Jobs. Manufacturing. Made-in-Canada IP.
North, Inc., formerly Thalmic Labs, ticks all the boxes. As a result, the federal government on Tuesday announced North, which three weeks ago launched its flagship smart eyewear product Focals, has qualified for $24 million in funding to help the company continue its growth trajectory.
“Fundamentally, it boils down to jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, who made the announcement at North’s Kitchener office before a room full of its employees.
The money is part of the government’s $1.26-billion Strategic Innovation Fund, which encourages research and development in the tech sphere.
Bains, at several junctures Tuesday, referenced North’s R&D efforts, as well as its commitment to manufacturing (in the form of its new 56,000-square-foot facility in Waterloo), and plans to soon hire another 180 employees to augment the 450 that it now employs.
“From our perspective we have a very robust criteria,” Bains said, asked how North qualified for the money. “We look first of all at the jobs that will be created. Are these good-quality, long-term jobs with growth potential? We look at overall positive impact on the economy. We look at research-and-development investment.
“R&D is really critical for our government because right now Canada ranks 22 out of 34 countries when comes to private-sector investment in research and development. So we want more money invested in research and development.”
North CEO and co-founder Stephen Lake, wearing his company’s flagship eyewear
product, Focals, speaks to employees Tuesday in the wake of receiving $24 million in
funding from the federal government. “We like to say Focals are designed in Kitchener
and built in Waterloo,” Lake said. “It speaks to this great community we have here.”
(Communitech photo: Sara Jalali)
North CEO and co-founder Stephen Lake was, as one would expect, pleased at the news, and talked about how the money would help the company strengthen the region’s economic engine.
“In order to create Focals, a product that leapfrogged efforts of our large global competitors, we had to make decisions that are atypical of a company of our size,” Lake said. “That included heavy investment in R&D, advanced manufacturing and more, right here in Kitchener-Waterloo.
“The support the Government of Canada is providing to this area through programs like the Strategic Innovation Fund helps us deepen that commitment.
“It’s not just about our company, North,” he added. “It’s about this ecosystem of technology companies that is continuing to flourish in the Kitchener-Waterloo region and the creation of jobs in southwestern Ontario.
“We like to say Focals are designed in Kitchener and built in Waterloo. It speaks to this great community we have here.”
North has launched storefronts in Toronto and New York in order to support Focals, which display holographic information to the user and are controlled by a small ring worn on the finger.
Bains, asked specifically what he likes about North as a company, as opposed to any other, called them “a Canadian success story.
“What makes them so successful is they’re a Canadian company with a lot of potential to grow and succeed globally. And we want to see that success and we want to be part of that success.
“North is the kind of fast-scaling technology company that’s only beginning to deliver value for Canadians by pioneering in the field of wearable technology and developing and retaining intellectual property in Canada.
Our government’s investment in North will help create hundreds of good, middle-class jobs, contribute to economic growth and position Canada as a world leader in a growing global market.”
