PacifiCan Business Acceleration Pilot (BizAP)

Prospective applicants may contact PacifiCan for additional details on Expression of Interest (EOI) requirements and to access the EOI portal. In your message, please be sure to note your interest in BizAP.

PacifiCan is focused on helping grow B.C. businesses, creating quality jobs, connecting industry leaders and supporting an inclusive economy that benefits all peoples in British Columbia.

PacifiCan’s goals are:

• quality jobs for British Columbians
• competitive industry clusters
• globally successful businesses
• growth that includes rural, Indigenous and underrepresented communities

BizAP will make targeted investments in organizations whose proposals demonstrate their ability to help high-growth-potential businesses overcome their scale-up challenges. It will offer funding for up to three years of activities.

On this page

• Eligibile activities
• Eligible applicants
• Expected outcomes
• Funding and reporting
• Eligible costs
• Ineligible costs
• The application process
• Contact us

Eligible activities

Activities that support critical scale-up needs, such as:

• capital attraction;
• peer and expert mentoring and networking; and
• market assessment and development.

Eligible applicants

BizAP is open to not-for-profit and for-profit organizations that support businesses in pursuit of scale-up ambitions, including but not limited to:

• business accelerators
• angel networks
• Indigenous organizations, including Indigenous-led not-for-profit organizations and Indigenous-owned businesses
• industry associations
• municipalities and all other municipal-type organizations
• groups or consortia of eligible recipients
• post-secondary educational institutions
• social enterprises
• groups or consortia of eligible recipients 

All eligible applicants must be legal entities capable of entering into legally binding agreements.

Expected Outcomes

BizAP is expected to result in the growth of medium and large enterprises, as well as a stronger economy in British Columbia. On a project-by-project basis, examples of expected outcomes include (but are not limited to):

• number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) assisted
• value of private investment attracted ($) by participating businesses
• revenue growth ($) by participating businesses
• export sales growth ($) by participating businesses
• number of jobs created by participating businesses
  • highly-qualified personnel (HQP) jobs created, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs
  • non-HQP jobs 

Funding and reporting

If we select your project for BizAP funding, PacifiCan will normally provide funding in periodic reimbursements, based on submitted claims. These reimbursements will be released to you for the approved portion of eligible projects costs that have been incurred and paid.

Non-repayable contributions are available to not-for-profit organizations.

Repayable contributions are available to for-profit organizations, and are normally repaid (at 0% interest) over 5 years in monthly installments beginning 1 year after the project end date.

You will need to plan project cash flows based on the timing of the claims and the period to process the reimbursement. We provide an orientation to this process for successful applicants.

You are expected to have secured all non-PacifiCan requested project financing before applying.

In-kind contributions will be considered. Eligible in-kind contributions will be limited to the provision of professional services, including legal, accounting, marketing, business coaching, information technology, etc., for which a clear market value can be determined. In-kind contributions will be considered up to a maximum of 50% of the total private sector funding amount.

All successful applicants will sign a standard Contribution Agreement with PacifiCan.

The Agreement outlines the obligations of the funding recipient, including the submission of claims information and periodic progress reports (minimum 2 per year).

Eligible costs

All proposed costs should be incremental, meaning that they are beyond the normal operations of an organization, and essential to the project. Costs that may be eligible for reimbursement include, but might not be limited to:

• capital costs (equipment, machinery)
• labour (wages, benefits)
• operating costs that are directly related to the project, such as management fees
• consultancy fees (such as professional, advisory and technical services)
• costs related to intellectual property
• preproduction (such as technological development and commercial demonstrations)
• subcontracting costs
• production and distribution of promotional material and management tools
• costs related to specialized services such as testing, research and development, technical or innovation, sector development strategies in all markets and business networking

Ineligible costs

Costs deemed unreasonable, non-incremental, and/or not directly related to project activities will be ineligible for reimbursement. These include, but may not be limited to:

• refinancing of an existing debt
• purchase of any assets for more than the fair market value
• costs of amortization
• land acquisition and goodwill

Generally, the following costs/activities will not be supported:

• hospitality and other related costs
• Sole-sourced consultant fees
• fees related to advocacy work

Costs incurred prior to the Project Funding Start Date will not be eligible.

Costs incurred by the applicant in the absence of a signed funding agreement with PacifiCan are incurred at the sole risk of the applicant.

The application process

BizAP will use a 2-stage intake approach:

• Expression of interest (EOI): This abbreviated, on-line application form lets you describe the proposed project purpose, rationale, eligibility, activities and budget. We use it to determine if your project should advance to a full application.
• Full application: If your project advances to the second stage, we invite you to provide more details about the project through our online portal. This may include financial statements, confirmation of other sources of funding and other project information.

If you have a project idea, or have any questions about the application process, we encourage you to contact us.

Application review

The deadline to submit an EOI for BizAP is 12:00 PM (noon) on December 14, 2023.

EOIs will be competitively assessed on the parameters below and against other EOIs, with only the strongest EOIs invited to full application. 

• value for money
• participant business selection
• capital attraction activities
• market activities
• mentoring and network activities
• participant accountability
• management capacity
• financial capacity

Submitted full applications undergo a due diligence process where we further assess them against the following criteria:

• alignment to program objectives
• strong and high-quality:
  • intake processes for selecting high-growth-potential firms; and
  • strategies for instilling accountability among participant firms;
  • capital attraction activities;
  • peer and expert mentoring and networking activities; and
  • market assessment and development activities
• strong market/industry demand (such as the project addresses a significant gap in the market or there is a demonstrated industry demand for the project)
• measurable economic benefits for British Columbia
• effective governance measures and management team in place to carry out the project
• strong rationale for the project
• financial statements that demonstrate the organization is financially self-sustaining
• leveraged funding from provincial governments, the private sector, and other non-government sources (50% or more)
• non-PacifiCan funding is confirmed with written proof.*

*Written proof of confirmed funding, or conditional upon PacifiCan’s, will be considered acceptable confirmation of non-PacifiCan funding. Examples of written proof include current bank statements detailing existing cash balances or the unused portion of lines of credit. If third parties are included in project funding, letters of intent or funding agreements from third parties may be acceptable. If fees from participant firms are included in project funding, evidence of the willingness of businesses to pay the fee (e.g., letters of support, results of company surveys, past successes with a similar fee model, etc.) may be accepted.

Only submissions demonstrating the highest merit and fit with BizAP’s objectives will be considered for funding.

Following review of the EOIs, PacifiCan will invite selected organizations to submit a full application for funding consideration. You will be advised if your proposal is not being considered past the EOI stage.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any of our offices by email, telephone, fax or mail (contact information below).

PacifiCan’s service standard is to provide a funding decision to a client within 90 business days (90% of the time) of receiving a complete funding proposal, which is stage 2 for the purposes of this pilot.

Contact Us

For additional Business Acceleration Pilot information, contact us directly at one of our local offices, by emailing us at info@pacifican.gc.ca, or by calling 1-888-338-9378.