for my small business?
The solver: Laurie Sinclair, CEO of Finazz
“It comes out of a passion to help grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
– Laurie Sinclair
“I work all the time with entrepreneurs in many different capacities and I have learned that this is a big pain point for many,” Sinclair says of the financial decisions business owners face. “We built this very much in response to a need that I literally see every day with all the entrepreneurs that I work with. It comes out about a passion to help grow our entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
Finazz aims to take the mystery out of financial statements for small business owners, says co-founder and CEO Laurie Sinclair. (Co-founder Karen Lightstone is an accounting professor at Saint Mary’s University and they have a third partner who is an IT security specialist.)
The company’s cloud-based financial analysis software for small businesses takes financial statements uploaded to the online tool and a sophisticated algorithm analyzes the data and provides insights. The software examines the current month and also provides a month-to-month analysis to help guide decision making. The online tool is compatible with most accounting software, as well as Excel spreadsheets.
“Our market is entrepreneurs everywhere,” Sinclair says. In addition to targeting small business owners, she says the software is also ideal for bookkeepers and business consultants who work with entrepreneurs.
Christine Ward-Paige, founder and CEO of Halifax-based eOceans – Riley Smith photo
The problem: How can I find out what I need to know to guide my ocean research?
The solver: Christine Ward-Page, CEO of eOceans
“I would show up at docks anywhere in the world and people would say, ‘Oh, you’re sampling in the wrong location.’ But they’d tell me the locals had all the information.”
– Christine Ward-Page
“It’s a platform to speed up ocean science,” says eOceans company founder and CEO Christine Ward-Paige. “It’s for everyone who goes to sea.” Described as a marine-based hybrid between social networks Facebook and Strava, eOceans is developing an online platform for gathering ocean data, allowing users to log observations and track activities.
The mobile app is aimed at ocean explorers around the world, from a tourist on a whale watching trip to a scientist studying marine biology. It has a free version and a pro enterprise version, and the data collected can be either open- or closed-source as well as used by teams to collaborate.
After the data is logged, it can be analyzed, searched and filtered based on species, areas and issue. The real-time nature of the data provides insights that can help mitigate or adapt to ocean changes or recognize successful conservation efforts.
The eOceans platform has been chosen to be part of the U.S. Maritime Blue Innovation accelerator. Ward-Paige says she’ll be travelling to Seattle in April to live-demo the mobile app. During June, she says the startup aims to have 30 people in 30 countries using the app at once, to create the first global map of real-time ocean observations. Her goal is for eOceans to reach a billion observations in one day and one million analytics in a month.
Liz O’Connell, president of Arolytics – Contributed
The problem: How can I measure my energy company’s emissions?
The solver: Liz O’Connell, president of Arolytics
“These new regulations sparked tons of innovation.”
Liz O’Connell
The three founders of Arolytics were working out of St. Francis Xavier’s Flux Lab, a gas measurement research group, when new emissions regulations were announced for the energy sector. Oil and gas companies would have to reduce methane emissions by 45 per cent by 2025.
“Methane is really important because it’s a much more potent greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide,” says president and co-founder Liz O’Connell.
O’Connell says Arolytics’ online platform improves both the cost and efficiency of tracking emissions. The company has developed a cloud-based software that organizes and analyzes atmospheric emissions data from the energy sector. The startup aims to help oil and gas companies measure, track and understand their greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the AROviz software, the company provides consulting and advice for designing emissions monitoring programs.
They now have offices in Calgary and Halifax and O’Connell says the software is ready for trials. Arolytics will be piloting the first version of the software with some energy companies. The startup is also consulting for some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies, helping them plan for the new regulations.
O’Connell says there are opportunities to expand to the rest of North America and to other sectors, like the pulp and paper industry and fossil fuel power generation.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
