Edmonton startup moves into rent-free downtown office it won

Local startup company RUNWITHIT Synthetics moved into its new downtown Edmonton office after winning the space in a competition.

Last week, RUNWITHIT Synthetics beat more than 70 other local businesses in a competition for a downtown office space.

The space is currently being rented by CommAlert, but when that company's staff started working from home, the CEO decided someone else should get the space.

“I’m so happy, these guys are doing leading edge technology and are hopefully going to put Edmonton on the map,” said Tim Cawrell, CEO of CommAlert.

Myrna and Dean Bittner, the founders of RUNWITHIT Synthetics, now get to occupy the space rent free for the two years left on CommAlert’s lease.

“It’s absolutely vital to have a footprint,” said Myrna Bittner. “It’s really hard to be an international company with no business address.”

RUNWITHIT Synthetics creates models of cities in digital environments, the models include factors such as population, infrastructure and policies. The goal is to use these models to help decision-makers plan for possible future events.

“We’re the only ones that I know of in the world doing what we’re doing,” said Bittner.

Currently, RUNWITHIT is helping Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, improve its transit network.

“We got to explore even things outside of do you add a new train, do you add a new road, like safer pedestrian journeys, making transportation platforms more accessible,” said Bittner.

The company is now building a synthetic Edmonton, which could be used for things like urban planning and pandemic recovery.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Touria Izri