3 Victoria businesses receive $3.25M in federal funding for expansion

The federal government has promised $3.25-million split between three Vancouver Island companies to help them expand.

The funding is coming from the federal government's Business Scale-up and Productivity (BSP) program, which is intended to help local Canadian companies grow.

For Victoria-based DeeBee’s Organics, the all-natural freezie business is booming, and the BSP funding will help them expand.

"We did close to 100 million tubes of freezies last year," said Dionne Laslo-Baker, founder and CEO of DeeBee’s Organics.

The company began from humble beginnings in the kitchen of Laslo-Baker’s house. Five years later, the business has turned into a local success story.

"We are one of very few women-owned businesses generating more than $30-million in sales," said the founder and CEO.

The organic freezies are now sold in more than 15,000 retail outlets across North America, and world freezie domination is the ultimate goal.

To get there, it will take a significant financial investment.

"So I’m announcing $3.25-million in BSP funding for three innovative companies right here in Victoria," said Harijit Sajjan, Minister of International Development and the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada (PacifiCan) at a press conference at Thrifty Foods in Langford on Wednesday.

DeeBee’s Organics Superfruit natural freezies are shown. (CTV News)

DeeBee’s Organics will receive $1.4-million dollars of that overall pot.

Laslo-Baker says that funding will go towards the "construction and hiring of the manpower, the talented Canadians to help make that happen."

The money will also go towards trademarks and intellectual property for new innovations and the marketing of products that will be created through that innovation.

TWO MORE BUSINESSES TO GROW

Meanwhile, another Victoria-based company benefitting from Wednesday's announcement is Peloton Technologies.

"We received $500,000 in funding today," said Nicole Mackie of Peloton Technologies.

The company is a cloud-based payment platform that allows its customers to consolidate all banking and payment activities into a single portal.

"We have just hit $1-billion in processing, which is a massive milestone for our company," said Mackie.

Peloton will use the BSP money to hire 12 more employees.

Peloton Technologies cloud-based payment platform is shown. (CTV News)

Local video game company Codename Entertainment will also receive $1.35-million, which it will use to increase its workforce by 25 per cent.

"So I look forward to seeing your future results, and I look forward to your innovation, and I look forward to tasting that innovation from DeeBee’s as well," said Sajjan on Wednesday.

Laslo-Baker says her freezie company has expanded over 100 per cent year over year, and that it's on target for the same growth next year.

"We should be making more than 200-million freezies next year," she said.