With its revenues increasing 500 percent last year, P.E.I.-based Agyle Intelligence is hoping to continue its sales growth in 2020 with new customers throughout North America.

Based in Mount Stewart, just east of Charlottetown, Agyle Intelligence grew last year mainly because it was filling a half-million-dollar contract with the federal government that it secured through Innovative Solutions Canada.

The three-year-old company now plans to grow by deploying its technology with a range of clients in the food processing and agricultural space across the continent.

“We had a great year in 2019,” said Founder and CEO David McNally in an interview. “Most of the year went toward that delivery [for the federal government] as well as growing our partner base. . . . This year, we anticipate that we’ll more than double our customer base – that would be the big milestone for 2020.”

Agyle Intelligence has developed software that automates the process of analyzing collected data. The solution is used across the food industry to manage operations and supply chains by providing up-to-the-second results and correlations from critical data being collected across business units and teams.

The company’s main focus is on the food process and manufacturing industries. Because most customers are in the food business, Agyle has added features for its software that are focused on food production and processing. But McNally says his technology can apply to many industries.

He said that his clients have reported a 98 percent improvement in efficiency over their previous paper-based processes. In the case of one customer, Agyle contributed to a new set of processes that resulted in reduced losses and improved revenues totaling $2 million, said McNally.

The backbone of its work in 2019 was completing its trials with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. One federal research scientist used the technology in greenhouse operations and outdoor herbicide trials last summer, reporting time savings and improved efficiency. And a government chemistry lab in London Ont. used Agyle to improve its reporting and even used the solution to better maintain their laboratory equipment.

One thing that McNally stresses about his work with customers is the company has had “zero churn to date” – that is, once customers start using Agyle, all of them so far have kept on using it.

McNally doesn’t expect the pending economic slowdown to negatively impact his growth because companies need to improve efficiency in tough times, and there will be constant demand for food.

The new clients this year include: a large Minnesota poultry business, which is now ready to roll out the software; a Western Canadian packaging company; and a major food producer in Mexico.

McNally so far has kept his operation lean – he oversees the sales and business development activities, and he has two part-time staff and three contractors. He hopes to grow full-time staff this year, especially on the sales and marketing side.

Agyle, which graduated from Propel's Incite 2 accelerator last year, is also planning on raising some capital this spring or possibly summer. McNally realizes landing investors may be difficult given the current economic turbulence.

“I’m aware that investors may be more cautious,” he said. “If we need to delay our fundraising then we are in a position to handle that.”