This week we welcome onto the show Sophia Wennstedt, Co-Founder & CEO of Blip Energy. At Blip,  Sophia and her team are on a mission to redefine home batteries to increase energy resilience for both individuals and communities. 

By designing a product to work without typical installation constraints, Blip Energy is able to add millions of otherwise-inaccessible homes to the smart grid network. Sophia’s team is set on finding new ways to manage energy demand, while ensuring that energy stability is an option for all of us, not just folks who can afford a luxury system. 

It’s a lofty mission, but Sophia and her team have the  background to make it happen, drawing on experience working as a Mechanical Engineer and later as Program Manager at iRobot, before pivoting into the energy space with work at Exelon and Tesla. 

All of this is rooted in Sophia’s passion for climate justice and energy equity, which she’s demonstrated through active involvement driving STEM education outreach. It’s a field that’s rife with innovation and opportunity, and I can’t wait to pick Sophia’s brain on what’s in store for her team and the industry in the new year.

Officials from the United States and United Kingdom announced a landmark agreement this week to formally cooperate on testing and assessing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). 

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the latest news around politicians coming together—which landed on 4/1—was an April Fool’s joke. 

But given the rapid growth of AI in virtually every business sector and industry, alongside the rise of AI businesses within both the US and UK, it’s actually more surprising that such an agreement hadn’t been formalized earlier. 

Signed by US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo and UK science minister Michelle Donelan, this agreement lays the groundwork for how the two governments will pool expertise and technical talent to put guardrails on this rapidly-evolving tech arena.

“The U.K. and the United States have always been clear that ensuring the safe development of AI is a shared global issue,” said Secretary Raimondo in a press release. “Reflecting the importance of ongoing international collaboration, today’s announcement will also see both countries sharing vital information about the capabilities and risks associated with AI models and systems, as well as fundamental technical research on AI safety and security.” 

The announcement follows the establishment of AI Safety Institutes (AISIs) established back in November for both the US and UK, which will see “secondments of researchers” from both countries as well as an exchange of data from private sector participants. Private AI models built by the likes of OpenAI and Google, for instance, as well as published reports from Anthropic and others that detail how safety tests inform product development, will all be open to vetting by the new AISIs under the agreement. 

While this partnership is a new frontier for AI, it’s modeled on existing collaborations between the NSA in the US and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which have worked closely together for decades on national and global security issues.

So the big question remains: What will this mean for private businesses, or even non-US- or UK-based companies dealing with AI?

About: U.S and UK partner on AI safety: What does this mean for businesses—and the world?
A robot hand with the letter AI and a lady justice statue on the wooden table with law books. 3d illustration.

Developing a “common approach” for testing AI safety

The safety tests developed by the US and UK as part of their AISI collaboration will inevitably have a global impact, as many leading AI businesses were born or are based in the United States before gaining global attention. 

That’s not to say that these are the only major economies hoping to put safeguards in place around nascent AI. 

While the European Union’s AI Act and U.S. President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI both came out last year, pressuring businesses to disclose the results of safety tests, Canada has also drafted guidelines around the responsible use of AI in government that have laid the groundwork for research into private sector AI locally. 

Canada also has both the US and UK beat in finalizing data protections around AI dating back to September 2023—to say nothing of the fact that Canada has the third largest number of AI researchers and investments into new AI companies in the world.

In fact, recent research from EDUCanada shows that more than 35,000 innovative jobs in the field of AI and machine learning will be coming online over the next 5 years, as major cities across Canada—namely Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa—all rank highly in CBRE’s top talent markets in North America. 

All of that is to say that businesses on both sides of the border are going to be impacted by the work being done by the US and UK AISIs—and they should seize the opportunity to turn these “safeguards” into truly unique innovation. 

Using R&D to drive safer AI (and a stronger capital strategy)

While the lack of regulation around AI today can be scary, it presents an opportunity for new businesses to “stake their claim” on the new markets around AI safety that are poised to emerge as more governments partner to understand safe AI deployments. 

In that same vein, governments will continue to prioritize innovation funding programs like R&D tax credits or research grants toward businesses in fields where innovation isn’t just an opportunity, but an imperative—as has become the case with AI. 

If you’re an AI business, whether you’re working in the US or Canada, there are a wealth of non-dilutive funding opportunities that can help you cover the costs of R&D that’s driving groundbreaking innovation, while carving out a unique space in this growing market. 

Despite there being more than more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits available in North America today, only about 5 percent of eligible businesses (that is 1 out of 20) are tapping into this readily-available resource. 

A partner for financing innovative R&D

At Boast, our tech industry experts are among the most talented in North America, leveraging a knowledge of both government tax code and technology to truly speak your business’ “language of innovation.”

This makes the process of communicating the unique and valuable work your R&D teams do every day easy, significantly streamlining the time it takes to create a compelling R&D tax credit or grant claim compared to executing in-house or even working with an accounting firm.

The results? Teams that work with Boast save upwards of 60 hours on average working with our team, who deliver 35 percent more accurate claims on average.

To learn more about how our team can help you stretch your investments into R&D further, talk to an expert today.

