Boast’s AI-powered platform maximizes R&D tax credits while accelerating access to funding
The good news for companies of all sizes: Each year, the Canadian and U.S. federal governments provide businesses with more than $20 billion in research and development (R&D) credits. The bad news: application processes are cumbersome, time-consuming, and leave applicants at risk of costly audits.
That’s why Boast is disrupting those processes. The company was founded in 2011 in Vancouver by Alex Popa and Lloyed Lobo, who bootstrapped it nearly for the first decade. Boast later raised its first round in 2020. Armed with $123 million in recent funding, and new offices in Toronto, Calgary, Montreal, San Francisco, Dallas, and Boston, the fintech innovator has already helped 1,000-plus customers achieve two key objectives: Access tax credits and innovation incentives more quickly, easily, and effectively than ever before, and when needed, receive cash advances on that crucial funding.
The former is accomplished through the AI-powered BoastClaim platform, which gathers data from companies’ existing technical and financial systems to identify, categorize, and time-track eligible projects. The result: an intuitive, streamlined process that amalgamates all necessary documentation and leads to larger refunds, lower audit risk, and better overall value than the more conventional offerings of traditional tax service providers.
CEO
“R&D is the engine of the modern economy, and innovative companies should be able to access the tax credits they’re entitled to,” said Boast CEO Alok Tyagi. “We empower companies rom startups to large enterprises to quantify the value of their R&D efforts, then leverage that asset through a successful R&D tax credit application that allows them to grow their business without unnecessary outside capital.”
The veteran SaaS executive has seen firsthand how game-changing this type of funding can be for ventures. By proving that it is trying to advance the state of its tech, a Canadian company may be eligible for Canada’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credits that provide more than $3 billion a year to 20,000-plus claimants.
This is easier said than done, of course. Among other tasks, companies are required to identify eligible projects and expenses as per Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines, write technical narratives for the projects, prepare project financials, compile supporting documentation and evidence, fill out associated tax forms, the list goes on. Should the CRA flag a claim for review, a representative visits the applicant to examine both the technical and financial documentation that supports the claim and to interview key technical staff.
Serial entrepreneur and CEO of Klue, Jason Smith shared: “Boast enabled our executive team to focus on building our business instead of chasing SR&ED. They saved us countless hours of pain, guiding us through the process and putting together everything. I highly recommend every tech CEO take a close look.”
When accessed in a timely manner, this non-dilutive capital “can dramatically impact the growth trajectory of any business by extending its cash flow runway and providing the financial flexibility needed to make better decisions about scaling operations,” explained Tyagi. Likewise, he added, the compounding effect of adding additional sales, marketing, and development resources often leads to significantly higher growth and valuations.
The trouble is, SR&ED-eligible expenses are typically locked up for almost 16 months, as businesses need to incur 12 months of expenses, then wait for tax filing season to submit their SR&ED claim, then wait a few months for the government to process it.
This can be an eternity for small businesses—and that’s where Boast is again changing the game with QuickFund. This innovative financing platform, which won a 2022 “World Changing Ideas Award” from Fast Company magazine, enables startups to receive cash advances on R&D tax credits and subsidies.
“We want to keep our talent here in Canada and focus on innovations that help us grow,” said Ivan Chan, Chief Financial Officer at Rival Technologies. “Our ability to identify all our eligible tax incentives is important, but our ability to capture back those credits quickly through Boast financing is critical. Partnering with Boast gives us the ability to grab those credits instantly instead of waiting a year or more. They automate the process and make it easy for us to stay focused on the right things. Boast provides a dream service for Rival.”
