The Funding Portal

The Funding Portal Inc. is a privately owned Canadian corporation that operates a searchable database of 7,000 government funding, government grants, tax incentives and private financing programs for business, universities, hospitals, charities and non-profits. These programs represent approximately $30 billion in available funding on an annual basis.[1] The Funding Portal's mission is to streamline the complicated process of applying for government funding or private financing to support growth and research and development efforts.

The Funding Portal launched on July 11, 2011 [2] and now attracts 15,000 users per month. The company’s main headquarters are in Toronto, but The Funding Portal also has key staff in Ottawa and Montreal.[3] The Funding Portal's founder and CEO, Teri Kirk,[4] is a Canadian lawyer and entrepreneur who has been named one of Ottawa's top 100 most influential people by The Hill Times and one of the region's top three female entrepreneurs by the Ottawa Citizen.

The Funding Portal advertises as Canada’s largest searchable database of government funding programs offering free unlimited searches. The federal government’s Canada Business Network, a directory of federal and provincial funding programs, lists over 450 funding and over 300 non-funding programs.[5]

Products

Find It

The Funding Portal publicly launched its search engine, Find It, in July 2011. Find It is a searchable directory of 7,000 government funding and tax incentive programs drawn from Canada’s federal, provincial and municipal levels of government. The Funding Portal's private financing search engine, which includes more than 2,500 sources of financing, including bank, angel, venture capital, and private funders, was launched in 2012.

Concierge Services

The Funding Portal offers three concierge services that assist clients to apply for government funding and leverage their applications into private funders.[6] These services are broken up into three modules: Find It, Apply for It, and Leverage It. Under Find It and Apply for It, clients receive expert consulting services to develop and review their draft applications into funders. Under the Leverage It step, clients leverage their government funding efforts into the private sector.

Data Services

The Funding Portal offers data and analytics reports for business, universities, hospitals, charities and non-profits providing information on funding sources and activities in Canada. The Portal also offers advertising and lead generation services leveraging its proprietary funding databases.

Partners

In April 2012, the Canadian branch of KPMG became a partner of The Funding Portal.[7] KPMG entered into the partnership to offer its clients diversified financing strategies that extended outside of traditional tax incentive programs.

In addition to KPMG, The Funding Portal has current partnerships with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, Hays Canada, Espresso Capital, law firm LaBarge Weinstein LLP, York University, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, MaRS Discovery District, Advantage Mississauga, Biotech, the National Angel Capital Organization, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, the Information Technology Association of Canada, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the Canadian Digital Media Network, the Mississauga Board of Trade, Invest Ottawa and the Canadian Society of Value Analysis.

The Funding Portal held a media partnership with Postmedia Network, a national Canadian news agency from March 2012 to January 2013.[8] The Funding Portal held a dedicated news page on Postmedia’s Financial Post website page, which is dedicated to business news.

The Funding Portal is financed by private and angel funders.[9]

Criticism

In Budget 2012, the federal government announced it would review contingency-based billing practices for consultancy services directed to companies seeking tax incentives under the Scientific Research and Experimental Development program, which represents an estimated $3.6 billion a year for Canadian companies.[10] The Funding Portal, however, does not practice contingency-based billing on its Find It, Score It and Leverage It services.[11]

References

  1. ↑ The Funding Portal, 2011. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.
  2. ↑ Marketwire."New Portal Connects Canadian Businesses to Much-Needed Public Funding", Marketwire, 11 July 2012. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.
  3. ↑ The Funding Portal. ", Contact Us, Toronto, Canada, 2012. Retrieved on 11 April 2012.
  4. ↑ Expertfile, 2013. Retrieved on 2 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Canada Business Network. ", Canada Business Network, Canada, 10 December 2013. Retrieved on 10 December 2013.
  6. ↑ The Funding Portal Inc."About The Funding Portal", The Funding Portal, 2011. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.
  7. ↑ KPMG LLP. "The Funding Portal", KPMG LLP, 7 April 2012. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.
  8. ↑ The Financial Post. ", Financial Post and The Funding Portal launch new Funding content and services platform, Toronto, Canada, 26 March 2012. Retrieved on 11 April 2012.
  9. ↑ Ottawa Business Journal. ", The Funding Portal gets angel round from Ottawa investor, Ottawa, Canada, 17 October 2011. Retrieved on 11 April 2012.
  10. ↑ Ottawa Business Journal. "2012 BUDGET: SR&ED squeezed", Ottawa Business Journal, Ottawa, Canada, 29 March 2012. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.
  11. ↑ The Funding Portal Inc."The Funding Portal has a package to fit your needs", The Funding Portal, 2011. Retrieved on 9 April 2012.