The State of B2B Canada Tech in 2018

Our neighbors to the north have gifted the earth wonderful things like curling and poutine.

Their people are some of our biggest heroes; from Drake and Bieber to Celine Dion and Alex Trebek, Canadians are diverse and influential.

In addition to these aforementioned gems, this nation of wonders has a thriving tech scene. And it’s been flourishing for some time. Companies such as Cognos and Intuit are staples in today’s B2B technology scene.

Following the steps of their corporate predecessors, startups such as Shopify and Hootsuite have quickly become the top-rated products in their particular categories (E-Commerce Platforms and Social Media Management, respectively).

Companies such as these ($1 billion startups) are referred to as “Unicorns” in the U.S. But in Canada, these successful startups are colloquially referred to as “Narwhals.” But you don’t need a billion-dollar valuation to disrupt a market.

Canada is one of the largest hubs for tech startups in the world. It’s ranked fifth globally with 1,526 startups, according to Startup Ranking. The nation has established itself as an industry leader, and signs point to the country maintaining that status for the foreseeable future.

Some people attribute much of the country’s success to efforts from the Canadian government. There are a number of federal programs geared specifically toward supporting startups and other innovative small businesses.

This year, the Canadian government pledged $100 million to development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. They’ve also streamlined their immigration process for highly skilled workers through programs like the Global Skills Strategy (GSS).

It’s no surprise Canada has seen success in the technology industry. As the country continues to produce top-tier products, Canadian innovators will continue competing with the U.S., as well as other hubs like Germany and Australia.

Note: Only software vendors on G2 Crowd with headquarters currently in Canada are included in graph.

With Canada emerging as a tech hub, we have pulled together a state of the Canadian B2B tech scene that includes all of the top-rated products on G2 Crowd which have parent companies headquartered in Canada. Our list is ranked by user satisfaction of a company’s top-rated product. To qualify, a product was required to have at least 10 verified real-user reviews.

For each qualifying product, we created a company profile to recognize what that company is and does, as well as give a little insight into its history. The data relies on G2 Crowd’s nearly 300,000 B2B software and services reviews, or from publicly made available data sources such as LinkedIn or each vendor’s website. The report features 25 B2B Canadian software companies which are represented with more than 4,700 verified user reviews across categories from Demand Side Platforms to Event Management Platforms to Content Marketing Software. Let’s take a look at the major players in Canada’s tech scene, shall we? 

TOP B2B CANADIAN TECH IN 2017

1. Shopify Product: Shopify Category: E-Commerce Platforms City: Ottawa Founded: 2006 Employees: 2,602

 With an impressive 1,432 reviews on G2 Crowd, Shopify is both a leader in the e-commerce platform and a leader within our Canadian-based products. This tool is designed for small and medium-sized businesses to set up their online store. Brands such as Tesla, Budweiser and Red Bull utilize Shopify.

2. Picatic Product: Picatic Category: Event Registration & Ticketing City: Vancouver Founded: 2012 Employees: 8

Picatic is an event registration and ticketing platform and was ranked a High Performer in its category on G2 Crowd for Spring 2017. This tool makes it easy for users to create an event, manage registrations and sell tickets.

3. StackAdapt Product: StackAdapt Category: Demand Side Platform (DSP) City: Toronto Founded: 2013 Employees: 61

StackAdapt is a demand side platform (DSP) that helps businesses accelerate customer acquisition by reaching relevant audiences through native, display, and video advertising. The folks at StackAdapt are focused on improving customer engagement through the platform.

4. Clio Product: Clio Category: Legal Case Management City: Burnaby Founded: 2008 Employees: 267

Small law firms and sole practitioners can look to Clio for legal case management. This tool also assists with time and billing, and client collaboration, allowing you to spend less time on administrative tasks.

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5. Officebooks Product: OfficeBooks Category: ERP Systems City: Ottawa Founded: 2010 Employees: 1

Officebooks is an ERP system optimized for distributors and manufacturing. This tool automates your purchase, sales and work order generation, which leaves you free time to build your business. The mission of the people behind this Ottawa-based company is to allow users to take charge of their days.

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6. Uberflip Product: Uberflip  Category: Content Marketing City: Toronto Founded: 2012 Employees: 121

Marketers can up their content game with Uberflip. This content marketing platform is designed to create, manage and optimize content experiences. Uberflip was ranked a High Performer on G2 Crowd in the content marketing category for Summer 2017.

