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In today’s digital age, data is at the center of nearly every organization. Cloud computing has brought incredible benefits for businesses, including increased collaboration, insights and flexibility. It has, however, also brought security risks that can be quite costly. The average cost of a data breach in 2022 is $4.35 million USD, according to the latest Cost of a Data Breach Report from IBM Security, based on research from Ponemon Institute. In addition to the financial hit, a data breach can result in loss of trust from partners and customers. What’s more, the increased focus on data privacy due to GDPR in Europe and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), means that security breaches could also result in steep fines or litigation. The average cost of a data breach in 2022 is $4.35 million USD. Customers and partners often seek assurances that an outside organization can be trusted with their data. For Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, such as Vena, that manage a large volume of diverse data, adherence to System and Organization Control requirements, also referred to as SOC, can help establish a common language of trust. What Is a SOC Report? At its core, SOC reports are independent, third-party audit reports that demonstrate how an organization achieves key compliance controls and objectives based on criteria defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). For example, they can help validate, among other things, that a company’s internal security practices meet specific criteria. These practices include both technology and human protocols. SOC reports are independent, third-party audit reports that demonstrate how an organization achieves key compliance controls and objectives based on criteria defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). SOC 1 Report There are different kinds of SOC audits. A SOC 1 audit examines and reports on an organization’s control environment that may be relevant to its customers’ internal controls over financial reporting. SOC 2 Report A SOC 2 audit looks at an organization’s control environment as it relates to established trust criteria, including security for a service offering. SOC audits can be further broken into two types: a Type 1 audit reviews the control environment at a single point in time, whereas a Type 2 audit looks at the control environment over a defined period of time, typically from six to 12 months, depending on the needs of the organization and intended users. Third-Party Validation Since Vena operates in the corporate performance management space and deals with sensitive data, our customers expect us to implement appropriate organizational safeguards designed to protect the financial, operational and other organizational data they bring into our Complete Planning platform. Type 2 SOC reports provide an independent assessment that can help customers assess whether the control environments of vendors are suitably designed and operating effectively for their needs. When Vena underwent its SOC evaluation, we partnered with a top accounting firm to ensure that our audit was conducted by an experienced and respected third party. We’ve always developed Vena’s network infrastructure and tech stack with security in mind, so the road to issuing our Type 1 SOC report was a short one once we started the process. As part of our SOC 2 Type 2 audit, we looked at both human-based and technology-based enterprise risk management measures as they related to the security trust principle. The examination included evaluating the technology we have in place, assessing the internal training for all our staff and reviewing the outputs from ongoing incident response exercises with our technical and crisis management teams. Security is a process and no organization can sit back and assume that it is 100% secure. Achieving a level of security that can be independently verified, such as SOC, is a continuous journey that never truly ends. Our teams are regularly updating our defensive technologies, conducting penetration tests, reviewing privileged access grants and generally staying on top of the latest threat intelligence. Security is a process and no organization can sit back and assume that it is 100% secure. Executive Support For companies pursuing SOC 2 compliance (or considering going through the audit process), it is important to have both executive buy-in and full support and commitment across the organization from the ground up. This was the case for us at Vena. Our entire team were engaged champions of the process. Conducting a SOC evaluation serves a number of valuable functions. It establishes a framework, cadence and discipline of ongoing review which can help protect an organization from both financial and reputational damage and ensure that authored policies are followed as part of the running business. Vena continues to strengthen our Complete Planning platform, which is designed to ensure our users’ data is safe, secure and always available. To learn more about Vena’s commitment to customer trust, visit our Customer Trust page.