US & UK AI Safety Regulation FAQ

  1. What did the US and UK announce regarding AI safety? The two countries announced a landmark agreement to formally cooperate on testing and assessing the risks associated with artificial intelligence systems through newly established AI Safety Institutes (AISIs).
  2. How will the partnership work? The AISIs will facilitate the exchange of technical researchers, data from private AI models, and research reports between the US and UK. This collaboration aims to develop common approaches to evaluating AI safety.
  3. Why is this partnership important for businesses? As leading AI companies are based in the US, the safety standards and testing methods developed through this partnership will likely have a global impact and influence AI regulations in other countries as well.
  4. How can AI businesses capitalize on this? Rather than viewing increased safety scrutiny as a hindrance, AI companies can seize the opportunity to drive innovation in AI safety itself and establish expertise in this emerging field through dedicated R&D efforts.
  5. How can R&D funding support AI safety innovation? Government innovation funding programs like R&D tax credits and research grants are expected to prioritize AI safety as an area driving valuable technological advancements. Companies can leverage these non-dilutive funds to finance their AI safety R&D efforts.

The Boast Time Evidence Engine elevates R&D project management by delivering a detailed, cohesive analysis of time and resource allocation during innovation processes. This system allows for precise tracking of each R&D employee’s contributions, enabling the calculation of time spent 

By providing a clear, singular perspective on R&D efforts, the Boast Time Evidence Engine empowers organizations to accurately assess performance and make informed decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of their innovation efforts. This tool is not just for managing projects; it allows you to harness data to drive effective, evidence-based innovation strategies.

This latest feature simplifies the preparation of comprehensive SR&ED claims by organizing essential technical, project, and payroll information into detailed Daily Time Evidence reports. These reports are submitted with your SR&ED claim, enhancing its credibility and defensibility in a way unparalleled by other SR&ED services. 

To begin leveraging this capability, you need access to three types of customer data that effortlessly integrate with the Boast platform.

1. Collecting Technical Data (Jira, Github, etc.)

About: Boast Time Evidence Engine: How it works

To begin, simply integrate your chosen project management software with the Boast platform, either through direct integration or by uploading a CSV file. 

For direct integrations, the platform automatically maps all relevant fields, while CSV uploads may require your input for mapping. The platform then analyzes user assignees, change logs, and timestamps from the technical data to create individual worklogs, detailing who did what and when.

2. Project Information for Classification

About: Boast Time Evidence Engine: How it works

Next, our SR&ED specialists collaborate with our customers to establish the project strategy through a comprehensive technical interview. The critical project information gathered in these sessions helps Boast accurately classify worklogs in alignment with eligible and non-eligible projects.

3. Collecting Payroll Data

About: Boast Time Evidence Engine: How it works

Finally, the Payroll data supplied by our customers assists in determining the employment duration of all project stakeholders.

After processing all three data sets (Technical Data, Project Information, and Payroll Data) with the assistance of our SR&ED specialists, our platform analyzes and generates comprehensive time evidence. 

This not only supports claim submissions but also benefits the entire R&D department by arming teams with industry-leading insights.

About: Boast Time Evidence Engine: How it works

To learn more about how Boast leverages the latest technology to maximize our customers’ access to innovation tax credits, check out details for our recent Financial Data Hub and Enhanced AI Classifier feature releases.

Creating a successful SR&ED or R&D tax credit claim hinges on being able to “tell the story” behind your innovation. This goes beyond just understanding outcomes, but also detailing the role each player on your team had in pulling your project together and executing R&D. 

One of the biggest roadblocks to crafting this narrative is having a single source of truth to capture, understand, and analyze each team member’s contributions. 

Until now. 

We’re thrilled to launch our latest platform feature, the Boast Time Evidence Engine (BTEE), which enables customers to track, document, and validate the time spent by all stakeholders contributing to your R&D projects. 

By working with the systems your R&D teams are already using today, the Boast Time Evidence Engine provides a single source of truth—as opposed to an array of siloed data and tracking systems—to tell the complete story of your innovation.

This goes beyond maximizing your potential access to the innovation capital to extend your product runway. Boast’s Time Evidence Engine also allows you to visualize and optimize your entire R&D operation from a single system of intelligence. 

What is the Boast Time Evidence Engine exactly?

At the heart of this latest product feature are key integrations designed to effortlessly capture and analyze project time-tracking data alongside essential context related to investments This holistic view then unlocks opportunities to transform your approach to R&D project management and optimize your practices, stretching your investments further. 

  • Seamless Integration: BTEE connects directly with Jira/Github or any preferred project management tools through export/import, ensuring a smooth data flow from your preferred tools into our platform.
  • Detailed Worklogs: Automatically generated worklogs offer granular insights into the contributions of each team member, detailing the who, what, and when of project involvement.
  • Expert Classification: Our in-house experts meticulously classify worklogs to identify projects and activities eligible for specific benefits, ensuring that every qualifying effort is accurately accounted for.
  • Accurate Time Allocation: Incorporating payroll data, our system precisely calculates the available working hours of each employee, providing a solid foundation for exact project time evidence.
  • Streamlined Process: By automating data matching and processing, the BTEE eliminates the need for manual entry and tracking, offering a more efficient way to manage project time.

