Derek Ting, CEO of TextNow, at the company’s office in San Francisco, Calif. TextNow hit the US$100-million annual revenue mark in 2021.The Globe and Mail
Few Canadian companies had as good a year as Cohere in 2025. The Toronto generative artificial-intelligence company raised US$600-million, achieved a US$7-billion valuation, opened offices around the world and hired star researcher Joëlle Pineau as its chief AI officer.
Cohere landed contracts with Royal Bank of Canada, Bell, Dell, Thales, SAP and LG as its AI software for automating office work gained traction.
“It feels like we’re just getting started,” said CEO Aidan Gomez in an interview.
After entering 2025 with annualized revenues of about US$50-million, Cohere exited the year at more than triple that level and “I think we’ll grow dramatically again next year,” he said.
Aidan Gomez, shown at the All In AI conference in Montreal in September, expects Cohere to ‘grow dramatically’ in 2026.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
That means Cohere has joined an elite group. In 2024, The Globe and Mail published a list of private Canadian technology and technology-enabled companies that had surpassed US$100-million in annual revenue, a yardstick of maturity and sustainability in the sector. The number was a surprisingly high 71 – with 19 above the US$300-million revenue mark.
Those numbers expanded in 2025. The US$100-million club now has 77 members, 24 of whom are above US$300-million, according to interviews with dozens of investors, business service providers and CEOs. The Globe is not identifying many of these individuals so they could speak freely about the companies.
In addition to Cohere, we’ve added Montreal e-commerce company Altitude Sports and Jane Software, a North Vancouver-based provider of practice-management software for health care professionals. Another newcomer, Payworks, took on its first outside shareholder when private-equity firm Hg Capital invested in the Winnipeg payroll-software company, making founder Barb Gamey one of Canada’s wealthiest self-made women.
Derek Ting founded TextNow in 2009.The Globe and Mail
Also joining the club are TradeCafe, a Toronto-based online commodities trading platform, and Sovra, the trade name for mdf commerce, which was TSX-listed until KKR bought it in 2024.
In addition, we’ve added a name that got overlooked last year: TextNow, led by CEO Derek Ting, which provides free talk-and-text mobility plans to more than eight million monthly users. The Waterloo company, founded in 2009, hit the US$100-million mark in 2021 (in-app advertising keeps its plans free for customers) and did about US$160-million in 2025.
TextNow, which has raised just US$1.5-million in outside capital, “has been profitable since day zero,” said Mr. Ting. “Our principle has always been to figure out the unit economics now, not later.”
We’ve dropped one name from 2024, Denvr Dataworks (the source we originally relied on last year declined to provide any information this year, so we removed Denvr out of caution). Another, Intelerad Medical Systems, will soon be gone: GE Healthcare said in November that it was buying the Montreal medical-imaging software vendor for US$2.3-billion.
What unites many US$100-million-club members is their all-in adoption of AI, which makes Cohere an apt flagbearer for the group. In 2025, tech companies leaned in heavily to AI, embedding large language model-based technology into their products while building automated agents to overhaul how they manage their businesses.
“For us internally, it was all about AI” in 2025, said Anna Sainsbury, executive chair of Vancouver’s GeoComply Solutions, a US$100-million-club member whose software confirms that clients accessing online betting and content streaming services are in the proper jurisdiction.
“Making sure you can stay ahead of the curve and innovative quicker has been a major focus,” she said.
Anna Sainsbury of GeoComply says 2025 was ‘all about AI.’Dina Goldstein/The Globe and Mail
It wasn’t just programmers who were expected to use AI every day, but lawyers, marketers, customer-service and human-resources staff too. US$100-million-club member Geotab, a pioneer in the telematics space, even introduced a system to score employees based on how much they use AI in their work.
That sense of urgency pervades Canada’s US$100-million club. Jane co-CEO Alison Taylor said that for years her company focused on “just iterating and making the product better in a stable environment.” That sensibility shifted this year as Jane immersed itself in using AI to better serve its 60,000-plus practice clients and enhance internal business processes.
