Vention is a Montreal-based technology company that develops a cloud-based manufacturing automation platform used to design, program, deploy, and operate industrial equipment and robotic systems. Founded in 2016, the company combines engineering software, automation hardware, and machine control tools to support manufacturers across a range of industries.
From the outside, your career path looked incredibly secure, yet you chose to start a company from scratch. What drew you to that opportunity, and where does your instinct to build things come from?
I was the type of kid who had a full-size plane in his backyard, dismantling my dad's engine and modifying a carburetor so the propeller could work with a horizontal shaft. I was mechanically minded from a young age. I designed a downhill bike at 16 and started my first career at 19 as a system integrator. That's where I first encountered the problem Vention is solving today. The desire to build has always been there.
I later joined GE while studying mechanical engineering before moving to McKinsey's product development practice after completing an MBA in Boston. Six years working with industrial companies around the world reinforced the same problem I'd experienced as a system integrator. GE taught me how to build products at scale. McKinsey taught me how to think strategically. I was ready to build a business from scratch. I tend to thrive when the effort-to-result ratio is pretty bad. Those are the ideas most people won't pursue. Vention is a high-effort endeavor, and I've always been a zero-to-one builder.
Manufacturing has traditionally been a highly customized business. What was the opportunity you saw when you founded Vention?
Most manufacturing machines are unique because the products they make are unique. They're typically designed, programmed and deployed by system integrators, and roughly 40% of the cost of a robot cell or assembly line today comes from system integration. That makes automation uneconomical for many manufacturers. I experienced that firsthand as a system integrator, where projects often absorbed all the profit through engineering hours. Our goal was to reduce that engineering content from roughly 40% of the cost to 10–15%. We built a hardware, software and physical AI ecosystem where everything works together. Manufacturers can design assembly lines, robot cells and automated equipment in their browser using thousands of modular components while receiving real-time pricing, assembly times and bills of materials.
They can then program robots, conveyors and actuators in the same environment, simulate the system, create a digital twin and purchase the equipment directly. We ship equipment as flat-pack kits, pre-assembled systems or turnkey installations, and provide analytics, remote monitoring and support through the same platform. The result is a plug-and-play ecosystem that removes integration complexity and dramatically speeds up deployment. We originally focused on SMEs that couldn't automate profitably, but today about 50% of our revenue comes from enterprise customers such as Tesla, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Thales and Land Rover. Today we serve 4,000 manufacturers, have 29,000 pieces of equipment deployed in the field and more than 500 enterprise accounts.
Because Vention has a uniquely broad vantage point on the manufacturing economy. Where are you seeing the most momentum today?
Because we're both global and horizontal, we serve 25 manufacturing industries, from automotive, aerospace & defense and medical devices to industrial goods, consumer goods and food and beverage. The industries driving demand change over time. During the EV boom, we worked with companies such as Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and Lion Electric. During COVID, demand surged among door and window manufacturers.
Today, the fastest-growing sectors are defense and industrial goods tied to data centers. Vention works with roughly two-thirds of the major manufacturers of electrical breakers and switchgear serving data centers, including companies such as ABB, Siemens Energy, Schneider Electric and Eaton, which have had to scale production rapidly to meet AI-driven demand. The advantage of our platform is that it can be replicated across industries globally.
Canada has produced many successful entrepreneurs and innovative businesses over the years. What's your assessment of the country's business environment today?
From a manufacturing perspective, countries heavily exposed to natural resources often lag on productivity growth, and Canada remains largely resource-based. Ontario and Quebec have strong manufacturing ecosystems, but Canada tends to produce high-value goods where labour costs represent a relatively small portion of overall value.
Canadian tech entrepreneurship is at an important turning point. While funding has become more selective, Canada continues to produce world-class innovators in areas like AI, robotics, and cleantech. The opportunity now is not just to create breakthrough technologies, but to help those companies scale globally and grow into industry leaders from Canada."
We're hearing a lot about investment, productivity and economic growth in Canada right now. What do you think the country needs to get right over the next decade?
Can a company like Vention build a global leadership position from Canada? Absolutely. The quality of engineers we have here is world-class, including compared with Silicon Valley.
I also think Prime Minister Carney's emphasis on investment rather than expenses is the right approach. It's a long-term view focused on infrastructure and foundational assets that may take 10 to 15 years to fully pay off. My view is that there's a window of opportunity right now, and we should move as quickly as possible on major projects.
Vention is approaching its tenth anniversary. When you think about the next chapter for the company, what are you aiming to build?
We're turning 10, but we will probably need another 10 years to achieve our ambitions.
Today, there are two truly global industrial automation companies: Siemens and Rockwell. We're not there yet, but I believe our business model is more driven by network effects and virality. That gives us confidence that reaching that scale is possible, even if it will take more time.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the next chapter of manufacturing automation?
Around the world, countries increasingly want greater local resilience in manufacturing, greater autonomy and sovereign AI capabilities. That's a powerful tailwind for companies like Vention because it creates demand for new manufacturing capacity.
The challenge isn't innovation—it's adoption. The next phase of manufacturing automation will be defined by how effectively we help manufacturers turn emerging technologies into real productivity gains.
