Jessica Moorhouse and the More Money Podcast spoke with some of this year’s Visa She’s Next Grant Program recipients for a special mini-series. Gain helpful insights from inspiring Canadian women entrepreneurs by listening to the episodes below.
Entrepreneurship can be unpredictable. Linda Biggs, Visa She’s Next Grant recipient and Founder of joni, knows that better than most. Learn how a shocking realization made her rethink her career path and how she is conquering all-new challenges.
Rashmi Prakash
Aruna Revolution is transforming disposable hygiene with the first fully circular, waste-free fiber solution for menstrual, incontinence, and medical applications. Aruna’s patent-pending compostable fiber technology upcycles agricultural biproducts into absorbent fibers that break down naturally, so there’s no deforestation and no synthetic chemicals.
Alice Couderc
Atome Bakery combines convenience, quality, and sustainability with their ready-to-bake sourdough bread and pastries. Atome’s products are high quality, cleaner and healthier than supermarket bread, and easier for gluten-sensitive individuals to digest. Atome delivers its products frozen to minimize food waste while ensuring freshness and can reach suburban and remote customers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access artisan-quality bread.
Maryam Parizi
Bayes Studio delivers AI-driven aerial and ground-based sensory systems that provide real-time wildfire intelligence for early detection, live monitoring, and data-driven decision-making. Bayes combines IoT-enabled ground sensors with autonomous aerial systems, all powered by advanced AI models, to empower emergency responders with high-accuracy real-time data, even in remote areas. By supporting every phase of wildfire management, Bayes Studio aims to enhance resilience and protect lives, land, and ecosystems.
Mishel Wong
Bo helps consumers borrow and return restaurant containers with its B2B2C software. Bo makes things easier for the consumer and for the business, determining decentralized drop-off locations and handling pickup, warewashing, and redistribution.
Cynthia Benoit
Eversa specializes in enhancing communication by offering expert sign language services, training, consulting, and translation across multiple languages. Eversa drives accessibility and inclusion by battling misconceptions and biases that impede Deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the workforce. Despite facing unique challenges as a Deaf-led business, Eversa has developed initiatives like EvaLSQ and LSQ courses to advance Quebec Sign Language education and interpretation, earning numerous prestigious awards.
Carly Olynyk
Facetec is a software company that specializes in innovative AI-driven photo management and marketing tools. Designed to help healthcare professionals introduce, manage, and expand medical aesthetic and therapeutic services, Facetec provides digital patient records, before-and-after comparisons, automatic outreach, education, scheduling, consent management, and more all in one platform.
Mallory Maynard
Gibbly helps teachers fight burnout and save over 30% on their lesson prep time with an AI-powered teaching assistant and coach that’s built right into Canva for Education. Named the #1 Education App on the Canva Apps Marketplace and the 2024 Canadian EdTech startup of the year, Gibbly helps teachers generate ready-to-share lessons aligned to their local curriculum standards in seconds instead of hours.
Ashley Cammisuli
GLOW Beauty Bar empowers women through expert skincare, advanced aesthetics, and education in a welcoming space. Glow offers personalized, award winning, science-backed skincare and self-care treatments to help foster confidence in women everywhere.
Kezia Pasaribu & Claudia Pasaribu
Goodbake crafts delicious and chocolatey crunchy brownies made with simple, gluten-free, nut-free ingredients, for all individuals and families to enjoy. Goodbake offers tasty, worry-free, locally produced snack options to make snacking more enjoyable for everyone in the community.
Samantha Ong
Joeydolls creates culturally representative plush dolls that celebrate Asian heritage, fostering inclusivity and cultural pride for a community that often goes underrepresented. By offering authentic, educational, and identity-affirming dolls, Joeydolls is redefining the toy industry through representation.
Linda Biggs
joni has created Canada’s only smart period care dispenser, powered by joni for business™ technology, to keep janitorial teams more aware of usage data and refill requirements and to help people who menstruate feel more supported. joni products are plastic-free, biodegradable, and are dispensed without unnecessary boxes, eliminating single use plastic waste.
Lynn Doughane
Juno Technologies has developed a patent-pending, discreet, and connected wearable medical device for fast, long-lasting relief of dysmenorrhea. In the highly regulated medical device category, Juno Technologies offers the only clinically backed and medically validated medical device for the fast and effective relief of menstrual pain. Juno Technologies solutions are also easily integrated into users’ daily lives and come with a mobile app that not only controls the device remotely, but offers predictive treatments, community support, and symptom tracking.
Ashley Werhun
Mentorly matches employees with mentors, coaches, and pathways for personalized growth – seamlessly integrated with HR tools. Mentorly uses advanced algorithms to optimize matches and integrates seamlessly with Workday, BambooHR, and other HR systems for ease of use at a fraction of the cost of traditional L&D solutions.
Katie Gamble
Nature Bee makes sustainable, plastic-free home essentials for simplified eco-friendly living, helping reduce waste in home and cleaning products without compromising quality.
Benveet Gill
ReYu Paralysis Recovery Centre
ReYu Paralysis Recovery Centre helps kids and adults with neurological conditions retrain their nervous systems through expert rehab and one-on-one therapy. ReYu is Northern Alberta’s only provider of activity-based therapy, helping adults and children achieve remarkable physical activity milestones.
Grace Lu
SKIN.TO helps customers get exactly what their skin needs with high-quality products and personal guidance. Using both AI automation and genuine human interaction, SKIN.TO helps every customer feel like they have their own personal and unbiased skin mentor.
Brittany Denouden
Struisvogel Ranch’s mission is to provide a more sustainable and healthier red meat option. With no methane release and requiring much less feed, land, and water, Struisvogel Ranch specializes in ostrich meat and by-products. These include ostrich oil, ostrich leather, ostrich feather dusters, ostrich eggshell planters, and more.
Judy Stewart
Tresolz makes shoes for women of all shoe sizes, especially those that are difficult to find in typical shoe stores. With the goal of never letting women feel invisible in a shoe store, Tresolz hopes to make every woman feel powerful, beautiful, and included.
Jenelle Peterson
Wild Life Outdoor Adventures creates eco-conscious toys and games to make nature exploration fun, easy, and screen-free for kids. Wild Life Outdoor Adventures uses high-quality and durable materials to produce tools and kits including compasses, binoculars, knot-tying guides, and more that help children develop curiosity, confidence, and a lifelong connection to nature.
Samira Soltani
While most electric vehicle wireless charging systems are restricted to specific vehicle brands, Wireless PnC provides universal, high-efficiency wireless charging for all electric vehicles, regardless of manufacturer, battery type, or platform. Wireless PnC also employs AI-driven predictive maintenance systems to proactively detect potential issues, optimize charging, and schedule maintenance before failures occur.
Cynthia Arscott