Civil engineer Caroline Arnouk has always been fascinated by buildings. Every time she entered a building, she always imagined that a team had seen to its construction from A to Z. “I never stopped to think about the fact that I was working in a male environment,” she says. “My father always told me: if you want something, there are no limits.”

She did not stop at studying civil engineering at Polytechnique and infrastructure management at ETS, but completed a certificate in law at the University of Montreal and a diploma in entrepreneurial development from MIT.

The idea for a company that develops urban mobility management software came to her while she was working at the City of Montreal. As an engineer in the Water Department for six years, she regularly found herself around a table with various stakeholders. “The infrastructure repair work was coordinated using Excel files! With the results we know: construction sites that lead to other construction sites and a lot of traffic congestion. I saw a real need and an urgent need to act to find efficient technological tools.”

So she left the stability of a large organization to take the leap and found OPA Technologies in 2015. "I aspired to smarter and more user-friendly mobility with positive impacts for the City and for the entire urban community," she explains. These congestion problems also exist in Toronto or in foreign cities that invest in infrastructure!"

Alleviate congestion

The young thirty-something invested her own money and spent about two years developing, with the help of programmers and specialists, the world's first software to manage traffic obstructions and road mobility. The application displays in real time the work in progress on a given territory. Other modules dedicated to the blasting of construction sites and bus routes were added later. "The first clients who trusted us were the City of Quebec and Infrastructure Canada for the Champlain Bridge and Turcot interchange projects." Montreal, Laval, Brossard and private companies have also more recently joined OPA software.

Make way for the young!

With OPA Technologies, the company nicknamed the “queen of orange cones” wants to provide more mobility in addition to generating savings in time and money, both in the public and private sectors. “Having public transit services that serve citizens, including in the regions, is essential. However, we can do better in terms of smart and innovative mobility and I think that young startups have lots of good ideas, but are struggling to accelerate their commercialization. I am a bit of a spokesperson, because I see their potential on the ground. We need to invest more in them!”

As she continues to develop her clientele in Ontario, the United States and Australia, the tech entrepreneur will continue to break down doors.

"I am a woman, I am young and I have to convince seniors that using my software will improve their productivity. They were surprised that I was the only shareholder in my company and they asked me to prove myself for a year or two before they trusted me. And when I succeeded, they asked me if I was a magician. I am not a magician, I am perseverant!"