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7. Influitive Product: Influitive Advocate Hub Category: Brand Advocacy City: Toronto Founded: 2012 Employees: 152

Influitive AdvocateHub is a brand advocacy platform that was ranked a Leader in Fall 2017. This tool leverages the power of relationships to improve marketing campaigns, sales support, and customer retention. This Toronto-based company received $38M Series B funding in 2015.

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8. TouchBistro Product: TouchBistro Restaurant POS Category: POS Restaurant City: Toronto Founded: 2011 Employees: 195

Users can manage multiple aspects of their restaurant with TouchBistro Restaurant POS. This tool helps users to oversee things such as tableside orders, floor plans & tables, mobile payment processing, staff & scheduling. Access reporting and analytics anytime you need with TouchBistro Restaurant.

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9. AgileBits Inc. Product: 1Password Category: Password Manager City: Toronto Founded: 2005 Employees: 60

1Password is a password manager solution that was ranked a leader on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017. Not only does this tool remember your passwords, but it gives you tips to make them stronger. You can login to sites with one click using 1Password.

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10. Kashoo Product: Kashoo Category: Accounting City: Vancouver Founded: 2005 Employees: 20

Small businesses looking to organize their accounting books need to look no further than Kashoo. This accounting software solution was ranked a High Performer on G2 Crowd’s accounting software for Fall 2017. Kashoo’s app is the most-downloaded accounting app in the App Store.

“At Kashoo, we are always trying to meet our clients’ needs through continuous improvements in our software, and providing the support and information needed to manage their accounting efficiently. Our reviews reflect our world-class service and dedication to our customers, and we are proud to be included in G2 Crowd’s top-rated software list!” Jim Secord, CEO of Kashoo

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11. iWave Information Systems Inc. Product: iWave PRO Category: Fundraising City: Charlottetown Founded: 1991 Employees: 44

iWave is a donor prospect research tool that was ranked a High Performer on G2 Crowd for Winter 2018. This tool helps you to answer questions like does your donor prospect have a history of giving? And does that donor love your cause? The folks behind this Canadian product allow you to filter and prioritize prospects based on a number of different features.

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12. Elastic Email Product: Elastic Email Category: Email Marketing City: Sooke Founded: 2010 Employees: 20

Elastic Email is an all-in-one email marketing platform. This tool offers a suite of tools and features for functions such as managing contacts, templates, campaigns, and reports. Elastic Email was ranked a high performer in the email marketing category on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017. It was also named one of the best free email marketing tools in 2017.

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13. Hootsuite Product: Hootsuite Category: Social Media Suites City: Vancouver Founded: 2008 Employees: Nearly 1,000

 Hootsuite was ranked a Leader in the social media suite category on G2 Crowd for winter 2018 and boasts a staggering 1,400-plus user reviews. It’s safe to say that this Vancouver-based product is far-and-away the leader for Canadian-based products on G2 Crowd. Hootsuite allows you to monitor keywords, manage multiple accounts and schedule messages.

“We are proud to be listed among Canada’s top rated B2B technologies. Hootsuite’s customers are the cornerstone of our company. We will continue to build on our platform to help customers solve business problems and drive ROI from social media. Thank you for the recognition.” Kirsty Traill, VP Customers at Hootsuite

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14. 7shifts Product: 7shifts Restaurant Scheduling Category: Restaurant Management City: Saskatoon Founded: 2013 Employees: 59

 This scheduling software is geared toward the restaurant industry. 7shifts allows restaurateurs to respond to schedule changes in real time. Users can save up to 80 percent of time normally spent scheduling staff with this tool.

“At 7shifts we are proud to be part of the vibrant tech community here in Saskatchewan and across Canada. We believe that we have the people, talent and skills necessary to make a massive impact in the restaurant technology space and to demonstrate that Canadian start ups have what it takes to compete and thrive globally.” Jordan Boesch, CEO of 7shifts

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15. FreshBooks Product: FreshBooks Category: Small-Business Accounting City: Toronto Founded: 2003 Employees: 292

FreshBooks was born out of mistake. In 2003, its founder accidentally saved over an invoice, which led him to create a solution that would prevent that from happening again. This small-business accounting solution and was ranked a leader in this category on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017.

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16. ProntoForms Corporation Product: ProntoForms Category: Forms Automation City: Ottawa Founded: 2001 Employees: 113

This forms automation product was named a High Performer on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017. ProntoForms connects data to back office or cloud services. This solution is used by more than 3,500 businesses to collect and analyze field data using mobile devices.

