By Florence Hwang,
Special to The Post

Entrepreneur Nick Chandi had always wanted to create an app that would help small businesses work more efficiently, particularly managing mundane and repetitive tasks.

“I have always been in the search of finding and implementing tools that can help me be more productive and I want to do the same for those working long, extended hours,” he explained, referring to his target market of small business owners, freelancers and self-employed people.

His company SlickPie has recently launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that is called MagicBot. It enables to automated conversion of information from receipts and bills into digital data using smartphone cameras.

“No business owner wakes up in the morning and say that I want to spend two hours today taking care of my cash flow. I hope any time they saved due to MagicBot will be invested in creating value for their business so that they are more profitable, can create more wealth that powers Canadian economy. With MagicBot, I want to give them more time back with their family,” he said.

His company has made this invention a core part of its online accounting software SlickPie, a company he founded, which provides online accounting software focused on automation that has thousands of users in more than 150 countries worldwide.

So far, the feedback for MagicBot has been much better than Chandi expected.

“We conducted a research with 120 businesses and found that users were saving an average of 4.54 hours every week, which translates into reducing costs and enhancing financial health of their business."

Chandi was born and raised in India. After a degree in engineering and post graduation in business administration (MBA), he moved to Canada in 1996. In Canada, he struggled to get a job based on his education experience based in India. He attended University of Victoria’s information and technology program, which opened more opportunities for him.

Two decades later, he is a career entrepreneur working in the IT sector, specifically with cloud business software.