Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm Todd Winterhalt, group vice-president for international business development at EDC. Allow me to begin today by providing a brief explanation of Canada's official export credit agency.
EDC provides financing, insurance and bonding solutions to underwrite the transactions between Canadian companies and their foreign customers. For today, I will be limiting my remarks to the financial toolkit for small and medium-sized exporters.
The EDC product most used by SMEs is our accounts receivable insurance. This product allows Canadian SMEs to sell with confidence to a new customer in a new market because EDC's insurance will make sure they get paid. As an added bonus, an ARI policy can also allow a SME's bank to provide additional working capital financing because the payment from the foreign buyer is now guaranteed.
Another product is our export guarantee program, where, if an SME needs to ramp up to fulfill a new contract, we can guarantee their bank loan, giving the SME access to more working capital. Similarly, our customer financing guarantee program makes it easier for banks in foreign markets to lend to Canadian SME exporters as they expand their operations abroad.
These products help the balance sheet comfort of Canadian SMEs and make it less risky to take on new markets. As beneficial as these products are, EDC recognizes that the primary challenges for Canadian SMEs are the lack of time, resources, and knowledge to develop new markets.
To that end, EDC actively seeks out high-potential small companies and works with them as a mentor to help them develop and grow. To date, we have approximately 50 small companies in this program.
One of the most meaningful ways that EDC brings value to SMEs is by doing the legwork for them and helping to connect them to opportunities by leveraging our relationships with foreign companies. These relationships are cultivated on a daily basis through our network of 17 permanent representations across the world, co-located with the trade commissioner service, 16 of which are located in high-growth emerging markets.
We leverage these relationships in three key ways. First is through our pull financing. This is where EDC provides financing to targeted foreign buyers with procurement needs that match up well with Canadian expertise and then they commit to work with EDC to buy from qualified Canadian suppliers. Very often, we make the introductions as well. In 2014, we conducted 25 matchmaking sessions related to these pull facilities. Overall, more than 1,800 Canadian companies won new contracts in 2014. About 90% of these were SMEs.
Second, through matchmaking sessions, we also work with the trade commissioner service to bring groups of Canadian and foreign companies together for events like trade shows, in-market missions, as well as arranging cross-Canada visits for foreign firms to meet potential Canadian suppliers. In 2014, EDC conducted 127 matchmaking sessions that resulted in nearly 850 introductions, which in turn led to new business contracts for almost 400 Canadian companies. More than 75% of these companies were SMEs.
Third, and finally, by connecting our investment portfolio companies. EDC is the third-largest venture capital investor in Canada.
Through our investments in global equity funds, we gather market intelligence and identify opportunities at the grassroots level, and help connect Canadian companies to these international opportunities.
In 2014, we made 455 introductions which led to 73 qualified leads for Canadian companies.
In sum, in 2014, EDC saw a 4.5% increase in our new SME customers, reaching 6,110; a 4.7% increase in the number of small business transactions, reaching almost 2,800; and a 12.4% increase in total business facilitated for our SME customers, reaching $14 billion, with 23.8% of that total in emerging markets.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your questions.