Executive Summary

• Spare needed to hire more software developers without breaking the bank.
• Granted was brought in and was able to secure ~$275k in funding from over 25 grants.
• Spare was able to cover +95% of its student workforce cost, expand into Germany and increase its employee count from 25 to 60.

Intro

Spare is a technology firm that helps microtransit, paratransit, rideshare operators, and more, optimize booking and rider management. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Spare has customers on four continents and has offices in 4 countries.

Like many technology companies looking to grow, Spare knew that it needed more developers to increase features, stay competitive, and grow its customer base.

Goals

Spare’s technology was the key to its success, and Spare knew that getting the best talent available was vital to accelerate growth. With this strategy in mind, Spare targeted the best students and recent graduates to bolster its workforce.

However, being headquartered in a city with other big software firms like Amazon, Microsoft and SAP,  these top talents were highly sought after, and the market was competitive. 

Spare wanted to attract and retain these high-performing students and graduates without breaking the bank.

Grant Challenges

Grants for technology firms are fairly prevalent, and the HR manager at Spare had applied for and received grant funding before. However, procuring grants was not the primary duty, and the grant funding provided did not sufficiently cover the cost of new hires and the extra administrative tasks.

Previously secured grants were able only to cover ~25% of the costs of student hires. At this amount, Spare felt that grants weren’t a good value, especially with all the additional paperwork, reporting and administrative tasks.

Granted

Granted was hired in 2020 to assist with the grant process for Spare. After a kickoff call and a strategy session, Granted researched possible grants that fit Spare’s business goals.

After a thorough search, many grants were found to be a good fit for Spare. Granted then proceeded to help Spare apply, manage, claim and report on a variety of grants that fit their growth strategy.

Results

To date, Granted was able to secure funding from 25 grants resulting in $275k in funding. Additionally, due to Granted’s research and grant strategy, Granted was able to help cover nearly 100% of the costs of new student hires.

This allowed Spare to properly execute their HR strategy by increasing the number of student hires.

Additionally, Granted was able to virtually remove all of the administrative tasks from the HR manager from this process.

With the help of Granted’s grant assistance, Spare was able to expand into Germany and increased its staff from 25 to 60 employees.