To supplement what Aime was talking about in terms of financing on top of that provided by the CFDCs, access to capital is key for a firm's ability to grow and to scale up.
We have a program within the agency that is called investing in business innovation. On one end, the program supports early stage companies and provides them with access to capital. One of the conditions of the program is to ensure that those companies come forward with matching funds from angel investors or venture capitalists. It allows that firm to leverage additional funding from private investors to provide them with more capital to support their growth and their ability to scale up. In that case, for example, it could be to support a firm's ability to put forward a marketing strategy and an expansion in very specific markets.
What we've done as well is to work with the various angel organizations, such as NACO, the National Angel Corporation Organization, to try to find ways in which they could increase their membership or their capacity to find and accredit professional angel investors to have more capital available in the market. Providing support to NACO has allowed them to increase the number of accredited members they have who are now professional accredited angel investors, which in return allows them to increase the amount of angel capital available for the market and for those firms.