3-Year-Growth +38,431%
The joke goes that Canada is three monopolies in a trench coat. Neo Financial, a four-year-old fintech from the founders of SkipTheDishes that has a million customers and 750 employees, is here to take off that trench coat—at least when it comes to banking. “We want to drive competition in financial services to give Canadians better banking options,” says co-founder and CEO Andrew Chau. “Our products revolve around alleviating pain points.”
Those pain points, it turns out, were many and varied. Customers can set up a Neo Financial account in under three minutes on their phones. There are no hidden fees or opaque terms that complicate the traditional banking experience, competitive savings rates, high cash-back rewards, and a super user-friendly app. Not surprising for the guys who launched a food-delivery app, Neo’s mission is to make banking as straightforward as, well, ordering takeout on your phone.
“We started SkipTheDishes and Neo Financial for the same reasons—to create innovative, homegrown companies that offer Canadians modern solutions to common problems,” says Chau. “Canada lagging behind when it comes to innovation is, unfortunately, a recurring theme. We want to help change that narrative.”
Ranking Canada’s Top Growing Companies of 2024
3-Year-Growth +1,063%
Getting tickets is generally not regarded as an enjoyable part of the event experience. If anything, consumers view ticketing services with no particular favour. But that’s something Lucas McCarthy, CEO of the Calgary-based ticketing company Showpass, wants to change. “We want the ticketing experience to be an extension of the experience artists and organizers work so hard to create,” he says.
To that end, presciently understanding that hidden fees do not a happy consumer make, Showpass embraced an all-in-one fee structure well before legislation to that effect was passed in the U.S. (Canada is planning a similar rule). And while major players tend to focus on concerts, Showpass wants to be the platform you interact with every week. From shows of big-name artists to your local museum (or corn maze, whatever floats your boat), Showpass’s technology was designed to accommodate virtually any event.
It’s paying off. Showpass is the largest independent ticketer in North America, and in the past three years, has doubled the size of its team—no small feat, given the pandemic. The result of that growth is supercharged innovation and product development. For instance, instead of forcing buyers to reach a merch quota before they can score a ticket to a popular concert, Showpass introduced more creative solutions—like giving access to users with the most Spotify listening hours for a given artist. Finally, a well-deserved reward for listening to the same album 200 times.
3-Year-Growth +955%
In the summer of 2020, Hobbiesville CEO Logan Fournier discovered his childhood binder of Pokémon cards and began selling them online. Realizing that most legacy hobby shops have outdated digital presences, he partnered with his friend Edmond Georges, a serial digital entrepreneur, to create a modern, direct-to-consumer hobby shop. Fournier left his job at Shopify and, by the end of that year, the pair made $2 million in sales. Now, the firm boasts eight-figure revenue, two brick-and-mortar stores and a strong international presence.
Hobbiesville CEO Logan Fournier partnered with his friend Edmond Georges, a serial digital entrepreneur, to create a modern, direct-to-consumer hobby shop.
Pro-Spin Sports, Toronto
3-Year-Growth +307%
Pro-Spin Sports CEO David Najgoldberg bootstrapped his eight-figure company with little more than a laptop. After a decade working as a marketer for consumer packaged goods firms, he researched white spaces in the online sports market—and found one in table tennis. Most portable table tennis sets were sold in blister packs, but he designed a packaged version in a convenient fabric bag, ordered 500 units and launched them online in the U.S. “Once I landed on the niche, it was about putting one foot in front of the other,” he says. “I just leaned in and kept going.”
The Food Dudes Inc., Toronto
3-Year-Growth +271%
If he’d wanted to, Food Dudes founder and chef Adrian Niman could have taken a step back from the day-to-day a long time ago. With 500 employees and 271% revenue growth between 2020 and 2023, it’s safe to say this Toronto-based catering company is a well-oiled machine. But Niman isn’t that kind of founder—he’s still the creative lead on every menu. CEO Lindsay Klein, who worked nearly every job (on the business side) in the company before ascending to her current role, has a similar level of hands-on involvement.
“Along the way, we’ve recognized what our strengths should be, and obsessed over improving them,” says Klein. “We’ve gotten bigger but we’re still growing, and we really care what that growth looks like.” That last part is key—making sure growth doesn’t dilute the quality of the offering is why the phone at Food Dudes HQ doesn’t stop ringing. “Whether we’re serving 1,000 people or 25, we’re consistent. All our ingredients are made in-house from scratch and clients always get the same level of quality,” she says. When the founder could be sipping out of a coconut on the beach but is instead obsessing over every last garnish, you know there’s something special going on.
D-BOX Technologies Inc., Longueuil, Que.
3-Year-Growth +257%
What’s more fun than watching a superhero movie on the big screen? Doing it in a snazzy high-tech chair that lets you feel every bit of the action. That’s something D-BOX Technologies, which designs and manufactures motion and haptic technology, figured out long ago—and it’s been key to the company’s success.
Based in Longueuil, Quebec and founded in 1998, D-BOX started out manufacturing powerful subwoofers, which audio enthusiasts would place around their chairs for a makeshift motion effect. The company listened to its customers, leaned into developing the relevant tech, and ended up creating products that are now used in more than 40 countries across 1,000 movie screens.
Besides shaking up the movie-going experience, D-BOX tech is used in racing rigs and professional simulation setups, from the air and rail sectors to the military. “Everything is going virtual, but human beings will never stop wanting to have experiences in reality—or those that approximate it,” says president and CEO Sébastien Mailhot. “The experience economy is an increasing part of our day-to-day, and we’ll continue to innovate within it.” Last year, D-BOX hit about $40 million in revenue, up from $11 million in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Strap in—this company is just getting started.
