ScaleUP Awards recognize Western Canadian companies

The 2026 ScaleUP Awards in Calgary recognized eight companies from across Western Canada, with winners spanning clean technology, rural broadband, Indigenous food manufacturing, property technology, climate technology, and consumer products.

The finalists spanned across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and together generated an estimated $640 million in combined annual revenue and supported more than 1,800 jobs.

“Over the past three years, we have seen ScaleUP evolve from an idea into a growing movement focused on celebrating and supporting the leaders building the future economy of Western Canada,” says Dr. Simon Raby, founder of ScaleUP Week.

“The level of interest in this year’s awards reflects both the strength of the companies emerging across the region and a growing recognition of the importance of scaling globally competitive businesses from Canada.”

The awards were presented during ScaleUP Week 2026, now in its third year, and focused on companies growing beyond the startup stage. The program celebrates leadership, innovation, international expansion, sustainability, and community impact. It’s now a leading gathering for founders, CEOs, investors, policymakers, researchers, and ecosystem leaders to focus on the challenges and opportunities of scaling businesses once they’ve outgrown the startup stage.

Two Vancouver companies took home double honours. Functional beverage company Blume won Women-Led ScaleUP of the Year, and CEO Karen Danudjaja was named ScaleUP Entrepreneur of the Year. Clean technology manufacturer Oxygen8 Solutions won International ScaleUP of the Year and ScaleUP Company of the Year.

Here is the winner’s list in full.

The 2026 ScaleUP winners

People’s Choice ScaleUP of the Year: Build Inc., Winnipeg, Manitoba

Winnipeg-based Build Inc. is an Indigenous non-profit social enterprise combining a paid construction training program with a contracting business specializing in apartment turnover, renovation, and affordable housing maintenance. Founded in 2006, the organization has trained more than 1,000 Manitobans, most of them Indigenous. Many participants come to the program after aging out of Child and Family Services, time in the justice system, or experiences with addiction and mental health challenges. 

ScaleUP Entrepreneur of the Year: Karen Danudjaja, CEO of Blume

Karen Danudjaja’s path to Entrepreneur of the Year ran through a buy-out and a pandemic. Around the start of 2020, two years after launching Blume, she bought out her co-founder and put her savings into the company, just as cafés carrying Blume’s products shut down. The direct-to-consumer (DTC) pivot worked. DTC revenue grew 300% the following year, anchoring Blume’s expansion into national retail and U.S. growth. Her approach to scaling has stayed close to community building, customer relationships, and the small local retailers that first stocked Blume.

ScaleUP Company of the Year: Oxygen8 Solutions, Vancouver, British Columbia

Oxygen8 Solutions was founded in 2020 by clean tech entrepreneur James Dean and HVAC engineer Matthew Doherty, formerly of Swegon. Dean previously founded dPoint Technologies, the Vancouver firm behind the membrane energy recovery technology at the core of Oxygen8’s products. The company launched in June 2020, just as indoor air quality became a board-level concern. It has since grown from a handful of employees to roughly 230, with three manufacturing sites in B.C. and an R&D centre in Toronto. In 2024, Deloitte Canada named Oxygen8 the country’s fastest-growing clean technology company, with three-year revenue growth of 6,610%.

Rising Star ScaleUP of the Year: Propra Technologies, Calgary, Alberta

Calgary-based Propra Technologies, founded in 2021 by CEO Al-Karim Khimji and CTO Craig Adam, builds property management software designed around the finances of running rental portfolios. AI tools handle bill capture, reconciliation, and tax workflows specific to Canadian property managers. The platform manages more than 25,000 units across Canada and has processed more than $70 million in payments. Century 21 Canada selected Propra as its property management platform in 2025, a meaningful validation for a company still under five years old.

Emerging ScaleUP of the Year: Taiv, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Winnipeg-based Taiv was co-founded in 2018 by CEO Noah Palansky, CTO Jordan Davis, and CRO Avi Stoller, with several SkipTheDishes alumni on the team. Its hardware connects to existing cable boxes in bars and restaurants, uses AI to detect commercial breaks during live TV, and replaces national ads with venue-specific promotions, trivia, or branded content from advertisers including Pepsi, Bacardi, and BMW. Taiv now operates in more than 5,000 venues across 31 U.S. markets and raised $14.4 million CAD in Series A funding last year. A broader Canadian rollout is planned for 2027.

Sustainable ScaleUP of the Year: Veritree, Vancouver, British Columbia

Veritree, a Vancouver-based climate technology platform that spun out of sustainable apparel brand tentree in 2022, helps companies verify and track reforestation projects on the ground. CEO and co-founder Derrick Emsley, who also co-founded tentree, has built the platform around the idea that nature-based climate commitments need data to be credible. Veritree uses blockchain, AI, drones, and field sensors to monitor agroforestry, mangrove restoration, kelp seaforestation, and post-wildfire restoration projects across Canada, the U.S., and several other countries. The company has facilitated pledges to plant more than 100 million trees and raised $9.1 million CAD in Series A funding last year.

Social Impact ScaleUP of the Year: Valley Fiber, Winkler, Manitoba

Winkler-based Valley Fiber builds fibre-optic internet infrastructure in rural and remote Manitoba communities where high-speed access has been limited for years. Founded in 2016, the company has invested over $300 million to build fibre networks across more than 175 communities in the province. A partnership with the Canada Infrastructure Bank involves laying 2,550 kilometres of fibre-optic cable to reach up to 49,000 households. The company also works with Indigenous communities on long-term connectivity projects.

Women-Led ScaleUP of the Year: Blume, Vancouver, British Columbia

Blume is a Vancouver-based functional beverage company built on superfood latte blends and gut-health elixirs, now in more than 4,000 retailers across Canada and the U.S., including Whole Foods, Target, and Sprouts. Founder and CEO Karen Danudjaja started the company in 2017 with a line of dry latte blends designed as caffeine alternatives. Blume has since added the SuperBelly elixir line, expanded DTC offerings, and built a national retail footprint on both sides of the border. 

Inclusive ScaleUP of the Year: Mitsoh, Edmonton, Alberta

Edmonton-based Mitsoh makes pemmican and dried bison snacks using traditional Cree drying and smoking techniques. Founder Ian Gladue, a member of Bigstone Cree Nation in Treaty 8 Territory, learned the methods from his mother and uses bison, prairie berries, maple syrup, smoke, salt, and pepper. The traditional technique produces shelf-stable meat without chemical preservatives. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency approved the method for global sales in 2022, and Mitsoh’s products are now in more than 600 retail locations across Canada.

International ScaleUP of the Year: Oxygen8 Solutions, Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver-based Oxygen8 Solutions designs and manufactures high-efficiency ventilation systems that improve indoor air quality in commercial buildings, using membrane-based energy recovery, and a strategic partnership with Japanese HVAC giant Daikin. Roughly two-thirds of the company’s revenue now comes from the U.S., where installations include a wing of the Pentagon, the Empire State Building, more than 100 JPMorgan Chase facilities, and Apple retail stores. About 60% of Oxygen8’s current work is retrofitting existing buildings, with the bulk of demand coming from south of the border.

For a look at the 2025 winners and what they were building, click here.