Apera AI and Chexy rank among Canada's fastest-growing tech companies

VANCOUVER · A Vancouver robotics company and a Toronto fintech firm have been named among Canada's fastest-growing technology companies in Deloitte's 2026 Technology Fast 50 awards. Apera AI, which makes vision-guided robotics systems, ranked 37th with 644 percent revenue growth from 2022 to 2025. Fintech company Chexy, which offers financial tools for consumers and businesses, placed second with a staggering 23,183 percent growth over the same period. The program ranks 50 Canadian tech companies based on their highest revenue growth percentage over four years.

Apera AI's chief executive, Sina Afrooze, credited the company's patented 4D Vision technology and a shift from custom projects to turnkey products for its growth. "Being named a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 winner for the second year in a row belongs to our customers and partners, who trusted us to put 4D Vision into production on their plant floors," Afrooze said. The company's technology now supports more than 4,200 applications globally at major automotive manufacturers and other industrial firms. Chexy, which started by offering rewards on rent payments, has processed more than $2 billion in payments and unlocked over $35 million in rewards for users. The company is expanding into consumer bill payments, mortgages, payroll and business vendor payments. "We started Chexy because we saw a massive opportunity hiding in plain sight: billions of dollars moving through everyday payments with almost nothing coming back to the people making them," said Liza Akhvledziani-Carew, the company's co-founder and CEO.

The Fast 50 program requires companies to be headquartered in Canada, own proprietary technology, and have a minimum revenue of $50,000 in 2022 and $5 million in 2025. Companies must also invest at least five percent of gross revenue in research and development conducted in Canada. "The 2026 Technology Fast 50 winners exemplify the ingenuity, resilience, and ambition that continue to define Canada's technology sector," said Brendan Cooper, national program co-leader for Deloitte. Apera AI recently launched a turnkey bin-picking smart cell called VuePod, which packages its technology into a self-contained unit that requires no robot programming or vision expertise to set up. The company said this repeatable design is shifting vision-guided robotics from one-off integrations toward scalable deployment. Apera AI has also achieved a key data security certification, known as SOC 2 Type II compliance, which is required by large manufacturers.

Chexy's rapid growth is backed by a $14 million Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley's Khosla Ventures in March 2026. The investment is supporting product development and talent acquisition as the company expands its team in Toronto. "We're not building another payments app. We're building the financial infrastructure to change how Canadians and Canadian businesses put their money to work," said Ben Gigone, co-founder and chief technology officer at Chexy. Amanda Perran, the other national program co-leader for Deloitte, said this year's winners demonstrate what is possible when vision, talent and innovation come together. "Their success is inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and helping to build a more connected, competitive, and innovative future for Canada," Perran said. The Technology Fast 50 program, now in its 29th year, is considered Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program.

With files from The Globe and Mail, PR Newswire and Yahoo News