Industry organization the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) announced its picks for this year’s 20 most innovative publicly traded Canadian tech companies on Tuesday.
CEOs and Founders from each of the 20 will be presenting at this year’s annual CIX Public Investor Day, which will be held at Toronto’s MaRS incubator on Wednesday November 23, and jointly presented both by the Information Exchange and small cap financial information site Stockhouse.com.
The companies were chosen by a selection committee made up of technology experts and investors from across the country.
“It is great to see Canadian public companies driving innovation across all technology sub sectors,” Justin Meiklem, Stockhouse’s vice-president of marketing, said in a statement. “Canadian tech companies are innovating in fintech, software, Internet, industrials, and cleantech, and all of those are represented in this year’s CIX Top 20.”
To narrow the list down to 20, the CIX selection committee reviewed hundreds of company profiles, choosing the winners based key factors including overall innovation, product/service offering, depth of management, market opportunity, and business model.
Now in its ninth year, the Canadian Innovation Exchange’s annual showcase was created to honour Canada’s most innovative publicly traded startups and small- and mid-size tech companies.
In its selection committee’s collective opinion, these are this year’s 20 most innovative publicly traded Canadian tech companies, in alphabetical order:
- AcuityAds Inc.: Toronto-based developers behind a machine learning-based programmatic marketing platform that analyzes social data to identify receptive audiences.
- Apivio Systems Inc.: Richmond, B.C.-based developer of carrier-grade Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications equipment and software, which it then markets and distributes on both an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) basis. Since 2002 the company has sold 5 million phones. Its company’s largest market is presently South Korea, but its North American presence is growing.
- BitRush Corp.: Toronto-based fintech focused on funding, developing, and delivering cryptographic technologies and blockchain-based solutions across North America and Europe.
- C-Com Satellite Systems Inc.: Established in 1997, Ottawa-based C-Com Satellite Systems bills itself as “a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of commercial grade, fully motorized, auto-pointing mobile antennas for the delivery of broadband Internet to remote locations.” Thus far more than 7000 units of its signature iNetVu product line have been deployed in over 100 countries.
- CHAR Technologies Ltd.: Toronto-based developers behind SulfaCHAR, a targeted gas cleaning solution targeting the $3 billion (and growing) toxic and corrosive hydrogen sulfide problem in the natural gas industry.
- CO2 Solutions Inc.: Founded in 2012, Quebec City-based CO2 Solutions’ intellectual property currently includes 47 issued and 39 pending patents related to calcium-based carbon capture.
- Deveron UAS Ltd.: Toronto-based providers of a full-service drone data solution for farmers.
- DIRTT Environmental Solutions: Calgary-based manufacturers of 3D design, configuration, and manufacturing software prefabricated interiors.
- dynaCERT Inc.: Toronto-based developer behind electrolysis-based technology that generates hydrogen and oxygen on demand to reduce the amount of carbon emissions generated by the portable generators used in the rail, marine, oil and gas, and mining industries.
- Firan Technology Group Corporation: Toronto-based manufacturer of printed circuit boards and precision illuminated display systems for the telecom, medical, avionics, military, and advanced test markets.
- HIT Technologies: The Vancouver-based manufacturer of Hitcase, an extreme Otter Box that essentially turns your iPhone into a GoPro.
- H-Source: Online marketplace for healthcare professionals.
- MediaValet Inc.: Cloud-based digital asset management (DAM) solution provider based in Vancouver.
- Memex Inc.: Burlington, Ont.-based productivity solutions provider whose goal essentially appears to be adding as many factory tools as possible to the Internet of Things (IoT).
- Nanotech Security: Vancouver-based advanced security solutions developer and provider behind KolourOptik, a nanotechnology platform aimed at the authentication, brand protection, and anti-counterfeiting markets.
- Perk Inc.: Waterloo, Ont.-based developer whose signature insights and intelligence solution, Perk IQ, allows brands to measure performance and gather advertising attribution, brand impact, and purchase behaviour data.
- Points Inc.: This Toronto-based corporation has partnerships with more than 50 of the world’s largest and most popular loyalty programs who take advantage of its “Points Loyalty Commerce Network” to increase their currency distribution, drive member engagement, provide relevant “earn and burn” opportunities, and integrate with app developers and digital wallet operators.
- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.: Toronto-based biotech company that discovers and develops precision therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- ProntoForms Corporation: Ottawa-based firm specializing in digital field services solutions that allow company workers to fill out estimates, proposals, work orders, invoices, timesheets, inspection forms, or incident reports, or create their own.
- Symbility Solutions Inc.: Cloud-based, mobile-enabled software provider for the property and health industries. The Toronto-based firm also includes an “intersectional” division that delivers “mobile and IoT product strategy, design thinking, and engineering excellence for businesses that want to get ahead.”
For more information, check out the Canadian Innovation Exchange website.