🚛 Edison available in Quebec, alumni features & Canada avoids recession

🔔 Your campaign updates feed

🚛 Edison Motors is now available in Quebec!

Edison Motors investment opportunity is now open to Quebec investors through their French-language offering memorandum. Edison Motors is raising funds to take the next big step toward manufacturing Electric Hybrid Vocational Trucks and EV Conversion Kits in Canada.

Invest in Edison Motors | $10.1M Raised | 68% of target

👟Hettas new partnerships 

Hettas is proud to welcome Team Canada bobsledder Erica Voss to the Athlete Support Program! In addition, Hettas has partnered with the BeaYOUtiful Foundation to help build confidence and self-worth in young girls across Canada. Read more.

Invest in Hettas | $69.2K Raised | 28% of target

🔋RheEnergise live Q&A session!

RheEnergise CEO Stephen Crosher is hosting his last online Q&A session with a short presentation of their High-Density Hydro solution. The session will be on 16th October at 12 pm EST. RheEnergise invites you to join them, save your spot!

Invest in RheEnergise | $3.2M Raised | 63% of target

🔔 Alumni updates

💙 joni is ranked 19 out of 400 on The Global and Mail ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies of 2025. As well as, celebrating 1,000,000 products donated.

🍷 Drink Glimmer Wine’s CEO, Jane Stroller, attended the Her Wealth Summit last week! With over 600 attendees and inspiring voices like Michele Romanow and Elly Seddon, the day was filled with connection, empowerment, and celebration.

🚗 HOVR’s founder and CEO, Harrison Amit, was featured on CanadianSME Small Business Podcast to talk about how HOVR is building Canada’s fair rideshare platform.

🍻 Sheringham Distillery hosted Cookin’ on the Coast, a show highlighting local food producers, artisans, restaurants or farms produced by Chek Media.

🤔 What’s on our minds

📉 Deloitte Forecast Suggests Canada Has Technically Avoided a Recession

Canada’s economy has faced a prolonged period of uncertainty, but a new forecast from Deloitte offers a cautious dose of optimism. Despite high interest rates, sluggish consumer spending, and global headwinds, Deloitte now expects Canada to avoid a technical recession in 2025.

The updated outlook predicts real GDP growth of 1.2 percent in the third quarter and 1.5 percent in the fourth. While modest, these figures are enough to sidestep the standard definition of a recession, which is two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. For households and businesses bracing for a downturn, this suggests the worst-case scenario may not materialize.

📊 Slower Growth, But Signs of Stability

Even with this positive turn, Deloitte emphasizes that economic growth will remain slow and uneven. Full-year GDP growth is expected to reach around 1.3 percent in 2025, with a slight improvement to 1.7 percent in 2026. Several factors are holding back stronger momentum, including weak business investment, cautious consumer activity, and the lingering impact of high borrowing costs.

Still, the forecast suggests a gradually improving landscape, offering more breathing room for both consumers and businesses:

• Inflation continues to ease

• The Bank of Canada is expected to lower its policy rate by 2.25 percentage points by the end of 2026

🌍 Navigating Trade Tensions and Regional Disparities

Trade remains a key risk to Canada’s outlook. Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a plan to double steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent, which could significantly impact those sectors. While Canada has secured exemptions for CUSMA-compliant exports, retaliatory tariffs remain possible, depending on the outcome of a 30-day negotiation window set to expire in July.

According to Marc Desjardins, chief economist at Deloitte Canada:

• British Columbia and parts of Eastern and Central Canada are projected to experience slower growth due to the tariff dispute.

• The Prairie provinces and Newfoundland and Labrador are expected to see increased output, driven primarily by strong energy exports.

📌 Final Thought

For policymakers, staying responsive is essential. The Bank of Canada will need to carefully balance support for economic growth with its mandate to control inflation. For businesses and investors, this is a time for cautious planning, with a focus on long-term resilience and opportunity.

Avoiding a technical recession is certainly good news, but it does not signal a return to strong economic expansion. Canada is entering a phase of slower but steadier progress. The next two years will be shaped by how effectively governments, institutions, and private-sector leaders adapt to changing conditions and regional dynamics.

🎙️ Hear from our latest founder feature

Edison Motors: Diesel-electric trucks redefined with Eric Little

Q: What were those early days like, trying to prove the idea could work?

We always said we wanted to make “a train for the road.” That meant using electric motors for propulsion but keeping a diesel generator onboard. Same fuel truckers already use, just far more efficient. At first, we hacked together a system using Tesla parts and a refurbished 1983 CAT engine as a generator. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Within a year, we had our first truck on the road and drove it to a local truck show to prove the concept. That weekend, we raised another $1.5M and suddenly we weren’t just converting trucks, we were designing our own from scratch.

Q: The trucking market is massive. Where do you see Edison fitting in?

Most people think of semis hauling goods on highways, and that’s about 80% of the market. But the part I’m most excited about is the other 20%: vocational trucks. Vehicles, such as, garbage trucks, service rigs, logging haulers, mining trucks, that has special functionality. These fleets need more torque, more customization, and more durability. They also spend way more on fuel, so our efficiency is a big win for them. It’s still a multi-billion dollar market, and frankly, these are some of the coolest trucks to build.

Q: Looking back, has there been a defining moment for Edison so far?

A: Without a doubt, it was when we rolled out our first prototype, “Carl”, back in 2022 at Hope Brigade Days. People thought we were crazy. Everyone told us it couldn’t be done, that there was no way to make a diesel-electric hybrid work truck more efficient than the status quo. But with just $400,000 in capital, we built it, drove it, and proved the concept. That moment validated everything we’d been fighting for. Fast forward a few years, and now we’re standing up a factory to build trucks for actual customers. That prototype wasn’t just a vehicle, it was the turning point where the impossible became real.

🎧 Want to listen to the full episode?

Spotify / Apple / YouTube

📌 FrontFundr Bulletin

FrontFundr Elite Circle Community Channel

We have launched a new private Slack channel exclusively for Elite Circle members. It will be a space to connect directly with our team, get early access to upcoming investment opportunities, and first notice of the upcoming pitch event as we will be announcing more details next week in the channel. If you are an elite circle member, check your inbox for an invite to join the channel. 

CMD Summit: Brand vs. Performance with Trieste Reading

FrontFundr’s Trieste Reading will be speaking at CMD Summit Surrey 2025 this week October 2, 2025, hosted by the Melville School of Business at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She will be moderating the Fireside Chat – Brand vs Performance: Finding the balance between voice and ROI. If you’re in the Vancouver area and want to dive deep into marketing, check out this event! 

FrontFundr at Elevate Festival 

FrontFundr is proud to be attending Elevate Festival, Canada’s leading event for tech and innovation. We’re excited to connect with entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and forward-thinkers driving change. If you’re attending, we’d be happy to meet you there.