Innovation centre in Sudbury, Ont., gets over $1M in federal funding for AI and startup support programs

In just over two years, Luke Begley has grown his company, CircuitIQ, from five employees to nearly 40.

The company, based in the northern Ontario city of Sudbury, creates virtual maps of electrical systems to make it easier for electricians who work in older buildings, where the electrical panels aren’t always well labelled. 

Begley credits NORCAT, a local innovation centre, for much of his company’s early growth.

When he won a NORCAT pitch competition, he gained access to funding and mentorship, which helped the company more than double its employee base each year.

On Tuesday, NORCAT received $1.05 million in federal funding from FedNor to renew its Innovation Acceleration Program, which helped CircuitIQ, and launch a new Regional Artificial Intelligence (AI) Initiative.

Begley said he looked forward to the upcoming AI initiative as an opportunity to close the gap with larger companies that have more resources at their disposal.

“When you start playing around with new technologies, a lot of it can be wasted money,” he said. “And so you don’t want to waste any resources that are critical to the survival of your company.”

He said it will be helpful to connect with other entrepreneurs who have already used AI successfully to grow their businesses.

Brendan Skiffington, the manager of NORCAT Innovation, said small and medium-sized enterprises can apply for up to $20,000 to purchase equipment and services related to AI.

“AI is changing the game,” he said.

“Artificial intelligence is not just a futuristic nice-to-have. It’s necessary for each company to be utilizing AI to remain competitive, but there are some challenges in northern Ontario.”

Skiffington said those challenges include access to the funding and infrastructure needed to scale technology that uses AI.

“So what this program aims to do is close that gap and be able to support these companies so they can remain globally competitive.”

Sudbury MP Vivianne Lapointe said small and medium-sized enterprises are responsible for the majority of private-sector jobs in Canada.

“And so it’s very important as a government of Canada as we want to grow our economy for us to make those very strategic investments in those areas,” she said.

NORCAT received $700,000 in funding for its AI initiative and $350,000 to keep the Innovation Acceleration Program running for an additional three years.