Fresh Prep, Vancouver
3-Year-Growth +201%
Meal kit services may help reduce food waste, but tend to be wasteful in other ways, relying on single-use plastics for packaging ingredients. Fresh Prep—founded by trio Husein Rahemtulla, Becky Brauer, and Dhruv Sood—spent three years developing a waste-free, reusable meal kit, each of which saves 19 grams of single-use plastics compared to alternatives. Now, it’s B Corp certified and serves 72 municipalities in B.C. and Alberta. Plus, their Korean style pork tacos are crazy delicious.
Rescue 7 Inc., Markham, Ont.
3-Year-Growth +123%
Rescue 7 CEO John Collie was a firefighter for 10 years and, in that time, he kept seeing bystanders helpless to save people experiencing cardiac arrest. Many lives could have been saved, he says, with quick access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs)—devices that deliver a calculated shock to restore heart rhythm. He started Rescue 7 to train the masses in the use of AEDs. Over time, given his hands-on knowledge, manufacturers asked him to start selling them.
“In the early 2000s, people tended to buy AEDs in a reactionary way when something bad would happen,” says Collie. Since then, thanks in part to Rescue 7′s concerted education campaign, the devices have become much more commonplace. The company has focused on the B2B market, having distributed 40,000 AEDs across the country to date, including 1,300+ to Shoppers Drug Mart in the past three years. Now Collie is working to add B2C to the portfolio. “I think these should be in every home, cottage and car,” he says. “Fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors are no-brainers, but few people have an emergency plan for if someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest.”
Rescue 7′s particular strength has long been its focus on spreading the word about AEDs. As part of its push to B2C, for instance, it’s lobbying insurance companies and provincial and federal governments to incentivize people to buy them. After all, the average response time for emergency medical services in Canada, according to a Rescue 7 study, is 8.1 minutes (and longer in rural areas)—a touch unsettling given that the first 10 minutes are crucial for intervention in cardiac arrest. Talk about doing well by doing good.
StemCell Technologies, Vancouver
3-Year-Growth +112%
The stemcell era is upon us, and with promising advancements from regenerative therapies to cancer treatment, it’s all but revolutionizing medicine. Stem cell research relies on some pretty special ingredients, including nutrient-rich solutions used to grow cells and high-tech systems for isolating them. And unlike stem cells themselves—which contain the same DNA before they specialize to become part of your brain, heart and so on—these materials are not all created equal.
In the early 1990s, Allen Eaves, then UBC’s head of hematology and director of the Terry Fox Research Institute cancer laboratory he founded with his wife, wasn’t happy with commercially available cell growth products. His lab started making their own and, to recoup costs, sold to other scientists around the world. In 1993, he incorporated Stemcell, and now it’s the largest biotech company in the country.
“Our tag line is scientists helping scientists, and that’s our genuine philosophy,” says Eaves. With a global presence, 2,485 employees and a portfolio of 2,500 products—including 324 launched in the past three years alone—Stemcell’s primary growth driver is a relentless sense of purpose. “Our mission is to advance the pursuit of scientific knowledge. That goal keeps our employees engaged and motivated, inspiring them to innovate.”
Online auto retailer CanadaWheels is on track to exceed $20 million in revenue this year, and has plans to open a sister site south of the border.
CanadaWheels, Ottawa
3-Year-Growth +81%
CanadaWheels, an online retailer of tires and other auto equipment, wants to be the Amazon of car parts. The store—flush with more than two million products—syncs in real-time with more than 300 manufacturers’ warehouses. It also offers nifty features like an advanced visualizer, which should prevent any embarrassing rim/paint job mismatches. With 33% year-over-year revenue growth, on track to exceed $20 million in 2024, the company’s on to something. And soon, it plans to rev up sales with a sister site south of the border.
MAD Elevator Inc., Mississauga
3-Year-Growth +67%
Just about any business consultant you hire will give you the same advice to boost the bottom line: refine your company’s hiring and training. But when it comes down to it, many leaders have a hard time with a key part of the equation: getting out of employees’ way. Not Steve Reich-Rohrwig, CEO of MAD Elevator. He joined the elevator parts manufacturer in 2008, when it had 20 employees, and he has since grown the staff to more than 260. Throughout that journey, he resisted the siren song of bureaucracy—and it’s become a cornerstone of the company’s success.
With less red tape, MAD employees can focus on customer service rather than jumping through administrative hoops. “When customers win, we win,” Reich-Rohrwig says. To that end, he empowers workers to engage with customers and resolve issues without going up the chain. After all, giving the staff you worked so hard to recruit trust and autonomy doesn’t just boost morale and innovation—it makes for quicker, more effective service. Frontload your effort and hire smart, then step back.
Geotab, Oakville, Ont.
3-Year Growth +65%
In 2000, Neil Cawse started the fleet-tracking firm Geotab in the basement of his Oakville home. It now has 2,200 employees, 11 offices around the world, and processes billions of data points every hour. In the beginning, Geotab’s tech simply tracked vehicle location, but the company’s explosive growth is down to keeping up with the times.
Decades of dedicated R&D have yielded an AI-powered platform that tracks and provides insights on everything from fuel efficiency to driver behaviour. Because the company owns all the IP for its products, including customer-facing software, it’s quick to respond to market demands. Plus, in a relatively rare move for a Canadian company of this size, Geotab is still privately held.
“Our growth is a testament to entrepreneurial spirit and customer obsession,” says Cawse. “Our significant investment in AI and data technology is improving connected vehicle safety, performance and sustainability outcomes in fleets across the world.” It helps that the service is highly customizable, with features like in-vehicle cameras, temperature tracking, tire pressure monitoring—basically, whatever your fleet-tracking heart desires. Geotab keeps growing because it’s used to pioneering a new way of doing things—after all, Cawse founded a data company long before that was a buzzword.