Howatson’s experience scaling companies and building high-performing global finance organizations will guide Vena through its next phase of growth We're pleased to announce that Melissa Howatson has joined Vena's executive team as chief financial officer, reporting to CEO Hunter Madeley. Howatson joins Vena at a pivotal moment in its growth trajectory. The company recently grew its global team to more than 700 employees and, despite economic headwinds, has achieved record performance over the course of 2022, propelled by industry-leading customer satisfaction ratings and new milestones in its ecosystem of strategic partners and engagements with global customers. In her new role, Howatson will help lead Vena through its next phase of growth, driving operational scale and agility in service of Vena’s ecosystem of customers, partners, employees and community. “Vena has grown tremendously in the past year, and we were looking for a finance leader who has successfully guided companies toward their next milestone,” said Madeley. “Melissa brings a great combination of scale-up and start-up experience, a strong financial and consulting background spanning industries such as edtech, ‘Big Four’ accounting and automotive and a proven history of building and leading high-performing global finance organizations. We are thrilled to have her join us on our journey.” Howatson joins Vena after almost a decade at D2L, a global learning technology company, where she served as CFO, was a member of the board of directors and led the completion of D2L’s initial public offering in 2021. Prior to D2L, she held finance leadership positions at Bend All Automotive, Qwalify and Primal. She obtained her CPA-CA designation while working in the assurance practice at KPMG. “Vena enables finance to evolve from being simply an aggregator of data to a strategic business partner that delivers insight and analysis to drive agility, resilience and stronger decision making. The time is right for finance teams to harness the power of Vena ..." —Melissa Howatson CFO at Vena "Throughout my career, I have seen firsthand the value that finance teams can bring to the larger organization and the important role they can play in moving the business forward,” said Howatson. “Vena enables finance to evolve from being simply an aggregator of data to a strategic business partner that delivers insight and analysis to drive agility, resilience and stronger decision making. The time is right for finance teams to harness the power of Vena, and I’m excited to work with Hunter and the team to deliver the utmost value for our customers and guide Vena through its next phase of growth.” Come Grow With Us We’re hiring! Vena has offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

Customer trust, corporate culture and a new employees milestone propel continued growth amid economic headwinds TORONTO – Dec. 1, 2022 – Vena, the Complete Planning platform loved by finance and trusted by business, approaches 2023 following a strong performance in its third quarter. The company continued to grow its employee base and engagements with global customers, introduced new product innovation, drove customer growth buoyed by consistently exceptional satisfaction scores and was lauded for its product and corporate culture. In November, Vena Solutions launched Vena with Microsoft Power BI Embedded. The integration enriches Vena’s Insights and Analysis solution with advanced data analytics and AI-powered business insights embedded directly into Vena’s cloud-based CPM platform, powering FP&A, extended planning and beyond. This integration represents the latest evolution of Vena's ongoing strategic collaboration with Microsoft and makes Vena the only Complete Planning platform with out-of-the-box, user-guided business intelligence for all. TrustRadius, the community-driven product reviews site, recognized Vena Complete Planning with a 2022 Best Software award, which celebrates products that support the evolution of self-serve buyers by sourcing and using customer reviews. The recognition came on the heels of Vena winning a TrustRadius Tech Cares award for the third consecutive year. The award recognizes technology companies that go above and beyond in supporting their employees and the communities they operate in. Additionally, Vena was named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures for 2022 by Waterstone Human Capital. The award recognizes not only strong corporate culture but also looks at how culture has aided the organization to drive success. These achievements all complement a strong third quarter that saw Vena grow its global team to more than 700 employees, maintain exceptional growth in revenue and achieve industry-leading customer satisfaction ratings. “Vena’s exceptional performance despite global economic uncertainty is a testament to the trust our customers place in us, the value they realize from using our Complete Planning platform and the support of our partners and Venanites throughout the company,” said Vena CEO Hunter Madeley. “We are honored by the recognitions awarded to Vena for its products and, especially, its culture and people, and look forward to continued collaboration and partnership as we head into 2023.” Other highlights achieved in Q3 2022 include: A customer base that has increased by more than 300 new customers in 2022, sustained record customer satisfaction levels and accelerated growth as customers continue to put their trust in Vena to power their Plan To Grow™ in turbulent times. The addition of more than 30 new Partners this year, with Ujimatec, SolomonEdwards, Anatona and others joining Vena’s Partner Network in Q3. The launch of Vena Marketplace, a destination where finance and operations professionals can access integrations, solutions and services to Power their Plan To Grow. Continued employee growth despite ongoing economic turbulence with a 30+% increase in headcount year-over-year. Successful completion of SOC 1 and 2 Type II audits, which provide an independent assessment of how Vena’s cloud-based CPM platform achieves compliance controls and objectives based on criteria defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Additional recognition of Vena with awards from workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform Comparably. These awards included Best Company Happiness, Work-Life Balance, Perks & Benefits and Compensation. About Vena Vena is the only native Excel Complete Planning platform built for Microsoft 365 with Power BI Embedded. Vena transforms how business, finance and operations leaders Plan To Grow™ with the Vena Growth Engine, the SaaS platform and methodology that empowers and inspires your plans and guides your growth journey. Over 1,300 of the world’s leading companies power their growth with Vena. For more information, visit venasolutions.com. Media Contact Jonathan Paul Senior Director, Content & Communications, Vena jpaul@venacorp.com