Why Boast Time Evidence Engine?

Beyond taking your tax claim preparation to the next level, the Boast Time Evidence Engine sets a new standard in project time tracking and management. 

So often teams are either bogged down by too much, disorganized data or fail to find the connections between investments and outcomes due to data siloes. The BTEE breaks down those barriers to passively and actively apply the necessary context to the activities your team is executing. 

This is all done with unmatched accuracy. But here’s what really sets us apart:

  • Unmatched Accuracy in Time Tracking: Our engine captures every project minute with precision, ensuring reliable data for analysis and reporting.
  • User-Friendly Interface: We’ve designed our platform to be intuitive and easy to navigate, streamlining the user experience for efficiency and simplicity.
  • Comprehensive Integration Capabilities: The Boast Time Evidence Engine can directly integrate with Jira/GitHub or can ingest data with your preferred choice project management tools. 
  • Advanced Automation: Automating the tedious tasks of data collection and processing, our engine frees up your team to focus on what matters most, boosting productivity and efficiency.
About: Introducing Boast’s Time Evidence Engine

If you’re not yet partnering with Boast to maximize your access to innovation capital and stretch your R&D runway further, talk to an expert today. 

Product evolution is a key component of achieving growth, as businesses need to respond to market needs and new technologies without hesitation to achieve scalable success.

This was something that Peter Monteza learned firsthand, as he kicked off his journey as founder for MyARC by literally bringing the technology he was developing to his target customers and asking “would you pay for this” point blank.

It’s this kind of early customer research and on-the-ground brand building that made MyArc the robust, tech-forward platform that they are today

At MyARC, their mission is to power fitness creators to get their fans fit and make a purposeful living while doing so. They’ve done this by creating a platform that enables fitness content creators to train their fans interactively at scale, from anywhere in the world. MyARC takes care of the boring stuff—progressions, daily stats and tracking—so that trainers can focus on the important part—content, advice and motivation—for their fans and community. 

It’s an exciting mission and a powerful platform that’s rooted in Peter’s own experience training as a national-level athlete. 

But Peter’s drive and determination go beyond physical health, as he’s proven to be an adept entrepreneur, having taken part in accelerator and incubator programs—including being part of Techstars 2022 cohort—on his journey as a founder. 

I’m excited to learn more about what his experiences in the startup world have been like to date and what’s in store for MyARC in 2024.

A network of global fitness creators

With My ARC, Peter Monteza and his team have been able to help fitness creators across the globe monetize their content and services and create meaningful careers out of the valuable content they share. 

Peter was able to cultivate this platform by working with fitness professionals and creators firsthand to help refine a solution that benefits consumers and creators alike.

As Peter Monteza from MyARC explains, there are both obvious and unforeseen benefits to bringing your technical talent in house. 

Not only will you have more control of the technology if you’re own team is building it from scratch and understanding custom environments, but you may also be driving activities that could unlock access to non-dilutive funding (ie. R&D tax credits) that can help your team stretch innovation investments further. 

Stream the full interview with Peter on Boast’s YouTube channel here.

To learn more about tapping into non-dilutive funding and optimizing your R&D to achieve growth, talk to an expert from Boast today. 

The 2024 Ontario Budget was tabled last week, featuring more than $100 million in commitments toward the Invest Ontario Fund (IOF) and a bevy of research and development initiatives aimed at reversing lackluster growth being felt across Canada. 

Inflation and high interest rates have helped fuel the recent stagnation, which have both been cited as contributing factors to Ontario pushing back previous plans to balance the budget until 2026. 

This comes after Quebec—facing their largest deficit in history—similarly pushed off their budget balancing plans to at least 2028. In doing so, the province will restructure the Electronic Business Development Tax Credit (CDAE) and the Multimedia Tax Credit (CTMM), rebalancing the refundable and non-refundable portions to a 20:10 percentage split by 2028—and recouping the province $365 million in taxes claimed.

While Ontario’s Budget 2024 prioritizes infrastructure and healthcare, it’s still pushing to maintain the annual $100 million infusion the government gave to the IOF in 2023. Established in 2020, the IOF aims to bolster foreign expansion in manufacturing, life sciences, and tech within Ontario, with a $600 million valuation to date.

Aside from this nine-figure headline, however, many of the additional innovation funding initiatives outlined in Budget 2024 can be read as “keeping the lights on” rather than a full-throated infusion. 

For instance, another $12-million was outlined in Budget 2024 to create a Health Technology Accelerator Fund to help healthcare service providers access promising new healthtech solutions developed by Ontario innovators. Plans also included an additional $1 million per year into Ontario’s Regional Innovation Centres (RICs), while the province will also allocate $18 million over three years toward continued operation and maintenance of Ontario’s Advanced Research Computing systems. 

Is “status quo” enough to drive Ontario’s growth?

Budget 2024 was noticeably light on new initiatives, which was alluded to in comments from CCI president Benjamin Bergen.

