Accelerating the Building Process with Enterprise-grade AI Tools

Ultimarii has developed a specialized software platform that helps organizations navigate regulatory processes more efficiently to ensure projects get built faster. Their tailored AI tools enable energy and utility companies and the law firms that serve them to prepare more quickly for hearings, draft applications and more. A standout feature offers the ability to automatically generate first drafts of regulatory responses based on ten years of historical data, significantly streamlining what has traditionally been a time-consuming process.

The Challenge

As Ultimari rapidly scaled from two founders to a team of nearly 15 people in Canada (plus additional overseas staff), they faced the classic startup dilemma: how to fund growth while maintaining focus on customers and product development.

"When I think about the number one thing on a founding team's plate, it's really how they determine spending their time," explains Ultimarii's co-founder, Josh Malate. "I really am always thinking about a pie chart of prioritizing customers, then secondarily prioritizing our team, and then other stakeholders."

The company needed financial support to fuel their expansion but didn't want the pursuit of government funding to distract from their core mission.

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The Solution

Ultimari engaged with Thin Air Labs' Funding Catalyst team through a subscription model that provided them with dedicated experts who could become intimately familiar with their business.

The Funding Catalyst team:

• Developed a targeted funding strategy
• Created Ultimarii's first business plan
• Prepared financial projections
• Completed funding applications
• Later expanded to manage SR&ED claims

"What really attracted me to working with Thin Air on SR&ED as well is the integrated nature of the government funding which you'll have received and then all of the work to corroborate that with the SR&ED claim," notes Josh. "As opposed to us as the company being in the middle of that and passing that between multiple consultants, it actually works a lot better to have that all housed within Thin Air Labs."

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The Impact

Partnering with Thin Air Labs' Funding Catalyst team over the long term, allows for strategic and tailored support, so founders like Josh can stay focused on building their business. Results so far for Ultimarii include:

• Secured approximately $300,000 in government funding to date
• Currently has an additional $1.2 million in funding applications in progress
• Massive time savings 

"It just saves time, and time is the number one commodity in the realm of a startup. Working with Thin Air Labs saves us time in terms of coordinating all of that work between potentially multiple consultants or internal resources." --- Josh Malate, Co-founder

A Longstanding Partnership that Delivers

What set the Funding Catalyst team apart was their ability to:

• Understand the business deeply: "They're very curious about how your business operates, what your thoughts are for the future, what roadblocks might be in the way, what opportunities could be present."
• Focus on the right opportunities: "It's very easy to get distracted with the multitude of different funding opportunities from various levels of government. The Funding Catalyst team helped us navigate that and understand exactly the funding opportunities that we were highly qualified for."
• Leverage technology appropriately: "The Funding Catalyst team is being very thoughtful about how they're applying technology to improve the way the service is being delivered... using AI technology to actually help draft applications, but in a very thoughtful way and with expert eyes on that technology."

Ultimari plans to continue working with the Funding Catalyst team as they aim to exceed their current revenue targets by the end of 2025.

"It allows us to steward more capital into growing the team, into developing the product, which fundamentally allows us to move a lot faster in terms of creating real value with our customers."

When asked if they would recommend the service to other startups, Josh doesn't hesitate: "I recommend it regularly."

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