What a week in Ottawa at the 10th annual SaaS North 2025 Conference! The packed days with 2000+ attendees brought the energy and a focus on future-proofing Canadian SaaS with AI. Hands-on sessions, a competitive pitch competition, and some SaaS North classics like the “Masked Investor” were all hits.
This week was a valuable collision of investors, entrepreneurs and service providers. The mix lent itself well to valuable conversations in every room. SaaS, AI and tech innovation are alive and well in Canada and having everyone in the ecosystem together in one place was a great reminder of that.
GrowWise was thrilled to sponsor the SaaS North 2025 PitchFest, where 25 founders pitched to win the grand prize. Congratulations to the PitchFest winner Akhil Suresh Nair from Xena Intelligence! He took home the grand prize of $10K plus, as sponsors, GrowWise awarded a full year of completely free SR&ED consulting services to support innovation in Canada.
Canadian SaaS Trends
With a heavy focus on practical applications of AI, this conference was an insightful and action-oriented few days. From the sessions about AI applications in enterprise companies to the tactical breakout session about future-proofing SaaS companies with smart AI implementation strategies.
It was clear that the message in Canada is that AI is a tool to increase efficiency, but it is not the end-all-be-all solution it was once painted to be. This conference discussed AI in the practical and real ways that it can and should be used by SaaS and tech companies. From vibe coding to automating sales processes, there is a lot it can help with, especially for SaaS startups and scaleups. There are also many areas where customers crave human interaction, expertise and experience more than ever. We’ve taken this approach at GrowWise and implemented what we call “Supervised-AI” whereby our approach to SR&ED consulting combines the best of human and artificial intelligence for efficiency and reality.
Being smart and fast when implementing AI solutions is key. With a million and one AI solutions popping up every day, be strategic and plan the intersection of the AI and human processes so that there aren’t gaps and issues when the process sales.
Capital is available, but disciplined. The hilarious and valuable Masked Investor session, which has quickly become a SaaS North classic, set the stage for the investment landscape in Canada. Investors are here, and there is money to be spent, but more focus is being put on efficient growth, sustainable unit economics, and clear paths to profitability rather than lofty valuations or speculative scaling.
A big focus (not only of the conference, but also of the 2025 Budget, which was released on Tuesday, November 4th) was on increasing Canada’s financial independence from the US through increased domestic trade, as well as on scaling to markets outside of the US.
An overall sentiment at SaaS North was on increasing support for Canadian tech companies. There were several sessions on this, as well as three “Regional Showcases” where the West, Central and East regions of Canada respectively had 5-10 companies pitch on stage for increased visibility and exposure.
SaaS North 2025 PitchFest
The expansion of the SaaS North PitchFest program this year meant that 25 founders had the chance to pitch on stage to compete for the 4 slots in the final pitch competition.
Startups ranged from AI assistants for small offices, to AI-driven intelligence for climate change resilience, to SaaS tech for Veterinary offices and more. Coming from all across Canada, ranging in industry and size, these companies all did a great job pitching and answering some tough questions from the panel of judges.
The top 4 finalists were Construction Clock, Resiliocs, Serenity Vet, and Xena Intelligence.
It all came down to a live audience vote for the fan favourite, where Akhil Suresh Nair from Xena Intelligence took home the $10K cash prize, and several prizes from the sponsors.
GrowWise sponsored the PitchFest and awarded a full year of free SR&ED consulting services to Xena Intelligence to support innovation in Canada. As a team, we are changing the SR&ED consulting industry with our innovation and AI-driven approach and we want to support other innovators who are also innovating and changing their industries.
SaaS North 2025 Real Takeaways
The energy was high, the networking opportunities were endless, and the sessions struck a strong balance between strategy and practicality. The “Masked Investor” session reminded founders to stay grounded, and the PitchFest and SheBoot programs showed real money is still flowing into Canadian startups that are solving meaningful problems and showing strong traction.
SaaS operations in Canada show no signs of reduction in growth. The sector continues to transform. The industry now operates with enhanced discipline through data-based decision-making and artificial intelligence implementation. Businesses across the industry concentrate on achieving sustainable expansion while implementing efficient growth strategies and tracking specific customer results. The market shows continued optimism, but now combines this with realistic business approaches.
If there was one common thread through the week, it was adaptability. The most successful founders are blending AI with human intelligence, leveraging SR&ED and other funding programs to extend runway, and building solid foundations before chasing scale. In a conversation with an investor at the afterparty, he mentioned, “Now more than ever, founders need traction before investments. If you’re chasing me for money, I’m not chasing you. I want to give you my money if you can show me you are already getting there without it”. It is so important for early-stage startups to get that customer validation, even if that means giving services away for free, to validate your product and product market fit before looking for investment.
The SaaS sector in Canada advances through combined support from venture capital investments and government backing, and an expanding technical workforce. The SR&ED program enables domestic innovation by providing essential funding that helps startups maintain global competitiveness without requiring equity surrender.
GrowWise supports the mission to develop Canada’s innovation sector. Our organization dedicated a complete year of SR&ED consulting services to support the PitchFest winner because we want to support Canadian innovation.
As SaaS North 2025 reminded us, the deals might start in a meeting, but the real growth happens when great ideas get the funding and support they deserve.