“Innovators understand that there are competing priorities and a range of challenges that the Ontario government is navigating, and we did not expect 2024 to be an innovation-focused budget,” said Bergen in a statement. 

Of course, Ontario didn’t take measures as drastic as their neighbors in Quebec when they restructured legacy tax programs that many tech businesses in the region have come to rely on.

But without new support from provincial governments, combined with that previously mentioned inflation (plus high-interests and other economic challenges), innovative businesses will become increasingly reliant on existing federal innovation funding programs to achieve growth in the current market. 

Promises for angel investors, continued support

While it was status quo elsewhere, Budget 2024 did outline steps being taken by the Minister of Finance to work with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to create rules supporting angel investor groups. This comes as manyangel funds in Canada face fewer federal government resources and are turning to the provinces for a lifeline. The document reads:

“…To encourage early-stage financing, the OSC is working to develop rules to support angel investor groups and broadening sources of capital by adopting a self certified prospectus exemption.  To support capital-raising for smaller issuers, the OSC is broadening investment dealer participation in prospectus offerings.”

Although angel investors are essential to help give early-stage startups lift, this funding resource is truly just a starting point, and not a long-term financing solution. 

Once more mature businesses in Canada are leveraging ecosystems like the accelerator programs and innovation funds on offer from Ontario to help drive their growth, they need to continue tapping into government resources wherever they can to finance growth. 

This includes non-dilutive funding, from grants like IRAP to the banner Scientific Research & Experimental Development tax credit. But accessing these resources shouldn’t become a drain on your human capital in the process.

Boast combines unmatched industry expertise with cutting edge technology to deliver more comprehensive, accurate and valuable R&D tax credit and non-dilutive funding claims. All of this is done with minimal time from the R&D experts driving innovation and growth on your team, with Boast customers saving up to 60 hours on average working with us to claim SR&ED.

Talk to an expert today to learn more about streamlining your access to the funding you need to grow.

Many would-be founders get hung up on timing, delaying their pursuit of innovation for any number of reasons: Lending markets may be tight, for instance, or an entrepreneur may have a great idea, but lack their own technological know-how to start developing solutions. 

But as any successful founder will tell you, it’s not worth it to sit on the sidelines and wait for conditions to change. That’s because as Mila Banerjee, CEO and Tech Lead at Pronti AI, explains there are always storm clouds on the horizon, and waiting for things to change without taking matters into your own hands is no way to operate. 

At Pronti, Mila and her team are looking to help Apparel and Accessory retailers access their share of the nearly $1 trillion dollar personalization opportunity that’s out there. They do this by giving retailers access to unique consumer purchase intent data that’s historically been just out of reach. 

The Pronti app leverages six machine learning algorithms in the background to allow consumers to experience easy closet uploads and outfit inspiration, while being the only place where users can shop with their existing closet items.

Along with being an awesome tool for consumers and businesses alike, Pronti is impacting UN Sustainability Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production through individual closet utilization, and providing data for retailers to optimize production.

It’s an amazing solution that touches on a wealth of opportunities, but that’s only part of Mila’s journey, as she’s been leading the tech charge across industries and the entire globe over the course of her career to date. I’m so excited to hear about her latest venture, what’s in store for Pronti going forward, and her take on the current state of startups for fellow entrepreneurs in 2024.

There will always be storms on the horizon

Mila Banerjee understands that machine learning algorithms need to work together to be most effective. The predictive capabilities of computer vision are only effective when they’ve been trained and cultivated by pros, which is what the team at Pronti is focused on mastering for shoppers and retailers alike.

The best time to get started building your business or developing a new innovation is always now. If you’re apprehensive and waiting on the sidelines, you may already be at a disadvantage. As Mila Banerjee of Pronti AI explains, there will always be storms on the horizon, whether it’s funding challenges or just tough markets. But you need to take action and get in the game to avoid losing momentum.

Stream the full episode on Boast’s YouTube Channel here.

Boast hires new CEO to accelerate its transformation into the R&D System of Intelligence.

VANCOUVER, March 26, 2024 – Boast, the leading platform for R&D and tax credit intelligence, is proud to announce the hiring of Imad Jebara as Chief Executive Officer, bringing a recognized leader in both the Finance and Software space to the helm as Boast broadens their mission to expand access to R&D tax credits. 

Mr. Jebara has more than two decades of experience leading both Operations and Customer Success at top SaaS and Finance businesses. This includes more than 8 years at Diligent (nee Galvanize), the world’s leading governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS company, where Jebara led support for more than 1 million users from over 25,000 global customers in his role as Senior Vice President of Global Customer Operations.

“I’ve had the opportunity to personally work with Imad at Galvanize, through its transformation to a $1B category leader in the Governance, Risk and Compliance space,” said Laurie Schultz, Boast’s Chair of the Board. “There he brought the perfect balance of culture, domain, and financial acumen to our transformation and I’m confident he will do the same at Boast.”

“I am delighted to be joining Boast at this stage of its growth,” said Mr. Jebara. “We’ve already engaged with literally thousands of clients to both facilitate their recovery of R&D tax credits and inform how they can optimize R&D productivity, and I look forward to significantly expanding the value we deliver to our clients through both services and technology.”

