Backgrounder: Emerging Cape Breton tech firms help shape digital economy with artificial intelligence

Two Cape Breton-based tech firms develop and commercialize new technologies with the help of the Government of Canada

March 4, 2020 – Membertou, Nova Scotia – Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

Today, Jaime Battiste, Member of Parliament for Sydney – Victoria, announced contributions totaling $1,447,169 to support two technology companies as they perform research and development, and work to commercialize their software solutions, benefiting the local economy. MP Battiste made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages and the Honourable Navdeep Bains Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

The Government of Canada is providing contributions through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Regional Economic Development through Innovation (REGI) program and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to the following two companies:

Orenda Software Solutions Inc. – Membertou, NS
ACOA - $440,000 (conditionally repayable)

NRC IRAP – Up to $418,800

Orenda Software Solutions Inc. has developed a social media mining software service that interprets impressions about an organization and calculates the potential impact on its brand and reputation. The company uses machine-learning technology that assigns human sentiment to each word in the dictionary before storing, interpreting and illustrating it on a user-friendly dashboard design.

The contributions will go towards research and development activities, including artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language understanding (NLU) technology. This project will enable Orenda to create jobs for seven more people in addition to the five new people it has already hired.

Swarmio Inc. – Sydney, NS
NRC IRAP – Up to $338,369

ACOA - $250,000 (repayable)

Swarmio Inc.  is a global eSports technology and media company. The company offers a platform-as-a-service as a hosting solution for video game developers and eSports organizers. The company uses proprietary AI technology to move the game server geographically closer to the user to drastically reduce or eliminate lag in online gaming.

NRC IRAP funding will support a research and development project allowing the company to deploy and manage the operation of its technology. The ACOA contribution will help the company commercialize and launch its technology in Southern Asia and Brazil. As a result, the company anticipates reaching 10 million users worldwide in the next two years and creating six full-time positions.