As Ottawa celebrates hitting a population of one million on Friday, the capital might owe a hat tip to Syntronic Canada for one or two Swedish immigrants.
Syntronic, the Sweden-based design house, set up shop in Kanata back in 2014 with expectations it might grow to around 120 employees within five years. Fast forward to 2019, and as Syntronic Canada celebrated its fifth anniversary in Kanata, the company is nearing 300 employees.
Techopia Live crashed the anniversary party on Thursday evening and sat down with Syntronic Canada’s president Hans Molin and senior vice-president Darrell Wellington to hear more about the company’s origins and what’s behind its rapid growth.
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When Molin moved over from his native Sweden to find a new R&D hub for Syntronic in North America, a few factors drew him to Ottawa. The area’s deep telecom talent pool and local universities were a clear draw, he told Techopia Live, but the primary reason to land in the Kanata tech park was the proximity to a slew of the company’s existing and potential customers. The crowd gathered at Syntronic Canada’s anniversary party heard repeatedly that the company doesn’t do anything without considering its customers, and the Canadian operations were no exception.
“We had the Atlantic between us. Now we’re sitting on their doorstep,” Molin said.
The company has found several partners in the park as well, including BlackBerry QNX, which parked its autonomous jeep out front of Syntronic’s offices on Terry Fox Drive for the festivities. Wellington noted that one of the great draws for new employees has been the variety of projects the company gets its hands on. While Syntronic doesn’t develop any original products of its own, the firm helps design and test tech across the telecom, automotive, industrial, defence and medical sectors.
“We’re not a product company – we work on many products,” Wellington said.
Molin told the crowd after Techopia Live had finished filming that he doesn’t know where the growth will stop at Syntronic Canada, but that he looks forward to continuing to build products and develop a new generation of talent here in Ottawa.
To hear about how Syntronic has managed the growing pains and office moves required to maintain its rapid expansion, watch the video above.
Note: The video incorrectly refers to Hans Molin as the president of Syntronic. He is president of Syntronic Canada.
