COVID-19 is forcing companies to adapt quickly to change and redesign their products or services or even create new ones to respond to our new reality.
Fortunately this has brought the best out of Vancouver’s tech community.
Companies have no choice but to adapt as quickly as they can during the Coronavirus pandemic. While some businesses have shut down or suspended their activities, others are aiming to benefit from the outbreak through change and innovation.
Whether it be simple innovations or complete pivots, here are five B.C. companies that have led the way.
Food-X Technologies
Burnaby’s Food-X Technologies‘ software helps grocery retailers operate fulfillment centres and track food freshness. The SaaS startup has a focus on sustainability, offering reusable bags and helping vendors minimize food waste by providing them greater visibility across their inventories.
Food-X is leading the development of a hyper-efficient e-grocery management system to make sure that healthcare workers, the elderly, and others who cannot access fresh food, receive top quality groceries while also ensuring food security for Canadians throughout the crisis.
Medimap
Medimap is Canada’s largest online and mobile real-time resource for same-day access to care. Across Canada, 70 per cent of all walk-in medical clinics are registered with Medimap and millions of patients rely on their service to look up wait times at clinics.
As concerns regarding the COVID-19 global health pandemic rose, it became increasingly difficult to access medical care while maintaining social distancing. In respond, Medimap launched a new Virtual Care service that connects patients across B.C. with an available walk-in clinic doctor over secure video call.
Monos
With the spread of COVID-19 and subsequent travel bans, the travel industry has taken a significant hit world-wide. With this in mind, Vancouver luggage company Monos developed a new product to help consumers now and for future travel.
Monos launched The CleanPod, a hand-held rechargeable sanitizer that uses ultraviolet UVC light to sanitize and disinfect products travellers use on a daily basis, including cell phones. When the wand is waved over a surface, the device emits UVC rays which safely kill 99.9% of pathogens.
Proxxi
Proxxi was born out of the need for better electrical safety in industrial settings. Originally designed for utilities, the wearable and connected band provides electrical voltage protection for industrial workers across construction, mining, manufacturing, and more.
But in today’s world, workers have more than just electricity to worry about. A single untracked COVID-19 diagnosis on-site could mean a total site shutdown. To keep job sites open, Proxxi has developed Halo, a wrist-worn band that briefly vibrates to notify wearers that another band is within 2 meters, reminding them of the need to maintain social distance.
Traction Guest
Last year Traction Guest raised a significant financing round led by Bessemer Venture Partners for their cloud-based visitor management solution that used iPads to track office activity. Fast forward to this year and the COVID-19 pandemic is making shared tablets taboo and contactless the standard.
In response, Traction Guest’s platform is now fully contactless with touch-less sign-in/sign-out technology that allows for the vetting of employees and visitors before access to any facility. ZeroTouch enables enterprises to safely manage the return of employees and visitors to the workplace and better protect open locations amidst the COVID-19 crisis.