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Jul 25, 2024
Welcome to the July edition of our monthly Ottawa Business Success Snapshots feature – celebrating companies operating and thriving in Ottawa.
From companies working to develop innovative tech solutions to brick-and-mortar businesses in the heart of Ottawa’s communities, each of these companies is on a unique journey, and each has a story worth telling.
So, join us in celebrating good news from Assent, Egg Bunny Bistro and Genvis.
After growing annual recuring revenue (ARR) by over 50% in the past 12 months, Assent recently achieved the monumental milestone of surpassing US$100M in ARR, solidifying its position as a leader in supply chain sustainability management for complex manufacturers.
Started in 2010, Ottawa-based Assent (formerly Assent Compliance), is a leading solution provider in supply chain sustainability management. Customers include some of the world’s most sustainable manufacturers including GE Appliances, Polaris, Stryker and Escatec, each trusting Assent to protect their market access and safeguard their reputations.
Assent was bootstrapped for the first five years of its life — from 2010 to 2015. CEO Andrew Waitman came on board in 2014. This and the hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, helped fuel Assent to grow its workforce to now more than 1,000 people producing and selling software used by customers around the world.
Recent quarterly highlights have included substantial growth in key industry sectors such as electronics, medical devices, industrial equipment, automotive, and aerospace & defence.
“Sincere congratulations to CEO Andrew Waitman and Assent on their decades of impact on our innovation ecosystem, entrepreneurship landscape and economy,” says Sonya Shorey, President and CEO, Invest Ottawa. “It is an honour to regularly collaborate with Assent and to celebrate their continued growth and success.”
Invest Ottawa is proud to have played a role in Assent’s journey from a promising startup to a global leader in supply chain sustainability management. Support has included strategic advisory support, event partnerships and talent development initiatives. By providing essential resources, strategic guidance, and a large network of industry connections, Invest Ottawa has contributed to Assent’s remarkable growth and success.
Proactive on giving back to the Ottawa community, in June, Invest Ottawa was honoured to welcome Andrew Waitman to Invest Ottawa for an inspirational presentation, fireside chat, and Q&A with current and aspiring founders, startups and scaleups who also strive to one day generate $100M in annual recurring revenue (ARR).
It’s been a busy year for Blessing Daye. Not only did she recently graduate from college, but she also just launched her newest venture – the Egg Bunny Bistro in a recent Father’s Day event on June 16th at 390 March Road.
Along with the new March Road location, the Egg Bunny Bistro is now participating in Ottawa Street Markets in Beechwood, Elgin and Alta Vista, and is also set to join Ottawa’s Parkdale Market. According to Blessing, the new business currently in seed stage, is a spin off from her previous business Afrodeez Food & Education, established to share the foods of her culture with people in Ottawa in an approachable and familiar way.
“I started Afrodeez Food and Education out of a place of wanting to share my ethnic foods with a wider audience,” she explained. “The joy that came from watching people try new foods in familiar forms like burgers and wraps, inspired my current project, Egg Bunny.”
As Blessing explained in a recent feature, Egg Bunny Bistro not only continues that idea but expands on it by including cultures from around the world.
“I think that’s what’s so cool about this,” she said. “It’s that we’re incorporating so many other people: Debuting our Mexi-Bunny Burger, that’s incorporating Afro Latinos, or the West African Bunny Burger, providing a nod to our roots as a company. There are so many menu items that represent different parts of the world.”
The ‘bunnies’ are handmade soft and sweet West African Agege buns are shaped like bunnies – complete with ears and all. They’re available in packs of 4-6 and are also showcased and demonstrated through egg bunny breakfast sandwiches and bunny burgers that are even tucked into paper ‘burrows.’
“These buns are a yeasty sweet mouthful of fluffy goodness,” Blessing added. “They’re versatile to be used as burger buns, dinner rolls, and soup companions, and they are shaped with bunny ears! So, families with kids love ’em!”
Blessing says her experience in last year’s cohort of Summer Company, an Ontario government youth entrepreneurship program delivered regionally by Invest Ottawa’s entrepreneurship team, gave her many essential skills for starting and running her businesses.
“I learned so many essential skills that running a business requires,” she said. “The program helped me find my lifelong mentor Eric McCrae. It additionally helped me unlock new ways to make money and meet lifelong friends who were in the same boat as me at the time. Broke young students with a dream!”
Based in Perth, Australia, Genvis is a growing company that provides a platform designed to help public service managers meet strict legal and regulatory demands, ultimately aiming to ensure community safety.
Genvis successfully launched its operations in Ottawa in 2023, and the Genvis platform has been utilized for managing borders, enforcing digital home quarantine, sharing public information, tracing contacts, and delivering large-scale digital public services to millions of users.
During their visit to Ottawa on June 5th, 2024, the team from British Columbia presented their plan for the second half of the year. They are currently working with police stations and municipalities in Ontario, conducting a pilot program to gather user requirements. The paid version of their software is slated for release in September.
Additionally, they plan to hire both junior and senior software developers and a business development associate in Ottawa in the last trimester of the year.
Invest Ottawa will support Genvis by providing a base office, aiding in the company’s efforts to leverage the public sector to enhance public security, and assisting with the hiring of the Ottawa-based team.
Are you looking to start or grow your business? From idea to start-up to established — discover and explore Invest Ottawa programs and services that can help grow and scale your business no matter where you are in the business lifecycle.
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