Free workshops offer Microsoft Excel training, mentorship and encouragement for underrepresented youth Vena's Black Employee Resource Group, Melanite, is excited to announce its partnership with BlackMINT, a Canadian non-profit organization focused on inspiring Black youth to pursue careers in the tech sector. Together, they will be hosting and teaching a series of workshops on careers in technology, along with skills-based training on Microsoft Excel, the world’s most commonly used spreadsheet software. Black professionals are underrepresented in the technology industry. Black residents comprise 3.5% of the Canadian population but make up just 2.6% of the country’s technology professionals. BlackMINT’s Rising Star Platform is a clearinghouse for information about Black professionals and what it takes to succeed in different careers, including technology. Through its Black employee resource group, Melanite, Vena is hosting and sponsoring these workshops with BlackMINT to introduce high school students to career opportunities in tech as well as real-world skills that can be transferred to the workplace. Black professionals are underrepresented in the technology industry. Black residents comprise 3.5% of the Canadian population but make up just 2.6% of the country’s technology professionals. “Representation matters. We want to impact how students see themselves represented in tech through these sessions and imagine the possibilities for their future,” said Siobhan Mondesire, Vice President of Demand Generation and Co-chair of Melanite at Vena. “Existing systemic barriers have resulted in fewer Black students being encouraged—or even provided the option—to pursue tech careers. Addressing this at the root cause includes arming them with the knowledge and access to better understand what a career in tech looks like. It’s important we demystify the idea that the only jobs in tech are ones where you have to code.” "Representation matters. We want to impact how students see themselves represented in tech through these sessions and imagine the possibilities for their future.” —Siobhan Mondesire Vice President of Demand Generation and Co-chair of Melanite at Vena Tina Goulbournre, Vena's Chief Operating Officer and Executive Sponsor of Melanite, said: "We have deliberately built inclusion into our culture because we understand that diversity adds richness—inside and outside of our organization. We are proud of our track record and for being recognized as an industry leader that continuously strives to ensure we create a supportive environment where all feel included and have equal opportunity." Vena will host the free, daylong Excel workshops on Dec. 3 and Jan. 14 at its headquarters in the Liberty Village area of Toronto and virtually via video conference. Vena encourages teachers, counselors, coaches and others who work with youth to visit www.lifeatvena.com/excelerate-your-growth for more information they can share within their networks and communities.

Award from Waterstone Human Capital recognizes culture’s contribution to an organization’s business success Here at Vena, we're fortunate to know that our great team and culture all come down to our people. Every day, we're proud of the culture we're building together, but today, we're especially proud and honored to announce that we have been recognized for all our collective efforts in creating a winning culture at Vena. Vena was named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures for 2022 by Waterstone Human Capital. The award recognizes not only strong corporate culture but also looks at how culture has aided the organization to drive success. "The 2022 award recipients demonstrate that putting culture at the center of strategy drives growth and accelerates performance. They actively craft high-performance cultures that drive extraordinary results and serve as an inspiration for others who want to do the same” says Marty Parker, president and CEO of Waterstone Human Capital and chair of the Canada’s Most Admired™ program. “At Waterstone, we believe corporate culture drives performance and that it’s an organization’s single greatest asset.” Vena’s CORE Values—Customer Trust, One Team, Respect and Authenticity and Execution Excellence—guide every decision and action taken across the organization. “We are truly appreciative of the feedback our employees provide in both internal surveys and employer rating sites, and are grateful to be rated highly by our amazing team. Our collective commitment to building a culture focused on personal and professional growth in the service of our customers stands out most for me,” said Tracey Mikita, Chief People Person at Vena. “From our formal learning and development programs, Vena employee resource group initiatives and our support of giving back to our communities, Vena is focused on cultivating, embracing and celebrating all aspects of our team.” In addition to being named one of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture winners, Vena also has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top Small and Medium Employers in 2022 and has earned eight Comparably awards based on employee feedback—Best Company Outlook, Best Company Perks & Benefits, Best Company Work-Life Balance, Best Company Compensation, Best Company Happiness, Best CEOs for Diversity, Best CEOs for Women