Vendasta received $1,416,100 through PrairiesCan’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative to build an AI workforce for local businesses across Canada
Government of Canada invests $1.4 million in AI talent at Vendasta
Vendasta received $1.4 million in funding through the Government of Canada’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) provided by Prairies Economic Development Canada. ·Globe News Wire Co., Ltd.
Utilize AI to eliminate manual work
Manual work will result in most of your revenue being lost, but AI will instantly fix that. ·Globe News Wire Co., Ltd.
SASKATOON, Canada, May 7, 2026 (Globe Newswire) — Vendasta has received $1.4 million in funding through the Government of Canada’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) through Prairies Economic Development Canada. This investment accelerates Vendasta’s mission to democratize enterprise-grade AI for local businesses, making the same technology that powers the world’s largest companies available to local plumbers, restaurateurs, and law firms.
This is what happens when the right investment is made at the right time.
“At a time of global uncertainty, it is more important than ever to support home-grown innovation that creates good jobs and strengthens Canada’s position as an innovation powerhouse,” said Her Royal Highness Eleanor Olszewski, Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience Canada and Minister of Economic Development of the Prairies. “Our new government is investing in Saskatchewan’s dynamic technology sector to drive growth, attract investment and strengthen Canada.”
please read PrairiesCan News Release and Backgrounder.
Local companies are outnumbered
52% of large companies are already using AI. Only 17.4% of small and medium-sized enterprises.
This gap is not about relevance. AI is just as useful for a two-person dental office as it is for a Fortune 500 company. The gap is about access. Complexity, cost, and the belief that enterprise-grade technology isn’t actually theirs. Of the small businesses that made the leap, 91% reported a direct increase in revenue. Technology works. It just hasn’t reached everyone yet.
That’s the problem Vendasta was created to solve. And that’s the problem this funding accelerates.
About the Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative
RAII is part of Canada’s 2024 budget proposal to ensure Canada’s AI advantage. Through this program, Prairies Economic Development Canada will provide $33.8 million over five years to help start-up and scale-up AI companies bring real-world solutions to market, and to help companies in agriculture, healthcare, clean technology, and manufacturing implement the technology in practice. The project will receive funding ranging from $250,000 to $5 million and will remain available until December 31, 2028.
Vendasta has been awarded $1,416,100 in an effort to commercialize AI-enhanced workflows to support businesses across Canada and beyond. This funding will accelerate the development and deployment of AI workforces in businesses across Canada and beyond.
This is the right investment at the right time. Canada is already a world leader in AI research and development. RAII ensures that the leadership of the companies that drive Canada’s economy translates into real productivity gains.
Bringing AI to local businesses
It’s not just words, it’s the whole point. For years, “AI for business” has meant dashboards, reports, and tools that make your life a little easier. Vendasta is creating something different: an AI workforce. laborer. Role-based, pre-loaded with company-specific data, deployed in minutes, and ready for work from day one.
AI receptionists answer calls and schedule appointments 24 hours a day. AI Reputation Specialist monitors and responds to reviews across all platforms. The AI Sales Assistant captures leads, qualifies them, moves them into the pipeline, and enters everything directly into your CRM without any human intervention. Each person arrives with an understanding of the business: the data, the history, the customers. Each of us will be on the job from day one.
See it in action: Put AI to Work — Vendasta’s campaign.
The recent launch of MARiO is Italy’s first AI workforce exclusively for local companies, deployed on a national scale through Italiaonline. This proved what Vendasta has always believed: an AI workforce is not a futuristic concept. This is now a scalable reality for every local business in every market.
Vendasta’s AI employees already reach more than 8 million local businesses around the world through a network of more than 60,000 channel partners (agencies, media companies, telcos, software providers). This funding will help us reach more people, faster, and build the next generation of role-based AI workers that local businesses actually need.
“We started Vendasta because we believed local businesses deserved better technology than they were getting. But that’s what we’re all about,” said Jeff Tomlin, co-founder of Vendasta. “What has changed is what is now possible. AI can now do jobs that previously required full-time employment. This funding allows us to bring that to more companies, more quickly. And the fact that we’re doing it from Saskatoon, yeah, that part never gets old.”
It was built here. Proven everywhere.
Vendasta has been headquartered in Saskatoon since its inception. It is a choice and one we choose again.
This prefecture makes things that last. The technical talent, the founders who stayed and built the company rather than leaving for brighter places, and the culture of serious work rather than performance are the foundations on which Vendasta stands.
This funding arrives at a meaningful moment for the prairie ecosystem. VVendasta is proudly hosted by Co.Labs, Saskatchewan’s technology incubator, as part of the Uniting the Prairies conference, the province’s largest annual technology event. This conference brings together founders, investors and builders from across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to join us to grow something that doesn’t exist anywhere else. RAII is exactly the kind of investment the community has been acquiring. It’s federal recognition that world-changing companies are being built here and the ecosystem deserves the resources to continue to grow. Vendasta is one of five Saskatchewan organizations recognized in this funding round, along with Coconut Software, HomeTeam Live Technologies, University of Regina and Artificial Intelligence Saskatchewan Corp.
A prairie technology ecosystem has not emerged. It has appeared. Vendasta is proof of that. This investment is just beginning.
About Vendasta
Vendasta is an AI workforce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Vendasta provides AI employees that automatically perform marketing, sales, and operations tasks, helping local businesses regain time and scale without the overhead of traditional hiring. Founded in Saskatoon, Vendasta has a global network of more than 60,000 partners who help small and medium-sized businesses stop managing software and start achieving results. Learn how to hire your first AI employee. Vendasta.com.