Boast is the only R&D tax credit solution that combines unmatched industry expertise with cutting-edge, AI-driven technology to simplify filing and increase returns on R&D investments. Only 1 out of every 20 eligible businesses take advantage of the more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits available in North America today. Boast streamlines access to this critical, non-dilutive resource, helping deserving businesses recoup the maximum share of their eligible R&D expenses to drive greater innovation and achieve growth.

In December 2020, Boast announced $30 million CAD in Series A funding. The company has since expanded its executive leadership while continuing to scale into new markets and showing strong revenue and logo growth.

While CFOs closed out 2023 with a conservative outlook, the latest research from Deloitte shows a significantly more positive view of both the global economy’s prospects and how CFOs expect their own businesses to fare in 2024. 

Despite a general uptick in optimism, however, CFOs face growing headwinds when it comes to cost and capital management, innovation and growth, and execution and efficiency—to say nothing of how global economic pressures are impacting decisions around financing.

We’ll break down what’s driving this mixed-bag of cautious optimism among global financial leaders, the unique economic factors impacting CFO decision making in 2024, and actions finance leaders should take today to prepare for what the rest of the year has in store.

About: Despite optimism, CFOs remain wary of Debt and Equity financing in Q1 2024
CFOs are more positive about the economy and even their own businesses in 2024, but remain apprehensive about the state of equity and debt financing.

CFO Optimism grows slightly, while Pessimism plummets

Of the 116 financial leaders polled across five industries in the 1Q 2024 CFO Signals Survey, the number of respondents who were More Optimistic about their own company’s prospects jumped to 42 percent compared to 38 percent in the previous quarter. 

Perhaps more telling, the percentage of CFOs labeled as More Pessimistic shrank from 27 percent in Q4 2023 to only 11 percent during Q1 2024. 

The TL;DR? Net optimism has more than tripled among respondents quarter-over-quarter, hitting a +31 score among CFOs polled in the latest research compared to just +11 in Q3 2023. 

To put a finer point on it, CFOs haven’t been this optimistic since the pandemic investment boom of Q4 2021, when Net Optimism was tagged at +35.

But things are hardly one-to-one for Q4 2024 compared to the same period three years ago. 

Aside from continuing volatility on the global geopolitical front, CFOs are flagging significant and acute challenges to their own businesses that are tempering otherwise enthusiastic outlooks. 

Debt and Equity financing remains a tepid prospect

For one, the attractiveness of Debt and Equity financing today is nowhere near the almost 90 percent and 60 percent (respectively) consensus felt among CFOs back in 2021. 

Instead, only 37 percent of respondents think Debt financing is attractive for their business, while Equity financing has plummeted to just 18 percent among respondents in the latest quarter. 

Split among the different industries polled, viewpoints around both financing options varied, but remained well below their pandemic highs, ie:

  • Among CFOs at public companies, 35 percent view Equity financing as attractive, while 22 percent favor Debt financing
  • For privately held firms, 42 percent of CFOs are attracted to Equity financing, while just 11 percent are open to Debt financing.

While Geopolitics (42) was cited as the leading factor influencing CFO attitudes in the context of financing, Macroeconomics (32)—that is, concerns around a potential recession, federal spending, and government deficits in the U.S. and Canada— was the second most prevailing source of insecurity among respondents. 

In that same vein, Interest Rates (17) stood apart from both Macroeconomics and Politics as their own cause for concern. 

As we’ve mentioned previously on the blog, in both the U.S. and Canada, federal leaders are standing firm on maintaining interest rates at some of their highest levels in decades to help battle inflation. 

While Federal Reserve officials in the U.S. are still committing to rate drops later in 2024, businesses will continue facing some extremely tight lending conditions in the short term.

Greater efficiency, capital diversity to drive growth

As much as external economic factors are at play here, there are significant internal hurdles holding back CFOs from expressing more enthusiasm about their prospects. From cost and capital management to effectiveness and efficiency—and even the ascendency of new tech and the associated skills gap that can introduce—CFOs are facing a rash of new challenges today that didn’t even exist just half a decade ago. 

The silver lining for CFOs is that there are actionable steps they can take to fortify their business on all of these fronts. 

For starters, Talent and Retention—flagged as the top concern among 44 of respondents—is an issue across departments, but especially within finance, where a continued accountant shortage has forced many teams to be slimmer than ever. 

Fortunately, new technology—including artificial intelligence—is helping to fill in some of the gaps without introducing a high “barrier-to-entry” that often comes when introducing new tools into legacy systems. 

In that same vein, CFOs can (and should) start leveraging automation within their workflows that more meaningfully drive the effectiveness and efficiency they crave on their own teams.

With an effective automation strategy in place, CFOs can then focus squarely on tackling their most prescient cost and capital management challenges, thanks to easier access to the data they need to understand the ROI of their investments and areas for optimization.

Innovation, however, is another top concern among CFOs, who are acknowledging “growth pressure and increased competitive intensity” as a leading impediment to growth. Much of this can be attributed to an inability to finance new product development or staff R&D teams, which can be an even larger threat to the organization’s long-term prospects than even immediate economic pressures. 