and Best Marketing Teams. The company also has received awards for its financial planning and analysis platform from organizations including Gartner, TrustRadius and others. “We are truly appreciative of the feedback our employees provide in both internal surveys and employer rating sites, and are grateful to be rated highly by our amazing team. Our collective commitment to building a culture focused on personal and professional growth in the service of our customers stands out most for me.” —Tracey Mikita Chief People Person at Vena “From day one, we have continuously and consciously worked to build a positive workplace culture— and it’s humbling to be recognized among a short list of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures,” said Vena CEO Hunter Madeley. “We understand that a company built on collaboration, transparency and trust empowers everyone involved in the organization. We work to earn that trust every day—at every level of our organization—and it’s an honor to see that work recognized with awards like this one.” About Waterstone Human Capital: At Waterstone Human Capital, we inspire organizations to build high performance cultures. We’re a human capital management consulting firm specializing in retained executive search, cultural measurement and assessment, and leadership training and development. We have successfully helped hundreds of entrepreneurial-minded, high-growth organizations across North America recruit, measure, and train for fit. Waterstone is also the founder of the Canada’s Most Admired™Corporate Cultures and Canada’s Most Admired™CEO programs. These national programs annually recognize best-in-class Canadian organizations and CEOs, for fostering cultures that enhance performance and help sustain a competitive advantage. For more information, please visit waterstonehc.com or canadasmostadmired.com. Come Grow With Us We’re hiring! Vena has offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

Vena’s cloud-based corporate performance management platform also earned a spot on the For Enterprise List and For Mid-Sized List Our customers have spoken and based on their top reviews, Vena has earned a badge for landing on the Overall TrustRadius Best Software List as well as the For Enterprise List and For Mid-Sized List. This recognition comes on the heels of Vena winning a TrustRadius Tech Cares Award for the third consecutive year. The TrustRadius Best Software List celebrates products that support the evolution of self-serve buyers by sourcing and using customer reviews. To make the list, products must have more than 40 reviews from the past year and have maintained a trScore of 7.5 or higher. These characteristics demonstrate a commitment to transparency, improvement and user insights. “Vena Solutions was selected for the 2022 Best Software List as best suited for mid-sized and enterprise businesses,” said Megan Headley, Vice President of Research at TrustRadius. “These awards are based directly on feedback from their customers. Vena’s customers at mid-sized and enterprise businesses praised the product's overall flexibility, easy-to-use drill-down capabilities and ability to automate workflows.” “Powerful agile planning and reporting in familiar Excel environment.” —Vena Verified User Top-Rated Reviews by Vena Users Vena helps finance teams analyze, gain insights and report on business performance to help organizations forecast, plan, budget and report on their key performance indicators. Vena Complete Planning automates planning processes across departments and systems in human resources, marketing and sales, each of which can benefit from enterprise performance management (EPM) for forecasting, budgeting and reporting, revenue planning, workforce planning, scenario analysis and beyond. Vena’s top-rated reviews and ratings on TrustRadius are a result of the insights shared by verified users. One user shared, “Vena is easy to use and maintain. All the stakeholders in the business love it. Vena is used in our day-to-day management of the business. It has allowed us to have full transparency of our business with one source of truth. We also use it for consolidating and reporting our financials internally and externally. Vena has made it much easier for forecasting, budgeting and modeling the business.” Other Vena users shared: “Used across the entire company for planning and reporting. Gives managers access to transaction detail and timely data. Quarterly forecasts have made planning agile and up to date based on operational changes.” “Vena has been a great platform for us to input all of our forecastings into one hub so that we can perform our consolidations. We also import our actual data into the Vena database, so we are now able to compare our financial results against our forecast and budgets to provide better analysis for our stakeholders.” “The integrations and data feeds have been managed with minimal training upfront. We have not needed to involve our IT department and that allows Accounting to manage the process on our terms and priority.” “Very happy with Vena and have not looked back.” —Vena Verified User Looking to share your own feedback? Please leave a review here. Empowering Your Plan To Grow™ “We’re always so grateful to our customers for sharing their feedback on TrustRadius. Their high rankings for Vena tell us that we are providing both the technology and operational methodology needed to set their businesses up for success,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO of Vena. “But we will always strive to be better in serving our mission of empowering our customers’ Plan To Grow™, creating market-leading products and solutions to inspire their work—across industries and markets—and guide their growth.” Earlier this year, Vena also received three TrustRadius Top Rated Awards in the Corporate Performance Management (CPM), Budgeting and Forecasting and Financial Close categories. Since 2016, the TrustRadius Awards have been the standard for unbiased recognition of B2B technology products based entirely on customer feedback. How are the world’s biggest brands powering their growth with Vena? Find out here.

