The provincial agency Innovate BC will operate the Integrated Marketplace Initiative, identifying testbeds where groups of large organizations will pilot participating startups’ solutions, then can buy from them if they prove successful. (The Logic)

Talking point: The Vancouver International Airport will host the program’s inaugural effort, with the goal of electrifying ground-handling equipment like baggage tractors; the province is floating up to $2.5 million over three years for the project, and will offer up to $1 million per site for future ones. Small Canadian firms have long struggled with the challenge of finding domestic customers—particularly big ones. “Established, larger companies just simply don’t buy products from homegrown startups,” said Gerri Sinclair, B.C.’s innovation commissioner and a driving force behind the initiative. The “buyer’s club” program gives “our homegrown innovators a chance to solve the business problems of local industry.” Access won’t be restricted to B.C. startups. The federal government funds a similar system for hospital networks and healthtech startups.