A system of intelligence to drive optimization, non-dilutive financing—and ultimately innovation

By aligning key project, financial and payroll data into a single platform for analysis, CFOs can take actionable steps that will improve productivity, save their company money, and unlock real-time analysis of their financial data. 

With these insights in hand, CFOs and finance teams can embark on more informed decision-making and effective financial planning, helping increase agility across the organization and ultimately extend their business’ runway.

At the heart of all of this is unlocking access to non-dilutive funding that can help financial leaders finance their operations without relying solely on Debt of Equity financing.

This opens up the door for businesses to push the gas on aggressive innovation and R&D initiatives that can help drive competitive advantage while even opening up new opportunities for financing, ala R&D tax credits. 

At Boast, our AI-powered platform allows startups at any stage to sync the systems they use to manage financial, payroll and workflow data into a single source of intelligence. From there, teams can actively understand what activities could qualify for R&D tax credits, for instance, while also actively tracking all of the relevant information necessary to file a claim in one spot. 

Boast goes beyond providing guidance on non-dilutive government funding, too. Our solution offers businesses a comprehensive resource that combines expert guidance and cutting-edge technology to optimize their R&D efforts, streamline capital management, and visualize a successful capital strategy.

Talk to an expert from Boast today to learn more about how we combine cutting edge technology with years of expertise—and a founder’s POV—to optimize your R&D and fund your innovation.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur calls for inherent curiosity. While Roy Pereira characterizes his school-aged self as a “math geek,” it’s really his interest in understanding how nascent computing technologies were able to “make stuff out of nothing” that launched him on the career path he’s taken to date. 

On the latest episode of What The Tech, we welcome to the show self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur and Techstar Roy Pereira. Roy is currently the CEO of Unified, the integrations-as-a-Service platform for B2B SaaS companies. With their Unified APIs, developers can integrate just once to add multiple software systems to their products from categories like HR, ATS, CRM and Authentication. Their solution has transformed what used to take several months into an afternoon project, helping SaaS companies swiftly and securely scale their integrations. 

It should go without saying, but those time savings and value adds can be a gamechanger for emergent SaaS products as they look to make their mark, achieve new market potential and drive more revenue. 

But along with steering the innovation over at Unified, Roy has been a positive presence in the Toronto and broader Canadian tech scene for a while now, with more than a decade of pushing the envelope in the Advertising, Security, Networking, and of course Software industries.

We’re thrilled to hear what’s in store for Unified, how Roy got into the startup scene in the first place, and his take on the current state of the tech ecosystem.

Funding has fundamentally changed

As Roy Pereira explains, over the past two years there has been a ground shift in how startups, scale ups and even mature businesses tackle funding. As a result, business leaders will need to “hustle and get traction,” seeking out creative paths to funding that stretch dollars further without overextending budgets. 

At the heart of all of this is never losing sight of customers, who will not only help guide what shape your products and services take, but how much revenue can ultimately play in your long-term capital strategy.

The dawn of Useful AI

There are a wealth of AI tools that have been available in the market for years. But by combining the neural networks and machine learning capabilities of the past, today’s AI innovators are finally creating truly useful artificial intelligence compared to the more “novel” applications available less than a decade ago.

While Roy considered himself a “math geek” during high school and university, it was his inherent curiosity into understanding how computers can “make stuff out of nothing” that cultivated his entrepreneurial spirit.

Watch the full interview on Boast’s YouTube Channel Here.

To learn more about leveraging non-dilutive funding to fuel your growth and innovation, talk to an expert at Boast today.

Of the many innovation funding programs on offer from the Canadian government, the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit and the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) grants are among the most popular and most generous. 

Where both SR&ED and IRAP overlap is in being tools that businesses can use to finance innovative research and development: Both programs hinge on leveraging Systematic Investigation to drive Technological Advancement that ultimately addresses Technological Uncertainty. 

However, while SR&ED is offered as a tax credit for work already completed, IRAP funding is delivered as a grant before projects are started.

To that end, SR&ED applications and funding are all funneled through the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), while IRAP is managed via the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).

We’ll break down the key differences and similarities between SR&ED and IRAP, how (and when) to tap into both programs to fund innovation, and the info you need to ensure a smooth application process.

About: SR&ED + IRAP: How to stack innovation funding

Key differences between SR&ED and IRAP

A defining feature of the IRAP grant is that it involves more than just funding. Targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with fewer than 500 full-time workers, IRAP also delivers advisory assistance to qualifying Canadian businesses, connecting applicants with more experienced, larger companies in their field. 

Another essential characteristic of IRAP is that it’s geared toward commercialization; that is, activities must be towards advancing products-for-market. This is important because while SR&ED-eligible activities don’t have a commercialization requirement—that is, even if R&D doesn’t produce a new product, the efforts are still uncovering a Technological Uncertainty—commercial outcomes are a hard prerequisite for IRAP.