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17. Eclipse Foundation Product: Eclipse Category: Integrated Development Environment (IDE) City: Ottawa Founded: 2004 Employees: 121

Eclipse is known for its Java Integrated Development Environment, but also supports C/C++, IDE and PHP IDE. This tool allows you to easily combine language support and other features in any of the available packages. This tool was ranked a leader in the Integrated Development Environment category on G2 Crowd for Winter 2017. Eclipse was also named one of the top ruby ide options for developers in 2017.

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18. Bridgit Product: Bridgit Closeout Category: Construction Management City: Kitchener Founded: 2012 Employees: 39

This construction management tool is a mobile punch list management solution that allows users to receive real-time notifications. Manage communication with Bridgit Closeout while making data-driven decisions for your business.

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19. AgencyAnalytics Product: AgencyAnalytics Category: SEO City: Toronto Founded: 2010 Employees: 9

AgencyAnalytics is an SEO tool that was ranked High Performer on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017. This tool is geared toward agencies and marketing consultants. AgencyAnalytics integrates SEO tools, PPC data, social media, web analytics and more.

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20. HeyOrca Product: HeyOrca Category: Social Media Management City: St. John’s Founded: 2015 Employees: 33

This tool allows marketing agencies to plan and approve their clients’ social media with its client-facing interface. HeyOrca helps these agencies cut delays in client approvals and eliminate redundant tasks. This tool was ranked a High Performer in the social media management category for Winter 2018 on G2 Crowd.

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21. Krow Software Product: Krow PSA Category: Professional Services Automation  City: Burlington Founded: 2014 Employees: 8

Krow PSA is a professional services automation (PSA) tool that was ranked a high performer in that category on G2 Crowd for Winter 2018. This solution combines project management tools with resource planning, time and expense, social collaboration and more to create a comprehensive PSA platform.

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22. LookBookHQ Product: LookBookHQ Category: Content Marketing City: Toronto Founded: 2012 Employees: 76

This content marketing tool is geared toward B2B marketers looking to tell their stories simply and effectively. LookBookHQ helps businesses educate their sales-ready buyers at the most opportune time. This platform was ranked a High Performer in the content marketing category on G2 Crowd for Summer 2017.

“We’re proud to be included on this list of the best technology companies in Canada. Canada’s diversity and quality of life allows companies here to build some of the most interesting, innovative solutions and services anywhere in the world. LookBookHQ wouldn’t be on this list, however, without the trust placed in us by our customers – the enterprise marketers who generously share their feedback and insights with us every day. Thank you for an incredible 2017. We can’t wait to see how you transform marketing next year.” Mark Opauszky, CEO of LookBookHQ

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23. Unbounce Product: Unbounce Category: Landing Page Builders City: Vancouver Founded: 2009 Employees: 177

Unbounce is a landing page builder that was ranked a leader in that category on G2 Crowd for Winter 2018. Not only can you build landing pages with this tool, but you can also publish and A/B them. More than 14,000 businesses including Shopify, Vimeo and the New York Times use Unbounce to drive leads and revenue.

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24. Maropost, Inc. Product: Maropost Marketing Cloud Category: Marketing Automation City: Toronto Founded: 2011 Employees: 153

This tool was named a High Performer in the marketing automation category on G2 Crowd for Fall 2017. Maropost Marketing Cloud’s marketing automation functions allow you to target potential clients by delivering specific messaging to these prospects at the most opportune time.

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25. Loopio Inc. Product: Loopio Category: Proposal City: Toronto Founded: 2014 Employees: 42

 

Loopio streamlines the way businesses respond to RFPs, RFIs and security questionnaires. Instead of digging through old proposal to respond to these requests, Loopio automates these tasks. This proposal solution was ranked a High Performer in that category on G2 Crowd for Summer 2017.

“We’re excited and proud to be featured as one of the top contributors to Canada’s B2B Tech Scene. Thank you to our customers for their feedback and support — you’ve helped us become a top-rated software solution! Customer Success has always been an integral part of our company, and our entire team is looking forward to making our customers’ lives even better through 2018 and beyond!” Zakir Hemraj, CEO of Loopio

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OTHER B2B CANADIAN TECH COMPANIES

While we recognized only the best 25 SaaS and service tech companies in Canada, there are still an abundance of other tech companies impacting Canada’s B2B scene. Here’s a rundown of other Canadian B2B software and service companies with their founded dates.

