A Decade in the Making: VRIFY Named in Deloitte's 2026 Technology Fast 50

Ten years ago, a small team in Vancouver set out to change how the mining industry worked. It was a big ambition for an industry that has historically valued time-tested approaches over innovation.

This week, Deloitte named VRIFY in its 2026 Technology Fast 50™, a list of Canada's fastest-growing technology companies, just a year after ranking in Deloitte's North American Technology Fast 500™. With 470% revenue growth between 2022 and 2025, VRIFY earned the 48^th place on this year’s list, just a few months after The Globe and Mail named VRIFY one of Canada's Top Growing Companies.  

“It's a bit surreal,” says Steve de Jong, CEO, VRIFY. “As we’ve been celebrating this recognition as a team, the conversation keeps coming back to the same thing: this didn't happen just because of the technology. It happened because of the team behind our software, and the clients who have trusted us along the way.”

Geoscience First

Walk into a VRIFY team meeting and you'll hear as much about drill core and deposit models as you will about code. That's by design.

Many of VRIFY’s 120+ team came from the field. The geologists, geophysicists, and geochemists have logged core in remote camps, planned drill programs, and worked across different regions and deposit types. This expertise sits alongside data scientists, AI specialists, and engineers — it’s a mix that shapes everything VRIFY builds.

"Good technology in this industry has to start with geoscience," says Jean-Philippe (JP) Paiement, Chief Technology Officer, VRIFY. "A lot of our team have stood where our clients stand. They've had to make the call on where to drill next with incomplete data and limited budgets. That's why we build AI you can question — a glass box, not a black box."

“It's also why mining majors and exploration teams trust us. Geoscientists don't adopt a tool simply because it has AI in it. They adopt it when they can see the science behind the answer.  When it builds on their own expertise.”

This didn't happen just because of the technology. It happened because of the team behind our software, and the clients who have trusted us along the way.

_{Steve de Jong, CEO of VRIFY}

Convincing an Industry, One Client at a Time

Since introducing AI software to the industry in 2024, many conversations were shaped by skepticism.. Exploration decisions had been made the same way for decades, often on gut feel, with data scattered across spreadsheets, PDFs, and old desktop software.

"We were a small team slowly convincing an industry to change how it worked," says Steve de Jong. "Every client who said ‘yes' was taking a chance on us. This recognition from Deloitte is as much theirs as it is ours."

Today, more than 200 companies around the world use VRIFY's software. In an industry as specialized as mining, that number means a lot.

Each of those clients chose to try a new way of working with their data, their targets, and their stories. Their feedback has shaped VRIFY's software, from organizing and validating decades of exploration data, to building explainable AI that turns that data into defensible targets.  

Reflections on the VRIFY Team

“A decade ago, VRIFY started with the goal of pushing the industry to fundamentally evolve. This recognition belongs to the people who made that happen. Our team has spent careers in exploration, and that experience drives everything we build. I'm proud of what we've accomplished and know there’s even more to come," Steve de Jong, CEO, VRIFY.

"Being named to Deloitte’s Fast 50 shows what happens when deep industry knowledge meets AI,” JP Paiement, Chief Technology Officer, VRIFY.

"What this recognition represents is traction — for our technology, and for the industry’s readiness to push innovation forward with us. That only happens when the people building the software understand the challenges behind the work,” Penny Swords, Chief Revenue Officer, VRIFY.  

Ten years in, Just Getting Started

The pressure on exploration teams isn't going away. Capital is tight, teams are smaller, and investors expect more. That's exactly why the next ten years will be even more interesting than the last.

"With the pace of innovation we're seeing, I really think some of our most exciting work is still ahead of us," says JP.

See how VRIFY is changing mineral exploration.

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About the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program

The Technology Fast 50 program is Canada's pre-eminent technology awards program. It recognizes business growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship in three distinct categories: Technology Fast 50, Enterprise — Industry Leaders, and Companies-to-Watch. The program also recognizes thriving technology companies in the United States and Canada in partnership with the North American Technology Fast 500 program. Program sponsors for 2026 include RBCx, NRF, TMX, EDC, CCI, Lafond, and The Globe and Mail. For more information, visit www.fast50.ca.