“AI transformation is a pass-fail for companies,” she said. For example, as Jane was building a scribe feature for practitioners to use during patient visits, several free competing AI-driven scribe products appeared on the market. Jane customers adopted them.
“You’re seeing that your customer won’t wait for you,” Ms. Taylor said. “This is something they already want and you’re at risk if you can’t build it fast enough.”
Ken Harris, CEO of Montreal travel upgrade platform provider Plusgrade, offered a warning to his fellow US$100-million members: Those that don’t lean into AI, he said, “won’t stay on your list very long.”
Canada wants to excel in AI, but its funding model is frustrating tech leaders
Meanwhile, the US$100-million-club’s ranks could swell in the next two years judging by the explosive growth of several Canadian AI companies that generate tens of millions of dollars in revenues each. That includes CoLab AI, Ideogram AI, Spellbook and Turbopuffer. Another, Toronto’s Blue J Legal, whose ChatGPT-like chatbot for tax professionals is used by 4,000 law firms, raised $167-million this year. We’ve put them all on our watch list.
Three others – financial technology providers Relay Financial Technologies and Helcim and spatial data software vendor Safe Software, are within months of crossing the US$100-million mark as well.
It’s a fair question whether some of the emerging AI companies – many of which are unprofitable – are building durable businesses. Or what could happen if the AI bubble bursts, as many fear.
Questions remain about the accuracy of large language models powering generative AI given their propensity to make things up. Some are skeptical that the benefits ultimately won’t outweigh costs for many users.
“There’s a lot of exuberance,” said Sophie Forest, managing partner with Brightspark Ventures in Montreal, but “we’re also very realistic that some of it is temporary. There are a lot of people testing” the technology.
While Ms. Forest believes AI is here to stay, “we don’t know who the winners will be or if it will be permanent for the ones that are growing.”
And older software companies need to transform quickly or AI will displace many of them, said Chad Bayne, co-chair of law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP’s technology practice in Toronto.
Innovator of the Year: Geotab’s Neil Cawse goes from techie to powerhouse strategist
Most US$100-million-club members are profitable and well-funded. Many are valued into the billions of dollars. Several are active acquirers. Most are backed by global venture-capital or private-equity firms drawn to their potential. Collectively, they employ tens of thousands of people. If capital markets continue to warm up, several could soon go public.
Plenty of returning US$100-million-club members had great years. 1Password, Clio and StackAdapt passed US$400-million in revenues. PointClickCare Technologies, Geotab and Hopper could soon join Ottawa’s Fullscript in the US$1-billion club.
Clio, based in Burnaby, B.C., struck two landmark acquisitions that transformed it from a provider of practice-management software for small law firms to a vendor of tools to manage all aspects of the business and practice of law for firms of all sizes.
Oakville-based Geotab (whose CEO Neil Cawse was named ROB Magazine’s Innovator of the Year) and Ottawa’s Versaterm, also made nine-figure acquisitions. Investors clamored to buy into huge financings of several club members including StackAdapt, Jane, Fullscript, Clio, 1Password and Wealthsimple Financial.
Speaking of Wealthsimple, it led a surging class of Canadian fintech companies, reaching $100-billion in assets under administration in 2025, up more than threefold in less than two years. It is likely to be joined in the US$100-million club soon by rapidly growing Float Financial, Relay Financial and ZayZoon.
Michael Katchen, CEO of Wealthsimple. In 2025 the company reached $100-billion in assets under administration.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Online car seller Clutch Technologies found redemption two years after cutting staff, retreating from Western Canada and slashing its valuation by 97 per cent. Revenues in 2025 more than doubled from $320-million the prior year and it raised financing to surpass its peak 2021 valuation of $575-milliion.
Clutch more than tripled headcount in 2025 to 600-plus people and is expanding geographically again. “2025 was a foundational year for Clutch, proving our ability to scale,” CEO Dan Park said.
Remember, this all happened during a rough year for the Canadian economy. Data published by Leaders Fund in September also showed an alarming rise in the number of Canadian founders who have chosen to start or relocate their companies abroad.
Many tech entrepreneurs came into 2025 soured on the previous Liberal government after it proposed to increase capital-gains taxes (which Mr. Carney quickly cancelled).
