Alithya Group

Alithya Group Inc. is a North American company specializing in digital strategy and technologies. Alithya is the second largest company in its industry in Canada, with a turnover of $260,000,000 USD. The company employs over 2,000 people in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Founded in 1992, Alithya helps an array of organizations to achieve their business objectives, primarily through the optimization of digital technologies. Alithya has clients in various economic sectors including Financial Services, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Energy, Transportation, and Government Services.

Alithya was established in 1992 under the leadership of founder Ghyslain Rivard, with the help of a dozen information technology employees from Mouvement Desjardins. Its original name was CIA.In 1998, CGI purchased a minority stake in the company’s capital, which continued to increase over the years. In 2010, CIA bought back its shares from CGI in order to regain its independence and have greater flexibility in the decision-making process. Pierre Turcotte and Paul Raymond, both former CGI leaders, participated in the buyout process and joined CIA.In June 2012, the company merged with Sinapse. The company also changed its name from CIA to Alithis in order to avoid confusion with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2013, Alithis changed its name to Alithya, which means "true" in Greek.In 2020, as Alithya employees were already set up to work from home when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they were able to reassure investors of their ability continue working effectively during a crisis, according to their president. The company adjusted its services and mobilized its resources in order to help its clients achieve efficiency in a remote environment. Examples of this include organizing new workshops about teamwork from a distance, and virtual conference rooms.

Alithya is a company that has grown through their acquisitions. Between 1999 and 2015, CIA made a series of acquisitions in France and Canada (IPSI, EAP, Techlink, Gestion Pierre Jutras, Europfiles, Optitech, Zinnia, Eva, Addx, Eučka, and ERS).In 2015, Alithya acquired the professional services of TELUS and, simultaneously, TELUS invested in Alithya. The company also acquired the OSI Consulting Group and welcomed two new major investors: Desjardins Capital régional et coopératif and Investissement Québec.Between 2016 and 2017, Alithya made another series of acquisitions, including Pro2p and Systemware Innovation (SWI) which led to the iA Financial Group investing in Alithya.In 2018, Alithya acquired Edgewater Technology, which increased Alithya’s workforce to more than 2,000 employees. Following this acquisition, 35% of Alithya’s current revenue comes from the U.S. Simultaneously, the company raised C$52.8 million through the issuance of 11,736,055 subscription receipts. Edgewater employees had their Employees Stock Plan shares frozen at the acquisition and were only allowed to trade their shares once the ALYA shares converted on close of the acquisition had lost half their value.

From 2018 to 2020, Alithya continued to grow through acquisitions. By acquiring the Managed Web Services activities of TELUS and Matricis Informatique Inc., Alithya increased its expertise in data science and hired professionals engaged in advanced applications and systems related to the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and operational intelligence. In 2019, Alithya also made a strategic investment in the healthcare sector with the acquisition of Travercent LLC, a US-based Oracle cloud consulting group. In February 2020, Alithya acquired Askida, a firm specialized in software quality assurance, application development and modernization.

In 2018, Alithya was officially listed on the TSX and NASDAQ, under the ALYA ticker symbol. According to its president and CEO, being listed as a TSX company helps Alithya attract and retain employees. Alithya is the 7th company from Quebec, Canada, to be listed on NASDAQ.