Not your traditional tech startup

At first glance, the top winners at this year’s ScaleUP Awards Gala seem to have little in common.

One is a Vancouver wellness company reinventing hydration and functional health products for mainstream consumers. Another manufactures high-efficiency ventilation systems helping decarbonize buildings across North America. A third is a social enterprise scaling workforce development and affordable housing renewal initiatives for people facing barriers to employment.

Yet together, Blume, Oxygen8 Solutions, and BUILD may say something important about the future of Canadian business growth.

At the 2026 ScaleUP Awards, held June 10 at the Hyatt Regency Calgary, Blume was named ScaleUP Entrepreneur of the Year, Oxygen8 Solutions earned the top honour of ScaleUP Company of the Year and BUILD captured the People’s Choice ScaleUP of the Year award.

While none fit the stereotypical image of a venture-backed software startup chasing growth at all costs, each company reflects a broader shift emerging across Canada’s scaleup economy: the rise of businesses focused on operational discipline, long-term resilience, sustainability and solving real-world problems at scale.

“What we are increasingly seeing across Western Canada is a generation of companies building highly competitive businesses while staying deeply connected to real societal and economic challenges,” says ScaleUP’s Founder, Dr. Simon Raby, PhD. “Some of the most interesting growth companies today are blending innovation, technology, operational excellence and purpose in ways that don’t necessarily fit traditional startup narratives.”

That shift aligns closely with many of Canada’s current economic priorities.

Solution-based enterprises shine

As governments grapple with housing shortages, labour constraints, decarbonization targets, health-care pressures and productivity challenges, increasing attention is turning toward private-sector companies capable of delivering scalable solutions.

Each of this year’s major award winners operates directly within those spaces.

Blume, founded in Vancouver, has grown rapidly by positioning itself at the intersection of accessible wellness and science-backed functional nutrition. Its recent launch of SuperBelly, a hydration powder combining clinically studied probiotics with daily usability, reflects growing consumer demand for preventative wellness products that fit naturally into everyday routines.

But Blume’s rise has not been driven by aggressive fundraising or growth-at-any-cost strategies. The company has instead focused heavily on operational systems, profitability and sustainable scaling. Investments in enterprise resource planning systems, AI-enabled workflows and operational infrastructure have helped the business remain cash-flow positive while sustaining double-digit year-over-year growth.

“We’ve always believed wellness should feel approachable, not intimidating,” says Karen Danudjaja, Blume’s founder. “As we’ve grown, the challenge has been scaling without losing the authenticity, agility and values that made people connect with the brand in the first place.”

That values-driven approach increasingly resonates with consumers who expect businesses to integrate sustainability, workplace flexibility and social responsibility directly into how they operate, rather than treating them as secondary initiatives.

Meanwhile, Oxygen8 Solutions is helping address another major national challenge: decarbonizing the built environment while improving indoor air quality.

The company designs and manufactures high-efficiency ventilation systems used in schools, health-care facilities, residential developments and commercial buildings. As governments tighten energy codes and demand grows for healthier indoor environments, Oxygen8 has expanded rapidly by investing in automation, manufacturing capacity,and technologies supporting low-carbon buildings.

Its systems integrate energy recovery, electrification, heat pump technology and intelligent controls — areas increasingly central to Canada’s climate and infrastructure strategies.

“The conversation around buildings has fundamentally changed,” says James Dean, CEO of Oxygen8 Solutions. “Clients are no longer choosing between sustainability, energy efficiency and occupant health. They expect all three, and they need practical solutions that can scale.”

That emphasis on practical innovation may be one of the defining characteristics of the next generation of Canadian scaleups.

Rather than focusing exclusively on software or digital disruption, many emerging growth companies are applying technology, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to physical industries, operational systems, infrastructure, manufacturing and workforce development.

That is especially visible in BUILD.

The Winnipeg-based social enterprise has expanded beyond its award-winning paid training and affordable housing renewal model through the launch of Skoden Flex Staffing, a workforce platform designed to create fair employment pathways for individuals facing barriers to employment while helping industries respond to labour shortages.

BUILD’s work sits at the intersection of several major national priorities: affordable housing, workforce participation, Indigenous economic inclusion and community resilience.

The organization has also embraced technology to support scaling, developing AI-enabled project management tools and advanced workforce planning systems that improve efficiency while expanding employment opportunities.

“We believe business can be both economically successful and deeply community-focused,” says Sean Hogan, BUILD’s executive director. “Growth should create opportunity, strengthen communities and leave systems better than we found them.”

Innovative businesses show diversity

The momentum behind this year’s ScaleUP Awards suggests growing recognition for that broader vision of entrepreneurship.

The 2026 awards program received 132 initial applications from across Western Canada, representing a 44 per cent increase over the previous year. Three hundred and forty founders, executives, investors and ecosystem leaders attended the Gala in Calgary.

For Raby, the growth reflects a changing conversation around what successful scaling businesses now look like in Canada.

“For a long time, much of the attention around innovation focused narrowly on traditional tech startups,” he says. “What we are now seeing is a much broader and more mature scaleup landscape emerging — companies building globally competitive businesses across wellness, cleantech, advanced manufacturing, workforce development, housing and infrastructure.”

As economic uncertainty, sustainability pressures and technological disruption continue reshaping markets globally, this year’s top ScaleUP Award winners suggest some of Canada’s most compelling growth stories may come from businesses solving practical problems with long-term discipline rather than short-term hype.