Vena Complete Planning, now with Power BI Embedded, empowers strategic planning, connected decision making and business agility with AI-powered insights at scale and guided business intelligence for all TORONTO, November 3, 2022 - Vena, the Complete Planning platform loved by finance and trusted by business, today announced the integration of Vena with Microsoft Power BI Embedded as part of its Insights and Analysis solution. Vena with Power BI Embedded enriches Vena’s Insights and Analysis solution with advanced data analytics and AI-powered business insights embedded directly in Vena Complete Planning, powering FP&A, extended planning and beyond. This makes it the only Complete Planning platform with out-of-the-box, user-guided business intelligence for all. Companies can easily leverage up-to-the-minute analytics, share actionable, AI-driven insights at scale, improve communication and collaboration with interactive data visualizations and dashboards, power confident, connected decision making, and empower strategic planning and business agility at every level of their organization—all within the Vena they know and love. “Vena with Power BI Embedded ensures our customers have all the tools and capabilities they need to drive strategic business planning and better business outcomes,” said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer at Vena. “Not only can organizations leverage advanced data and analytics capabilities such as natural language querying, predictive modeling and decomposition trees to drive agile decision making, they can also benefit from the latest advances in Microsoft’s Power BI cloud and AI capabilities in an embedded, no-code solution with out-of-the-box functionality.” For over a decade, Vena Solutions has collaborated with Microsoft to create the only native Microsoft Excel, cloud-based CPM platform to empower the strategic office of finance—including Microsoft 365 and Power BI. Vena automates key planning processes and connects financial and operational data from across the business. This enables organizations to source meaningful insights through timely analysis and to drive agile planning decisions that deliver business value in the pursuit of sustained growth. Vena with Power BI Embedded enhances Vena’s Insights and Analysis solution as the next evolution of Vena’s ongoing strategic collaboration with Microsoft, which continues to transform how businesses Plan To Grow™. “Vena Complete Planning’s integration with Power BI combines modeling capabilities with embedded AI delivered by a business intelligence cloud in a Complete Planning platform anyone can use,” said Arun Ulagaratchagan, Corporate Vice President, Intelligence Platform at Microsoft Corp. “Uncovering deep insights at scale to maximize business performance is more efficient and easier.” Vena with Power BI Embedded leverages machine learning applied across end-to-end analytical workflows and an intuitive user experience to bring finance and operational teams together with at-a-glance visuals of key company KPIs. Businesses can future-proof their investment in advanced data analytics with free and instant access to the latest analytics and AI advancements in Microsoft Power BI. Plus, with the power of Vena’s analytical database—which connects existing source systems for optimized data readiness—they can maximize Microsoft Power BI’s AI-powered insights and analysis with Vena’s best-in-class, multi-dimensional modeling and scenario analysis capabilities to power business-wide planning. “Reporting, dashboards, integrated data and embedded BI with guided analytics are among the most sought-after capabilities today,” said Howard Dresner, Founder and Chief Research Officer at Dresner Advisory Services. “For finance, operations and business leaders, the ability to align teams around key goals and objectives, monitor performance against those goals and, ultimately, drive better decision making with democratized access to data is increasingly critical as they look to make sense of and navigate through quickly changing market conditions.” “Vena with Power BI Embedded is a game changer” added Dan Crumb, CFO of the Kansas City Chiefs. “With its easy-to-use, best-in-class AI capabilities, we will be able to create a collaborative data-driven culture that leverages instant, scalable insights to drive strategic planning and decision making at every level of our organization. We will be well-positioned as industry leaders in strategic finance and analytics with automated, AI-enabled insights and business intelligence capabilities at our fingertips.” To learn more about Vena with Power BI Embedded, visit venasolutions.com or watch The Reporting and Analytics Livestream on demand at plantogrow.com. About Vena Vena is the only native Excel Complete Planning Platform built for Microsoft 365 with Power BI Embedded. Vena transforms how business, finance and operations leaders Plan To Grow™ with the Vena Growth Engine, the SaaS platform and methodology that empowers and inspires your plans and guides your growth journey. Over 1,300 of the world's leading companies power their growth with Vena. For more information, visit venasolutions.com.