To apply, teams need to first create a business plan that will communicate to your local IRAP industrial technology adviser (ITA) how you plan to market your innovative products, services or processes in Canada. This calls for developing a comprehensive business plan that includes your projected economic impact, operational strategies, projected growth, and business challenges.

After engaging with the ITA, applicants can expect a review within three months, withthe NRC taking into consideration the impacts of your proposed project on both your business and for Canada. 

If your claim gets approved, you will start receiving funding to cover a portion of your project immediately—and will need to start submitting monthly reimbursement claims to the NRC as a result. 

SR&ED casts a wider net

While we have plenty of resources that you can leverage to go deep into the SR&ED claim process, perhaps the largest distinction between these tax credits and IRAP are that they are dispersed as a refund on investments teams have already made into innovation.

For both SR&ED and IRAP, a compelling and convincing claim that communicates the truly unique nature of your project’s innovation needs to come together. 

Unlike IRAP, however, SR&ED claims are a return on efforts already taken to drive innovation, which calls for significantly less forecasting. Instead, maximizing SR&ED claims calls for detailed record keeping across both your product, development and finance teams, syncing key payroll, time tracking and project scope data into a compelling narrative. 

Additional Considerations

SR&EDIRAP
Budget limitationsBecause SR&ED is a tax credit, there is no cap on funding amounts that the government will cover.  IRAP dispersals are contingent on NRC budget allocations. Even if your project gets IRAP approved, for instance, there’s a limited pool of IRAP funding available to support all projects each year.
How funding is calculatedCredits are contingent on your company’s tax status (net income, capitalization); refunds are therefore not always guaranteed. Eligible businesses have to be a CCPC with less than 500 full-time employees. 
Cash-flow impactBecause claims are filed as part of your company’s income tax return, refunds are made available anywhere from three to six months after filing (if not longer).Disbursements can be claimed as soon as a project is approved. Claims are made monthly and reimbursements are received within 15 days.

Can businesses use both SR&ED and IRAP?

The short answer here is yes. As with any capital strategy, you just need to be very careful and be sure you’re not maximizing access to one program at the expense of valuable resources from the other. 

For instance, businesses can’t subsidize the same dollar amount of eligible expenditures twice. 

Therefore, some businesses will take the approach of using IRAP to cover the costs of wages and subcontractor expenses related to a specific project, while using SR&ED to cover overhead expenditures after the work has been completed. This can help free up cash flow, opening up opportunities for folks to double-down on innovation investments, or put refunds toward other areas of the business. 

Another strategy is to focus IRAP funding on larger projects, while using SR&ED to recoup expenses on smaller research initiatives with less certain outcomes. 

Then, to the earlier point regarding “commercialization”: Teams can also be sure that they separate go-to-market research that might be IRAP eligible from the technical activities and expenses—even developer salaries—that might fall under SR&ED.

In most scenarios, teams will start with IRAP grants to get programs in motion, then leverage SR&ED to cover remaining overhead costs (as eligible). 

Advanced SR&ED funding, R&D insights

As powerful as the SR&ED program is on its own, however, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stretching R&D dollars to maximize your product development runway. 

Boast can help you make your R&D expenditures go even further by letting you tap into your end-of-year SR&ED claim before your fiscal year has even wrapped. That means not just being able to predict your R&D spend and associated claims throughout the year, but gaining access to a chunk of those funds early to actually increase your total SR&ED claim in real time. 

By syncing the systems your team already uses to track R&D workflows, bookkeeping and payroll, Boast’s AI-driven solution can actively estimate your year-end SR&ED claim while projects are still in motion.

With QuickFund from Boast innovative businesses can receive up to 75 percent of the R&D expenditures they’ve accrued in a given quarter.

With this early access to their SR&ED refund, teams can actually start embarking on activities that will increase their SR&ED eligibility for the next quarter. By compounding their efforts and investments (as early as three months into the tax year with QuickFund), R&D teams will ultimately be better funded—and by extension, more effective. 

All of this is done without forcing founders to seek dilutive sources of equity, while giving startups the financial flexibility needed to make better decisions about scaling the business.
To learn more about how Boast helps businesses achieve higher SR&ED claims and stronger innovation outcomes, talk to an expert today.

SR&ED and IRAP FAQ

  1. What are the main differences between SR&ED and IRAP funding? SR&ED provides tax credits for R&D work already completed, while IRAP provides upfront grant funding before projects start. IRAP also requires commercial outcomes and provides advisory services, while SR&ED has no commercialization requirement.
  2. What are the eligibility criteria for IRAP funding? To qualify for IRAP, businesses must be Canadian-controlled private corporations (CCPCs) with fewer than 500 employees. They need to submit a business plan demonstrating how their innovative product/service will be commercialized.
  3. How do the funding amounts differ for SR&ED vs IRAP? There is no cap on SR&ED funding amounts, as it is a tax credit. IRAP funding is limited by the NRC’s annual budget allocation for the program.
  4. Can businesses leverage both SR&ED and IRAP funding? Yes, businesses can use both programs, but careful tracking is needed to avoid double-dipping on the same expenses. A common approach is using IRAP for wages/subcontractors and SR&ED for overhead.
  5. How can Boast’s QuickFund program assist with funding? QuickFund allows businesses to access up to 75% of their accrued SR&ED expenditures each quarter, providing upfront capital to increase R&D investments and maximize the final SR&ED claim.

