On November 16, Calgary-based Provision Analytics received the A100 One to Watch Award at this year’s virtual Start Alberta Tech Awards. Selected from a group of 17 nominated startups, the A100 One to Watch Award is presented to an Alberta up-and-coming tech company that is considered most likely to succeed as voted by A100 members.
“We’re providing solutions to digitize supply processes for food companies in order to increase trust and transparency in the world’s most important value chain,” says Erik Westblom, CEO, Provision Analytics.
“Alberta’s a really unique economy with a couple of significant industries,” says Westblom. “Agriculture is the second largest industry here, and we have an incredible opportunity to differentiate our product and help put Canada on the map from the food ecosystem standpoint.”
With many eyes on Provision and their continued success, Westblom and his team are ploughing forward with their growth plans.
“In the short-term, our focus through to the end of 2021 is careful strategic geographic expansion into a region such as the Netherlands, Mexico, Columbia, California or Australia in order to offset seasonality,” he says.
Ensuring an environment for growth also means having access to capital — a hot topic for Canadian tech founders like Westblom and an area he sees an opportunity to evolve.
“I would very much like to see Canadian VCs increase their appetite for risk,” he says. “We’re talking to almost 100 VCs right now and only four of them are Canadian.”
While the team at Provision continues to engage with interested VCs, Westblom is excited about his company’s future and the chance to tap into even more Alberta talent.
“Over the next three years we’re looking to hire 50 people and grow our product offering to include more data analytics, which will mean hiring more of the machine learning students coming out of the University of Alberta.”
2020 has been an unprecedented year for technology and innovation in Alberta and the rest of the world. Despite the difficulties and curveballs this year has thrown, the resilience that Albertan’s tech and innovation community has exhibited — including companies like Provision Analytics — is as impressive as it is inspiring.
The third annual Start Alberta Tech Awards recognized both individuals and organizations for their contributions to Alberta’s innovation ecosystem and those making a significant impact on the province’s tech sector.
View the full list of 2020 winners here.
