Regional development funding programs remain a practical lever for lowering adoption barriers to AI and automation among small and medium enterprises, especially for hardware-dependent adtech and construction-tech providers. Reported facts: Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) announced more than $10.2 million in funding to six Manitoba organisations, according to a PrairiesCan news release dated July 7, 2026. Winnipeg adtech Taiv received $5 million in repayable funding, Betakit reports, to scale manufacture of its ad-replacement hardware and grow staffing as it expands in Canada and the United States. The Manitoba Construction Sector Council received just over $1 million in grant funding for a drone-and-sensor library, per PrairiesCan and CBC reporting. Additional repayable loans went to ExpensePoint (about $2.3 million), Mode40 (about $800,000), Aryval (about $500,000) and Construction Clock (just over $470,000), as reported by CBC and Betakit.
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