In classrooms across one of Africa’s largest public education systems, a Canadian tech company is helping thousands of students connect to virtual desktops each day.
Inuvika, co-founded by Kevin Gallagher in 2014, was built to solve the complicated and costly problem of delivering secure, high-performing virtual apps and desktops to any device, without the heavy footprint of traditional virtualization giants.
A decade later, its Linux-based platform is powering classrooms, companies and governments around the world, just as the market is waking up to the need for lighter, leaner alternatives.
“We’re at an inflection point,” said Gallagher. “We’re where we would have loved to have been five years ago, but we’re there now.”
Inuvika’s core product, OVD Enterprise, lets people securely access work desktops and applications from anywhere, on any device, even older machines or mobile phones.
“We built our product on Linux as opposed to Windows, and we’re really the only significant Linux-based option on the market,” Gallagher said. “The Linux back-end allows us to really lower the total cost of ownership.”
That kind of cost savings can make a big difference for clients like an African school district that is partnering with Inuvika to give thousands of aging student devices a new lease on life.
“They had thousands of desktop computers that needed an upgrade to Windows 11.. We can make these old devices continue to function as long as the keyboard and the screen work and they can get access to WiFi,” said Gallagher. “They can extend the life of these devices, so they might last many more years.”
Inuvika’s customers now span 60 countries and include banks, telcos, universities and global research organizations. But Gallagher says the early years weren’t easy.
“This is a really difficult product to bring to market,” he said. “It’s sort of the equivalent of bringing a drug to market, and the devices, operating systems and apps that need to work with our product are moving at all times. So, you’re always playing catch-up.”
That high barrier to entry worked in Inuvika’s favour when major competitors began restructuring and making changes to partner programs.
“We happen to just be in the right place at the right time,” said Gallagher. “Or as a former client of mine used to say, you need to be in the right place for a long time to be in the right place at the right time.”
The company’s remote-first approach, accelerated by a well-timed exit from their office just days before the COVID-19 lockdown, helped Inuvika stay agile.
“One week later, they closed the world for COVID, and we had no rent to pay for the entire pandemic,” Gallagher said. “Our employees were happy working from home, and we were still able to work easily together without any trouble.”
The pandemic also pushed Inuvika’s product to evolve. Increased video conferencing meant that updated features were needed quickly.
“We had to do some upgrades, things like getting video cameras working properly with this kind of product,” said Gallagher. “Once we did, we were fine. And now, our product is better than most of the competition on these features.”
Growth picked up in 2024, especially in Europe.
“The pipeline we have in Germany alone is probably three times what we’ve sold in the whole 10 years in all of Europe,” said Gallagher. “Our worldwide pipeline right now is about 12 times what it was at the same time last year. So we’ve really exploded.”
Gallagher says global trade policy has also contributed to the surge.
“The next challenge facing the world is the tariffs and it’s also working out very well for us,” he said. “A lot of people, particularly in Europe, are looking for products that are not American-based.”
Gallagher says international buyers are increasingly seeking sovereign alternatives that reduce reliance on U.S.-based tech giants, which puts Inuvika in a strong position globally.
While most of the company’s growth has come from abroad, Gallagher says traction in Canada has been slower.
“We barely sold anything in Canada for many years.. The Canadian market is very conservative,” he said. “They want to see it proven everywhere else first.”
Gallagher says he hopes to see this change. In the meantime, he says the market is starting to pick up for Inuvika here at home and he hopes to see more support for Canadian-made alternatives in public sector procurement.
“In Ontario, I think we need to do something similar,” he said, referencing European policies that encourage the use of local and open-source products. “If there’s an available product in Ontario, the government should have regulations that require their IT departments to test it, and see if it’s capable of fulfilling the role that they need. It is the only way to break the cycle of the path of least resistance. Currently, government continues to renew existing technology despite the cost disadvantages and despite that they could also be supporting local employment.”
“We do want to try to keep this a Canadian company for as long as possible. I think we have all the creative people in Canada that we need. They’re some of the best-educated people on the planet. And with all of the language skills in the country, it makes it easy for us to work with the rest of the world.”
With momentum growing behind the buy-Canadian movement, Gallagher is more motivated than ever to keep growing.
“Now the lights are on late. Everybody’s working hard,” he said. “Our major concern is that we do not miss this massive opportunity that’s been put right in front of us”.
“Working with Communitech has been a great experience as they get us in front of venture funds that we otherwise may not have met. It will be crucial for our near-term growth.”
“We want to make it easy for people to work from anywhere. And by simplifying and lowering the cost of the virtual desktop solution, we want to also bring it to the parts of the world where it wasn’t available before. There is a massive market waiting for us.”
