Momentum Fund
Funding to help you grow your business
As a business owner, you care about the future of your business.
With the Momentum Fund, we're helping local businesses fund projects designed to generate growth. In turn, we're helping create quality jobs—a key driver in regional economic development.
We're here to help you grow your business, whether it's by stimulating innovation, accelerating your digital transformation or investing in energy-efficient equipment.
The Momentum Fund covers:
Up to $20,000
Project categories
To qualify for funding, your project must fall under one of the fund's 9 categories.
- Demonstrate a technological advance, innovative manufacturing processes or products.
- Put a process in place that supports future innovation in the organization.
- Demonstrate innovation in any area of the organization: finance, management, products, networks, customer relationships, etc.
- Demonstrate a progressive takeover plan culminating in purchaser control of the business.
- Create a training plan explaining growth challenges, an organizational timeline and a signed acquisition protocol. It must be supported by a leadership profile, an evaluation of the ideal purchaser and a list of needs.
- Ensure expert support is available to facilitate the business transfer (consulting fees).
- Demonstrate existing activities that have led to increased sales abroad (locally, provincially or internationally).
- Diversify the business's supply chain to minimize supplier risk.
- Allow suppliers to evolve by promoting local products and services.
- Develop a new product or service.
- Implement distribution and marketing strategies.
- Demonstrate that the business wants to create innovative programs to recruit or retain top talent.
- Put several initiatives in place to set the employer apart: Workforce training, mental health support, a telemedicine program (TELUS Health value-added partner), mentoring, break room and recreation space, initiatives to integrate temporary foreign workers, etc.
- Create initiatives that demonstrate that the business activities are built on a foundation of equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Ensure that the business's initiative has a positive impact on the business and the community by adopting innovative or eco-friendly management practices.
- Devise a project that will reduce the business's energy consumption or improve its material recovery rate.
- Choose initiatives that support the circular economy.
- Take concrete actions to make the business more carbon neutral.
- Design a project to accelerate the business's digital transformation to ensure its survival and increase secure online sales.
- Accelerate the company's digital shift by simplifying and optimizing IT processes or solutions (such as adding an ERP or CRM).
- The scope of the project may include purchasing, sales, operations, administration, human resources, etc.
- Ensure the initiative will grow the business by adding new distribution channels (such as a transaction site).
- Use banked time for getting digital transformation advice (value-added partners RCEI or Inno-centre).
- Select a project that allows the business to reinvent itself, or to change itself to adapt to an ever-changing market.
- Change or optimize the original business model, for example, by buying new equipment, buying real estate, reworking the facility layout, merging or acquiring businesses.
- Use banked time for getting business advice with experts from partner Inno-centre.
- Design a project to optimize the security and protection of employees' and clients' personal information.
- Plan initiatives that will enable businesses to acquire tools and support to minimize their risks of cyberattacks.
- Implement initiatives to educate employees on cybersecurity best practices.
- Support initiatives to establish an advisory committee, creating tools, recruiting committee members and providing mentoring or governance training.
- Introduce an initiative to develop or improve governance framework that creates value, such as strategic planning and updating.
Submit your project to the Momentum Fund
To learn more about the Momentum Fund or to submit a project, contact your account manager or Desjardins Business centre.