What is Startup en Résidence?
An eight month acceleration and investment programme powered by Desjardins, based in Montreal. It backs early stage Canadian technology companies whose growth has a positive socio-economic impact on their communities.
Company
LevelOps joins Desjardins Startup en Résidence
An eight month acceleration and investment programme powered by Desjardins, for Canadian technology startups with a positive socio-economic impact on their communities.
LevelOps has joined Startup en Résidence, the acceleration and investment programme powered by Desjardins. The programme runs eight months and supports early stage Canadian technology companies whose growth has a positive socio-economic impact on their communities, pairing them with mentors drawn from a network of more than fifty entrepreneurs and experts.
What the programme is
Startup en Résidence is based in Montreal. It is powered by Desjardins, the largest financial cooperative in Canada, and it describes itself as an acceleration and investment programme rather than a pure accelerator. It selects a small number of companies per call and works with them over eight months on the priorities the founder brings, rather than pushing every company through the same curriculum.
What participating companies get
The programme publishes its terms. Selected companies receive access to mentorship from a network of more than fifty entrepreneurs and experts, office space for the duration, and a non dilutive grant of fifteen thousand dollars intended to fund external work such as legal, accounting or design. Companies that complete the programme may also be eligible for an investment of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, drawn from a five million dollar envelope. That investment is explicitly not guaranteed.
Why this programme
The socio-economic impact criterion is the part that made it a fit. The problem LevelOps works on is unglamorous: wholesalers and manufacturers paying people to retype purchase orders that a buyer already typed. Solving it does not create a new market, it gives small and mid sized operators back the hours they are currently spending on data entry, in an industrial base where those hours are hard to replace. That is the case the company made.
What it changes for customers
Nothing immediate, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise. Pricing, plans, support and the roadmap are unchanged. The practical effect of an accelerator is on the company behind the product, not the product this quarter. If it shows up for customers at all, it shows up later, as a company that is still here and still shipping.
The facts
- Programme
- Startup en Résidence, powered by Desjardins
- LevelOps founded
- 2021, Montreal, Quebec
- Duration
- Eight months
- Programme grant
- Fifteen thousand dollars, non dilutive, for external services
- Potential investment
- Up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, not guaranteed, from a five million dollar envelope
- Selection criterion
- Early stage Canadian technology companies with positive socio-economic impact
“We are not a company that needed a programme to tell it what to build. What we wanted was people who have already made the mistakes we are about to make, and a room where saying the thing is not working out loud is normal. Eight months of that is worth more than the cheque.”
Sources
Everything above can be checked. These are the public records behind the claims in this release.
About LevelOps
LevelOps is a Montreal operations and technology company serving manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. It implements ERP, MRP and Shopify systems, and builds PDF to Order, an app that converts inbound purchase orders arriving as PDF, Excel, CSV or email text into Shopify draft orders matched to the seller's catalogue and contracted pricing, for human approval.
Questions, answered
Has Desjardins invested in LevelOps?
The programme offers a fifteen thousand dollar non dilutive grant and eligibility for an investment of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which the programme states is not guaranteed. Those are the programme's published terms. We are not announcing an investment, and you should not read one into this release.
Does this change LevelOps ownership or control?
No. The grant the programme describes is non dilutive, and no investment is being announced here.
Does it change pricing, plans or support?
No. Nothing about the product, its pricing or its support changes as a result of joining a programme. The roadmap is unchanged.
Where can I read the programme's own terms?
On the Startup en Résidence site, linked in the sources below. Duration, grant amount, investment ceiling and selection criteria are all published there rather than paraphrased only by us.
Questions about this announcement?
We answer press enquiries the same day. The press kit has the boilerplate, the verifiable facts and the brand assets.