AFO · Technology & SaaS
Non-dilutive capital, then equity — in that order.
Tech and SaaS businesses have an inverted balance sheet: little hard collateral, lots of payroll-heavy R&D, recurring revenue that scales faster than the company can self-fund. Most conventional debt structures don't fit. What does fit is the Canadian non-dilutive stack — SR&ED, IRAP, SDTC, digital media credits — followed by revenue-based financing on the working-capital side and equity only when the round is the right use of capital.
What makes this industry vertical distinct
- SR&ED + IRAP + SDTC layered as the first capital conversation.
- Provincial digital media credits captured where applicable.
- Revenue-based financing modelled against the dilution alternative.
How the capital stack works for technology & saas
Technology & SaaS, in practice.
SR&ED is the workhorse for Canadian tech. CCPCs get 35% refundable on the first $3M of qualified expenditures — payroll for technical staff working on technological uncertainty, contractor costs at a 65% rate, and overhead via the proxy method. The refund lands cash, which self-finances the next year's R&D. Provincial top-ups (Ontario 8%, BC 10%, Quebec varies) stack on top. The claim window closes 18 months after fiscal year-end; missing it is a permanent loss, so the discipline of scoping the project, tracking the time, and filing on schedule is the single biggest lever on the company's effective cost of R&D.
IRAP pairs financial assistance (up to 80% of internal technical salaries on the eligible project) with an NRC industrial technology advisor. The advisor often matters as much as the funding for first-time recipients — they see the technical roadmap, the commercialization plan, and the broader Canadian R&D landscape. SDTC and the Strategic Innovation Fund fund larger, longer-horizon projects (clean tech and industrial respectively) with eligibility narratives that need to be built deliberately. Provincial digital media tax credits — Ontario IDMTC at 35–40%, BC IDMTC at 17.5%, Quebec CDAE at 30–37.5% — refund eligible labour on interactive digital media development.
On the working-capital side, revenue-based financing fits SaaS economics cleanly: a fixed multiple (typically 1.2–1.5x) on an advance against future monthly revenue, repaid as a fixed percentage of sales until the multiple is paid back. No personal guarantee, no dilution — but the effective APR depends on repayment speed, so the structuring conversation matters. Equity crowdfunding and angel introductions sit beside this for the businesses where the next round is the right capital event; institutional rounds route through the dedicated Venture Capital module.
9 programs in the catalog · 4 live
Programs that fit technology & saas.
Curated by underwriting profile, not by tagging — each card links to the program profile. Coming-soon programs are surfaced honestly: the screener routes there with a consultation CTA instead of a self-serve apply link until the integration is wired through.
Federal refundable tax credit on eligible R&D salary, materials, and contractor expenditures.
Federal funding plus advisory for technical innovation projects in Canadian SMEs.
Federal funding for the development and demonstration of clean technologies.
Provincial Digital Media Tax Credits
Coming soonRefundable credits for interactive digital media development in Ontario, BC, Quebec, and others.
Capital advanced against future monthly revenue, repaid as a fixed % of sales.
Angel & Strategic Equity Introductions
Coming soonCurated introductions to angel investors, family offices, and strategic partners for early-stage capital.
Equity Crowdfunding
Coming soonPublic retail equity raises through securities-regulated crowdfunding platforms.
Cash-flow-underwritten facility from a chartered bank, credit union, or Schedule II lender.
Regional Development Agency Programs
Coming soonFederal regional programs (ACOA, FedDev Ontario, PrairiesCan, PacifiCan, CED-Q, CanNor).
Common stacks for this vertical
The combinations a CPA usually assembles for technology & saas.
A stack combines two or more of the programs above into a single capital-structuring answer — equipment + working capital, non-dilutive R&D, grant + debt. Each card names the programs AND the role each one plays.
- 3 layers
SR&ED + IRAP
SR&ED and IRAP are the two workhorses of Canadian R&D funding. They cover overlapping eligible expenditures but work through fundamentally different mechanisms — SR&ED is a refundable tax credit claimed in arrears against the corporate return; IRAP is a contribution program with pre-approval and draw-down funding. Run together on the same project, the two programs fund a meaningful share of a Canadian tech company’s technical labour. The trap is double-claiming the same hours: IRAP cannot pay for time also claimed as SR&ED, and the timesheet discipline matters.
Read the stack
- 6 layers
Clean-tech grant stack
Canada has built one of the deepest federal funding stacks in the world for clean technology, but the programs don’t self-orchestrate — each has its own application, eligibility, and matching-capital rule. The skill is layering them coherently so the project carries the lowest blended cost of capital without disqualifying itself from any individual program by stacking-rule conflict. Done well, a Canadian clean-tech project can pull 40–60% of total project cost as non-repayable contributions plus refundable tax credits, with the balance covered by senior debt or strategic equity.
Read the stack
Other industries
Different industry, different stack.
Each vertical has its own structuring conversation. A manufacturer’s balance sheet drives a different mix than a SaaS company’s payroll-heavy R&D — the programs that fit each shouldn’t be the same.
- 8 programs
Exporters
Exporters face two distinct capital gaps at once: the up-front cost of entering a new market (research, travel, trade shows, IP protection, translation) and the working-capital cycle of fulfilling export orders (longer DSO, currency exposure, foreign-buyer credit risk). Different instruments cover each gap; the right structure usually layers two or three rather than picking one.
Explore the vertical
- 9 programs
Clean tech & sustainability
Canada has built one of the deepest federal funding stacks in the world for clean technology — SDTC, the Strategic Innovation Fund, the Clean Tech Investment Tax Credit, IRAP, SR&ED, and the regional development agencies all touch clean-tech projects in different ways. The skill is layering them coherently so the project carries the lowest blended cost of capital without disqualifying itself from any individual program by stacking-rule conflict.
Explore the vertical
- 6 programs
Construction & trades
Construction and trades businesses share a tough working-capital profile: equipment-heavy balance sheets, long holdbacks on completed projects, and lumpy payment cycles tied to the general contractor's release schedule. The right capital stack matches the structure of those cash flows — equipment finance on the asset side, factoring or ABL on the receivables side, and CSBFP underneath both when the business qualifies.
Explore the vertical
Match the structure to the industry, not the other way round.
Twenty-minute call. Bring the business profile and the project; we’ll walk through which programs in this vertical fit, which grants and credits stack underneath, and how long the engagement takes.