But this year, big names in Canadian tech leaned into the new government’s nation-building spirit; after Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke tweeted “because I like Canada” in November (someone had asked why he didn’t move to the U.S.), it went viral, becoming a rallying cry for other domestic builders, including Mr. Gomez.
“It feels like there has been a sentiment shift, with people leaning more into Canada,” said Tate Hackert, chief strategy officer with Calgary-based ZayZoon, whose platform is used by employees to access cash between paydays from payroll providers.
“It’s starting to be noticed that you can build a company of scale here.”
Canada’s US$100-million+ club
AlayaCare (Alaya Care Inc.)
Alludo (Cascade Parent Ltd.)
Altitude Sports 9054-8553 Quebec Inc. *NEW*
ApplyBoard Inc.
Apryse Software Inc.
Assent Inc.
Auvik Networks Inc.
Banyan Software Holdings, LLC
Benevity, Inc.
BlueCat Networks, Inc.
Caseware International Inc.
Cohere Inc. *NEW*
Cority Software Inc.
Cymax Group Technologies Ltd.
Doxim Inc.
E INC (E Automotive Inc.)
eSentire Inc.
eStruxture Data Centers (eStructure Holdings Inc.)
Fantuan (Just Order Enterprises Corp.)
FinanceIt Canada Inc.
Freshbooks (2NDSITE Inc.)
Geocomply Solutions Inc.
Giro Inc.
Global Relay Communications Inc.
GoBolt (Bolt Technologies Inc.)
Hootsuite Inc.
Intelerad Medical Systems Inc.
Jane Software Inc. *NEW*
Jobber (Octopusapp Inc.)
Koho Financial Inc.
Sovra (mdf commerce Inc.) *NEW*
Mejuri Inc.
Miovision Techonlogies, Inc.
Mistplay Inc.
Neo Financial Technologies Inc.
Nesto Inc.
Payworks Inc. *NEW*
Prophix Software Inc.
Redbrick Technologies Inc.
Solace Corp.
Super.com (Snapcommerce Technologies Inc.)
Talent.com Inc.
TextNow, Inc. *NEW*
TradeCafe (Trade Café Inc.) *NEW*
Trulioo Information Services Inc.
Valnet Inc.
Varicent US Opco Corp.
Vena Solutions Inc.
Versaterm Inc.
Visier Inc.
Vosker (9381-9506 Québec Inc.)
Workleap Platform Inc.
Zafin Group of Cos.
US$300-million+ club
1Password (Agile Bits, Inc.)
Article (Trademango Solutions Inc.)
Clio (Themis Solutions Inc.)
Clutch Technologies Inc.
CoolIT Systems Inc.
Fullscript (Healthy Web Inc.)
Geotab Inc.
Hopper Inc.
Intelcom Courier Canada Inc.
Magnet Forensics Inc.
Mitel Networks (International) Ltd.
Nuvei Corp.
Plusgrade Inc.
PointClickCare Corp.
Previan Technologies Inc.
Questrade Financial Group Inc.
Ross Video Ltd.
Site 2020 Inc.
SOTI Inc.
SSENSE (Atallah Group Inc.)
Stackadapt Inc.
UniUni (Uni Express Inc.)
Valsoft Corp.
Wealthsimple Technologies Inc.
Trending to US$100-million in revenues within two years
Blue J Legal Inc. *NEW*
CoLab AI Inc. *NEW*
Float Financial Solutions Inc. *NEW*
Helcim Inc. *NEW*
Ideogram AI Inc.*NEW*
InnovMetric Software Inc.
League Inc.
Portless (Daily Grabs Inc.) *NEW*
Relay Financial Technologies, Inc.*NEW*
Safe Software Inc.
SemiosBio Technologies Inc.
Solink Corp.
Spellbook (Dialog Enterprises Inc.) *NEW*
Tailscale Inc. *NEW*
Turbopuffer Inc. *NEW*
Vendasta Technologies Inc.
Vention Inc. *NEW*
WorkJam Inc.
ZayZoon Inc. *NEW*