Minister of Finance Eric Girard tabled his 2024 budget for Quebec last week, which called for a significant restructuring to two of the province’s banner innovation tax credit programs. 

Specifically, the budget calls for rebalancing the refundable and non-refundable portions of the Electronic Business Development Tax Credit (CDAE) and the Multimedia Tax Credit (CTMM).

For CDAE, the Quebec government will scale up the non-refundable share—that is, the portion of the credits where businesses must pay tax to Quebec for qualification—from 6 percent today to 10 percent by 2028. Simultaneously, the refundable portion of the tax credit will be scaled down from 24 percent in 2024 to just 20 percent by 2028.

YearRefundableNon-Refundable
202424%6%
202523%7%
202622%8%
202721%9%
202820%10%
Source: Government of Quebec

The CTMM, which currently doesn’t have a non-refundable component, will also see the total taxable balance shift to a 20:10 percentage split by 2028 in an attempt to encourage more provincial income from successful businesses in this sector.

YearRefundableNon-Refundable
202430%0%
202527.5%2.5%
202625%5%
202722.5%7.5%
202820%10%
Source: Government of Quebec

Combined, both of these measures ultimately reduce the total ‘generosity’ of these programs, which cost the provincial government almost $850 million CAD in 2023. 

This in the face of an $11 billion budget deficit for 2024—perhaps the largest in the province’s history—as Quebec punts balancing the provincial budget a full two years later than previously promised. 

“Right now, we have no growth,” Girard said, citing a hike in interest rates over the last year that drove the budget deficit to be almost three times larger than forecasts predicted in 2023.

With the goal of having a fully balanced provincial budget by 2028 in place, the government is now looking toward the successes of the local media and electronics industry in Quebec to help bolster healthier conditions across the province.

Businesses will need to claim taxes in Quebec at higher rates going forward

While neither the CDAE or CTMM will be going away, many businesses that had never paid taxes in the province may have to start in order to continue qualifying for non-refundable credits long-term.

As noted by LaPresse, researchers who have studied these tax credit programs have flagged that of the 702 companies eligible for both CTMM and CDAE, only four had paid taxes in 2019. 

By 2028, the government anticipates that it will recover upwards of $365 million CAD by making these adjustments to the refundable ratio to both programs. 

The 2024 budget also removes the ceilings on eligible salaries for the CTMM ($100,000) and the CDAE ($83,333). As a result, businesses will in theory be able to apply tax credit claims to higher-salary individuals. 

Qualifying for CDAE in the first place

CDAE tax credits are geared toward businesses developing and selling software licenses or services (ie. Software-as-a-Service or SaaS). To pass this threshold, companies must have 75 percent of gross revenue derived from IT sector activities, with 50 percent of these activities related to a core subset of the IT sector.

Additionally, a qualifying company must have at least 6 full-time technical employees for the entire fiscal year of the CDAE claim, which differs from SR&ED in that it doesn’t have revenue or employee-number requirements (per se) as part of the qualifying criteria. 

It’s worth noting that there is flexibility here: Startups that have existed for less than 2 years will meet the eligibility criteria for CDAE once they have 6 eligible technical employees on the payroll for a given fiscal year.

About: Quebec restructures CDAE, CTMM to help fill historic budget deficit

Stacking SR&ED, CDAE and innovation capital in Quebec

Both SR&ED and CDAE are tools that founders can use to cover salaries, but the requirements (and credit amounts) vary pretty significantly given each program’s focus.

For instance, CDAE covers only the salary of employees in technical roles (ie. developers and quality engineers) during the product development life cycle. An important caveat (and distinction from SR&ED) is that this R&D needs to be contributing toward a revenue-generating product that’s already in the market. 

From there, CDAE funds are delivered in the form of an up to 24 percent refundable tax credit and an up to 6 percent non-refundable tax credit of each eligible employee’s salary (for 2024, at least). These credits are also applied to the total salary of the qualified individual.

For SR&ED, on the other hand, businesses can claim tax credits on expenses such as salaries, wages, materials consumed or transformed, subcontractor expenses, and overhead—so long as they are directly related to or directly supporting eligible R&D activities in Canada. Put simply, the SR&ED refundable tax credit is based on the percentage of time an employee has spent on R&D activities relative to their salary. 

CDAE is most beneficial to more mature companies that have made progress in their development but need additional funding to scale—especially as it relates to bringing software-based innovations to market.

There are options for businesses that want to optimize both CDAE and SR&ED on the provincial level to maximize the tax credit amount.

Doing this is tricky, however, and requires not just deep knowledge of existing tax code, but the ability to communicate the nature of innovation both from the business-side and technical-side of R&D. 

This is especially critical for businesses that may be applying for the first time—or who have maybe struggled with their application in the past despite delivering on all relevant criteria. 

To learn more about how to optimize your tax credit claims to help extend your R&D runway and drive greater innovation, book a call with a member of the Boast AI team today. 

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