Executive Summary

• Paintillio wanted to grow into international expansion.
• Granted identified that CanExport aligned with their business objectives to expand internationally.
• Paintillio secured $50,000 in CanExport funding in 12 months from 2021 to 2022.

About Paintillio

Paintillio is a creative small business that was co-founded by artists Jess Devenport and Lyssa Kayra. Proudly women-owned and operated from the Sunshine Coast, they create custom paint-by-number canvases and collaborative murals. Locally-sourced materials and BIPOC artists are prioritized to marry the company’s values with its practices. Creativity and proprietary technology collide to build communities of different sizes and facilitate celebration and collaboration in a fun and interactive way. 

Since inception in 2017, Paintillio has been on a rapid growth trajectory. In 2021 they started working with Granted so they could continue to grow their team and their business. 

The company was growing more quickly than ever before, and they were ready for international expansion. To help them achieve their goals, Granted identified a business expansion grant that aligned with their objectives: CanExport.

CanExport SME’s

The CanExport SMEs program provides support for Canadian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) for market expansion efforts. The goal of the program is to help companies with their business expansion activities, particularly in high-growth markets. This program is very competitive because it’s industry-agnostic and federally offered, meaning SMEs from anywhere in Canada can apply.

Granted’s CanExport Services

At Granted, we work with our clients to identify grant opportunities that align with their business objectives. Our goal is to build applications that showcase our clients’ business and expansion efforts while helping the CanExport program meet its goal: building the presence of Canadian companies in foreign markets.

Our clients benefit from a step-by-step process that walks through each phase of the application preparation process. This includes strategy planning, budgeting, writing, and reporting. We aim to make the process as easy as possible for our clients so they can concentrate on what they do best – running their business. 

For non-clients, we offer a one-time CanExport service where any qualified business can work with us to get support with their application. 

Whether it’s for our clients or not, we are proud to uphold our 98%+ success rate with CanExport SME applications.

Paintillio’s Projects

With the help of Granted, Paintillio began formulating their expansion plans to the United States. In 2021 this looked different than recent years because in-person events, where they would normally showcase their murals, were canceled. In response, they pivoted their approach and launched virtual kits that could be painted separately and brought together to create a large mosaic-like mural. With their project approved in mid-2021, they launched into select regions of the US to grow their business. 

Fast-forward one year to 2022, and the pandemic has begun to subside with physical distancing measures being lifted across Canada, and the US. For their second project, they worked with Granted to adjust their international business strategy to incorporate in-person events again. For the second time in under 12 months, Paintillio was approved for another CanExport project so they could push into select regions of the United States and bring their business to new heights.

Results

Granted was able to help Paintillio secure over $50,000 in CanExport funding in under 12 months from 2021 to 2022. With this funding, they ran comprehensive expansion projects that significantly boosted their revenue in the United States. As a result, they have been able to hire more staff and partner with organizations to bring their innovative team building murals to the entirety of the United States. 

The work done by Granted was very thorough. They made the application process easy by guiding us through each step and helping us realize our vision of expanding to a new country. We’re grateful for their hard work and look forward to working with them on more projects!

Jess Devenport

Co-Founder