StoreLocators Inc.
Year Founded: Started November 2023, incorporated August 2024
Founder(s)/CEO: Ivan Sanchez, CEO and co-founder, Ryan Pamplin, chairman and co-founder, Landon Silla, VP engineering and co-founder
OBJ360 (Sponsored)
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa is the company’s new Canadian jewel
There’s a buzz of excitement at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa as a $350-million transformation of the former Rideau Carleton Raceway nears completion. This high-energy entertainment destination will soon
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa includes a 150-room hotel, expanded gaming facilities, restaurants and performance spaces. The transformation of the Rideau Carleton Casino into the Hard Rock Hotel
Number of Employees: Four – three based in Ottawa
Office Location: Studio7, 7 Bayview Station Rd.
Product Description: A platform tracking live product inventory in more than 100,000 retail locations across North America, helping to boost online and retail sales.
Target Customers: Eighty-five per cent of consumer spending still happens in physical retail. We’re focused on empowering Shopify-native brands that want to ensure their retail business success.
Competitive Differentiator: Just as Google indexes and organizes the world’s information, we index real-time product availability across every retailer and make it searchable.
Traction or Notable Milestone: Our platform is already tracking more than $1 billion in annual retail sales for our customers, including True Classic, Simple Modern and Bushbalm.
Whimble Care Inc.
Year Founded: 2021
Founder(s)/CEO: Emma Brown
Number of Employees: Six
Office Location: Studio7, 7 Bayview Station Rd.
Product Description: Whimble’s on-demand platform connects people with disabilities to personal care attendants for support at home and events, filling gaps when routine support systems are unavailable.
Target Customers: Individuals with disabilities and/or seniors seeking back-up care; Event organizers ready to level up their accessibility game
Experienced caregivers seeking control of scheduling and tasks
Competitive Differentiator: On-demand, client-directed platform featuring vetted providers; first to offer on-site attendant care to event organizers.
Traction or Notable Milestone: Over 8,000 hours of on-demand care provided to date; Partnerships with Ottawa Bluesfest, IIHF World Juniors, Capital Pride, and 50+ other events, festivals, conferences, galas, parasports; Toronto expansion launching Oct. 1, 2025
FirstList
Year Founded: 2023
Founder(s)/CEO: Derek Hooper and Andrew Paliga
Number of Employees: Four
Office Location: Fully remote
Product Description: A private listing platform that helps real estate agents and their clients market and access pre-market properties before they hit the MLS.
Target Customers: Real estate agents, teams and brokerages looking to enhance their buyer and seller client services through pre-market access.
Competitive Differentiator: Listings found in FirstList are exclusive to the platform and cannot be found anywhere else.
Traction or Notable Milestone: Currently live across Ontario with more than 5,000 agent users, expanding into Alberta and B.C. next.
Downpay
Year Founded: 2022
Founder(s)/CEO: Diana Birsan and Denis Zgonjanin
Number of Employees: Six
Office Location: Hybrid – Studio7, 7 Bayview Station Rd.
Product Description: Downpay helps Shopify merchants offer partial payments and deposits, making high-value purchases more accessible while improving merchant cash flow and checkout conversions.
Target Customers: Shopify merchants selling made-to-order, custom or premium products, including furniture, jewelry, apparel, event services and collectibles.
Competitive Differentiator: Downpay is a white-label, modern layaway solution. No loans, no interest while still offering flexible payment options that integrate seamlessly with Shopify’s native checkout.
Traction or Notable Milestone: Processed more than $155 million in merchant sales, serving 1,100+ Shopify businesses with 700 per cent year-over-year revenue growth while bootstrapped and proudly “Built for Shopify.”
Onik Inc.
Year Founded: 2023
Founder(s)/CEO: Rob Villeneuve, co-founder and CEO/CTO, and Jeremy Francis, co-founder and COO
Number of Employees: Two
Office Location: Fully remote
Product Description: Onik continuously monitors website performance and accessibility, detecting speed issues, broken components and compliance gaps to help teams maintain fast, reliable and user-friendly websites.
Target Customers: Web development agencies building and maintaining client websites and small to mid-sized businesses that invest in driving traffic to their websites.
Competitive Differentiator: Onik monitors website performance and accessibility without requiring any technical setup. Just provide a URL — no code changes, plugins, or configuration needed.
Traction or Notable Milestone: Onik’s platform is now testing more than two million unique pages per month as part of its ongoing performance and accessibility monitoring.
