Our 2021 time capsule

In these unprecedented times, with so many businesses hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, we’re so grateful to be in a position to celebrate our company's growth. 2021 was another historic year for us, with innovative projects, further team development, and opportunities to push new boundaries. Osedea’s success wouldn’t be possible without the trust of our clients, our growing network, our talented team members, and all of their hard work.

As we prepare to close out another epic year, let’s look back on some highlights from the last 365 days.

Taking part in Scale AI’s largest project to date with Kruger

Scale AI is Canada's AI Supercluster - and they’re on a mission to boost productivity across industries in Canada by using artificial intelligence to enhance supply chains. In June, Osedea was selected as a partner for their largest-ever project, led by Kruger Products L.P., Canada’s leading tissue manufacturer. This multimillion dollar project will be an investment at Kruger Products’ new Sherbrooke tissue plant to implement a digital twin of its supply chain. The solution will use real-time data, augmented with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in order to boost operational efficiency and agility.

As part of the Scale AI program, the Canadian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry is contributing $5.6M and the Québec Ministry of Economy and Innovation is investing $1.1M in the project. Also contributing to this initiative alongside us are BCG and researchers from Polytechnique Montréal and Laval University. If you want to learn more about this exciting project, take a look at   this article.

Celebrating Osedea’s 10th anniversary

This December, Osedea turned 10. Being a whole decade old is a big milestone and was a great opportunity to reflect back on how far we’ve come from the days when our team could fit around a single picnic table. Here are some of our proudest moments that speak to what we’ve accomplished and the positive impact we’ve strived to have on our community through different initiatives:

• Firstly, our chests are bursting with pride for our team members, past and present. They’re a true source of inspiration and they push us to strive to achieve our vision.
• Organizing the first ever Code in the Dark in Montreal. It’s a live front-end competition where the winner takes home $3,000 for recreating a webpage using HTML and CSS (no previews allowed). This event has been a great way to connect with our community and bring people who are passionate about technology together.
• Being among the first to work with open-source UI software framework, React Native, in Montreal. We’ve built a variety of mobile apps using this technology for many industries including live TV, radio, museums, healthcare, and agriculture. Our team of pros has spoken at multiple conferences about React Native locally, but also in Poland, France, and the US. Want to see other projects in React Native!
• Our company trips are a sure-fire way to boost team spirit and get to know colleagues. We first traveled to San Francisco in 2014 for the TechCrunch Hackathon. Then, in 2016, we found ourselves in Jamaica, enjoying island life and the beautiful Caribbean nation’s landscapes. Our most recent team trip was in 2018, when we took the team to Lisbon. If you want to know how we made it happen, take a look at this blog post in which we detail the planning and costs behind our journey to Lisbon.
• We’re extremely proud to be part of the Nantes, France tech community. Nantes is a vibrant city, chock-full of technical talent. We knew it was a great choice for our second headquarters when in 2019, the European commission named Nantes “Europe’s Capital of Innovation”. Since setting up shop there, we’ve collaborated with some amazing clients in France: Altavia, Soleo, Vyv3, and many more. Our team is 15 strong after just two years. Learn more about our France office and about the added value of collaborating with Osedea France.
• Hoping to have a positive impact on the local youth in our Montreal office’s borough of Saint-Henri, we launched our programming and design school in collaboration with our local high school. This initiative's mission is to spark students’ interest in the technical fields and help reduce the high school dropout rate. Since we launched the program in 2016, we’ve helped over 70 students learn more about technology and see that there are interesting future careers in this field.

Becoming a solutions partner for Boston Dynamics with the Spot robot

Innovation is at the core of our DNA. This year we took a leap in becoming a solutions partner for Boston Dynamics, an MIT engineering and robotics design spin-off, with the Spot robot. Our investments in robotics will empower our clients to address problems such as labor shortage, across multiple industries. Combining our expertise in software engineering with robotics will allow us to build autonomous automated solutions for our clients.

Read more about Spot and the opportunities for this groundbreaking quadruped robot in the marketplace in our recent blog post.

Fostering the best workplace for our team, to better serve our clients

When COVID-19 hit, we didn’t know how it would all play out. There were a lot of uncertainties. But, our team quickly seized opportunities and 2021 became a record year. Our goal is never pure growth, but we see growth as a way to achieve our vision of working on innovative projects and offering a workplace where everyone can achieve their goals and aspirations. What growth does for our team is to ensure that we’re able to work towards that vision.

We’re proud to have been named employer of the year at the annual Mercuriades awards. This award recognizes a company with an innovative strategy in talent and culture management as it relates to recruitment, retention, competence building, motivation, diversity and inclusion, and change management.

In addition, we’ve been dubbed as one of The Globe and Mail’s 2021 “top growing companies” in Canada and part of L’actualité’s 2021 Growth Leaders in Quebec.

This year, our team almost doubled in 2021. We’re about 70 team members strong between our Montreal and Nantes office. We’re also in the process of opening a third office, this time in the UK.

Well, that’s a wrap for 2021. What a spectacular year it’s been. As we head into 2022, we’re excited to continue innovating, provide a strong client experience, and even more opportunities for our team to accelerate their development. Bring it on!

Photo credit: Ryan Stone