Rank	Company	Product	Founded
26	Wagepoint	Wagepoint	2012
27	Flockrush Inc.	Flockrush	2017
28	Traction Guest	Traction Guest	n/a
29	Carmel Vision	InfoFlo Software	2004
30	Proposify	Proposify	2012
31	YGen Development	Aiveo	2012
32	SlickPie	SlickPie	2015
33	Affinio	Affinio	2013
34	Navvia	Navvia	1999
35	ReplyApp	Reply	n/a
36	Transoft Solutions, Inc.	AutoTURN	n/a
37	SafetySync Corp.	SafetySync	n/a
38	Hover	Hover	n/a
39	LemonStand	LemonStand	2010
40	MediaValet	MediaValet	2010
41	CalendarBudget Inc.	CalendarBudget	2009
42	Wave Accounting Inc.	Wave	2010
43	Dundas Data Visualization	Dundas BI	1992
44	Vanilla	Vanilla Forums	2009
45	Axiom Zen	ZenHub	2002
46	Vidyard	Vidyard	2011
47	Klipfolio	Klipfolio	2001
48	TabbleDabble Inc	QuickTapSurvey	2010
49	Officevibe	Officevibe	2014
50	Flow	Flow	n/a
51	Pressly	Pressly	2011
52	Plan Academy Inc.	Plan Academy	n/a
53	PROMYS	PROMYS	n/a
54	5Touch Solutions Inc.	eventmobi	n/a
55	GlobalVision	GlobalVision	n/a
56	Soti	Soti MobiControl	1995
57	Primalogik	Primalogik 360	2012
58	Devolutions	Remote Desktop Manager	2014
59	knak.	knak	2015
60	Desire2Learn (D2L)	Brightspace	1999
61	Wishpond	Wishpond	2009
62	Prophix	Prophix Software	1987
63	Snappa	Snappa	2015
64	FunctionFox	FunctionFox	2000
65	Maximizer Software	Maximizer CRM	1987
66	CRMfusion	CRMfusion DupeBlocker	2000
67	BCIT	CodeIgniter	n/a
68	JumpDEMAND Inc.	ActiveDEMAND	2012
69	Acquisio	Acquisio	2003
70	Plumlytics Social	Plumlytics Social	2016
71	OpenBSD	OpenSSH	2007
72	PostBeyond Inc.	PostBeyond	2013
73	Rise People	Rise	2011
74	Fusebill	Fusebill	2011
75	Jostle Corporation	Jostle	2009
76	Vision Critical	Vision Critical	2000
77	Function Point Productivity Software	Function Point	n/a
78	Appveyor Systems, Inc	AppVeyor	n/a
79	Marketcircle	Daylite	1999
80	Retreaver	Retreaver	2012
81	gShift	gShift	2009
82	CaseWare International	Working Papers	1988
83	Signority	Signority	n/a
84	Allocadia Software	Allocadia	2010
85	Edsby	Edsby	2010
86	Universe	Universe	n/a
87	Logic Software	Easy Projects	1999
88	Active State	Komodo IDE	1997
89	C2 Enterprise	C2 ATOM	n/a
90	ScribbleLive	ScribbleLive	2008
91	Asigra	Asigra Cloud Backup	1986
92	Nexonia	Tallie	2002
93	Igloo	Igloo	2008
94	Bananatag Systems Inc.	Bananatag	2011
95	Grass Valley	EDIUS Pro	n/a
96	Venngage	Venngage	2012
97	Lightspeed	Lightspeed Retail	2005
98	Chalk & Wire	Chalk Wire Learning Assessment	1995
99	SkySignature	SkySignature	2013
100	Northplains	Xinet by Northplains	1994
101	Telmetrics Inc.	Telmetrics	1990
102	Achievers Corp.	Achievers	n/a
103	Celtx	Celtx	2001
104	Mitel Networks Corporation	Mitel Unified Communications	1973
105	Sysomos	Sysomos	2007
106	Norada Corporation	solve 360	2008
107	Corel Corporation	Painter	n/a
108	Panorama Software	Panorama Necto	2006
109	Top Producer	Top Producer CRM	1982
110	Needls.com	needls	2014
111	SideFX	Houdini	n/a
112	ContactMonkey Inc.	ContactMonkey	2011
113	OpenText	OpenText TeamSite	1991
114	Lavasoft	Ad-Aware	1999

 

For any questions about the methodology or data included in this piece, or to request that your Canadian B2B tech company be added, please reach out to Editorial Team Lead Jakub Rudnik at jrudnik@g2crowd.com.