FREDERICTON — With the COVID-19 pandemic making businesses globally reliant on online sales to survive, a Fredericton newcomer’s company has been getting a lot more inquiries these days.

Adetunji Adelakun is the founder and CEO of Scantranx, cloud-based software for retailers and wholesalers. It integrates services such as inventory management, e-commerce, point-of-sale, reports and analytics, CRM, social media, and omnichannel solutions into one platform.

The company got its start in 2015 in Nigeria, where Adelakun is originally from.

“Back in Nigeria I was working as a software engineer for over 10 years and I had gained experience in the retail and financial sector,” he says. “I got this idea of trying to build something around retail solutions, an omnichannel solution for businesses because I had seen a lot of businesses looking for some kind of solution. I thought there was a piece missing in the market so I tried to work on that, so that’s how Scantranx began.”

He decided to move to Fredericton in December 2017 through Canada’s Start-up Visa Program, which aims to bring in international entrepreneurs to Canada to build their companies. Adelakun says he chose Fredericton and New Brunswick because of its affordability to both live and do business.

“I did my research about a lot of different communities in Canada. One of the things I realized is it could expensive starting up a business in North America,” he says. “I was a beginner and somebody who doesn’t have many resources and trying to manage the ones I have, so I did my research and I found out that the cost of living [in Fredericton] is very low.”

Another thing that’s very low in Fredericton is the crime rate. Having lived in big cities for most of his life, he wanted somewheres smaller and safer to live with his family.

“You hear of Toronto, you hear of New York and the crime rates are quite high,” says Adelakun. “I was looking for somewhere that I can live peacefully with my family, so that’s one of the things that actually attracted me to Fredericton.”

Scantranx’s software can be used in any sector that has online sales. What makes it stand out from competitors in the industry is it brings all the different retail solutions into one platform. It allows businesses to access things like inventory management, point-of-sale applications, CRM, e-commerce, and analytics all in one place instead of subscribing to multiple programs.

“We built everything into one platform. We realized that most businesses have different platforms to run their daily operations,” says Adelakun. “They have a separate platform for e-commerce, another platform for customer loyalty, and we realized this is an overhead cost to businesses.”

Right now, Scantranx is working on building its customer base in Canada, particularly in the Atlantic region, with plans to expand globally.