Many employers are looking for ways to bring their workers back to the office. A young Quebec company has a solution for them.
GPHY has designed a platform to help companies manage hybrid working more effectively.
“Our ELIA platform allows employees to book a workspace online and also to see when colleagues will be present. They are therefore more motivated to come back to the office knowing that other members of their team will be there,” explains Anthony Blais, who co-founded the company with three partners in 2018.
According to several surveys, travel time and offices deserted by employees are the main reasons cited by workers for preferring telework.
Companies that use ELIA note a 20% increase in office work, according to the young entrepreneur.
The platform also provides companies with different data on the actual occupation of their workspaces.
This occupancy measurement feature, which uses smart sensors developed by GPHY, saves users on rental costs, according to the young entrepreneur.
Growing demand
Anthony Blais and his three partners were studying engineering physics at Université Laval when they decided to found their company in 2018 to create intelligent infrastructure for managing office space. Then came the pandemic which forced GPHY to take a turn.
“We are scared when we saw employers being forced to adopt telework. We quickly saw the opportunity to develop new solutions to create the workspaces of tomorrow,” says Anthony Blais.
After several months of development, GPHY launched its ELIA platform in June 2022. The young shoot already has more than ten companies among its customers.
“Every day, we have new contacts from companies interested in using our solutions,” maintains Anthony Blais.
GPHY has also just completed a round of financing in which various investors participated, including asterX, a venture capital cell supported by Quebecor, which opened the doors to large companies.
Strategic partnerships
GPHY has entered into a strategic partnership with Quebecor, which is deploying the ELIA platform in the pilot phase at the Montreal head office to eventually extend it to all of its offices. The owner of Log can also support the young company in its development thanks to its expertise in business strategies, performance marketing and product marketing.
asterX has also co-invested with Artopex, the Granby office furniture manufacturer, with the aim of developing a range of smart furniture with GPHY.
“This round of financing allows us to accelerate our marketing efforts,” explains Anthony Blais. Our target is large companies and SMEs with 50 or more employees who want to optimize their office space. »
Initially, GPHY is targeting the Quebec market before expanding to other Canadian provinces and eventually to the United States.
“We also want to continue to develop our platform to add new features based on artificial intelligence. We also want to integrate other technologies such as Teams, Google Suite and Slack which are widely used by companies. This will facilitate its adoption,” adds Anthony Blais, who has always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur.
We can say that his entrepreneurial adventure started with a bang.
GPHY
- Founding date : 2018
- Activities : technology company in the management of hybrid workspaces
- Shareholders : Anthony Blais, Hubert Audet, Myrik Hervieux-Gaudreau, Pier-Etienne Lehoux
- Number of employees : 16