March 17, 2022
We are excited to announce that BlackSquare is one of 13 Calgary-based businesses that will receive federal funding from Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) as part of the Business Scale-Up and Productivity Program. The program provides interest-fee, repayable funding to support high-growth businesses that are scaling up and producing innovative goods, services, or technologies.
BlackSquare will use the $500,000 we receive through the program to expand our ecommerce platform Insight, which supports enterprise alcohol producers in building, growing, and scaling their digital direct-to-consumer presence. The platform works by collecting and consolidating data from every step of the end-to-end DTC journey, creating a central hub of actionable data that can be used for sales tracking and dashboarding, predictive analytics, and to inform data-driven decision making.
According to BlackSquare CEO, Matthew Protti, “This is a great win for Calgary-area technology growth companies and for BlackSquare itself. We’ve seen substantial demand for our technology in international markets including Europe, the U.S., and Australasia, and this funding allows us to continue scaling and bring in talented employees to expand our reach both in Canada and internationally.”
When announcing this round of funding, the Honourable Daniel Vandal, the Minister of Northern Affairs responsible for PrairiesCan, commented, “These local companies in Calgary are leading the way in innovation and reaching new markets. Our government’s major investment in these 13 leading-edge companies across Calgary … will help ensure the continued growth of Alberta’s thriving technology sector and create quality jobs that help drive our economy forward.”
The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, added, “Our government is empowering innovators to make their ideas a reality and access the supports and resources they need to reach their full potential. Today’s investment in some of Alberta’s most promising technology firms will bolster our province’s growing status as a leader in technology and innovation, create good jobs, and support economic growth in our province.”
About BlackSquare
Founded in 2010, BlackSquare is a Calgary-based company specializing in end-to-end ecommerce and direct-to-consumer support for enterprise clients in the global beverage alcohol industry. BlackSquare’s proprietary Insight platform offers a full suite of digital data solutions to integrate and enable every part of the digital alcohol sales journey, from Customer Acquisition to Engagement, to Ecommerce Enablement, to Fulfilment Coordination and Logistics Management. Find out more about BlackSquare’s DTC services and SaaS offerings at www.blacksquare.io.
About PrairiesCan
Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) is the department that diversifies the economy across the Canadian Prairies. PrairiesCan leads in building a strong, competitive Canadian economy by supporting business, innovation and community economic development unique to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Learn more about PrairiesCan here.