Recognized for exceptional health and wellness initiatives, DEI programs and green workplace We're excited to share that Vena has been recognized for the third consecutive year with a TrustRadius Tech Cares award. The award acknowledges B2B technology companies that have gone above and beyond to support employees and communities during 2022. The TrustRadius Tech Cares award focuses on exceptional corporate social responsibility programs, including: Volunteerism Diversity, equity and inclusion Charitable donations and fundraising Workplace culture, including model support for in-office and remote employees Support for environmental sustainability “TrustRadius’ continued recognition of Vena’s inclusive and caring culture speaks volumes about the team at Vena, of whom I couldn’t be more proud,” said Hunter Madeley, CEO of Vena. “Our people drive our success, embodying Vena's core values in everything we do. We are fortunate to have a culture of incredibly diverse, inclusive and supportive team members who earn the trust of our customers, partners, communities—and each other—every day.” Vena has mindfully cultivated a culture of trust within the company and has established several programs to ensure an inclusive and equitable workplace. Some of the resources and policies established to support Venanites include: A hybrid work model that prioritizes location-flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual working preferences, whether an employee prefers to work in the office, fully remote or a combination of the two. An inclusive parental leave program that offers all new parents, regardless of gender, 20 weeks of parental leave top-up, with options to take advantage of a flexible return to work onboarding. An expanded benefits package that allows for immediate access to healthcare benefits, additional paid leave, child and senior care benefits, expanded mental health support as well as health and wellness initiatives in the workplace. These initiatives include Summer Fridays, where all Venanites are encouraged to wrap the workday early to get a head start on the weekend. The company also offers all employees a subscription to the meditation app Headspace and provides health and wellness spending accounts. An organizational focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) that encompasses a review of the language and tone of communications (both corporate and individual), bias-free hiring practices and inclusivity reviews to ensure every Venanite enjoys equal accommodation. Employee resource groups that support Vena’s diverse employee base, including Va11y (accessibility and inclusion), N4W (a network for women+), Melanite (for Black employees and allies), Spectrum (for 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and allies) and Mental Health (raising mental health awareness). These groups participate in a wide array of networking events, community outreach work, educational opportunities, support channels and more. Vena Cares is an additional ERG that works to help with the outreach of underserved communities, partnering with organizations, charities and companies on social impact initiatives. In 2021, these organizations included Second Harvest, Breakfast Club of Canada, Feeding America, The Trussell Trust, Black Health Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, St. Felix Centre and others. As a result, Vena has been recognized with a number of awards, including 12 Comparably Awards in 2021 (Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women, Best CEO, Best Company Perks & Benefits, Best Company Compensation, Best Company Happiness, Best Company Career Growth, Best Company Leadership, Best CEOs for Diversity, Best Team HR and Best Company Outlook). Vena also has received four Comparably Awards in 2022 (Best Company Outlook, Best Marketing Teams, Best CEOs for Women and Best CEOs for Diversity). Vena was also named one of Greater Toronto’s 2022 Top Employers by Mediacorp and one of Canada’s 2022 Top Small & Medium Employers. Additionally, Vena has expanded its green initiatives, to include a widespread recycling drive for depleted batteries, foil packaging and waste paper. Vena also donates office furniture, supplies and other items to employees or nonprofit organizations, and has worked with the landlord of its headquarters to initiate an electronics recycling program for used monitors, computers and peripherals that are no longer needed or out of date. “While the past two-plus years have placed a heightened awareness on community and inclusive workplaces, Vena was founded on the principles of trust, respect and authenticity,” said Shada McShannon, Director of People, Partners & DEI at Vena. “Being recognized by TrustRadius for the third consecutive year is a testament to every Venanite who supports our programs and community.” "While the past two-plus years have placed a heightened awareness on community and inclusive workplaces, Vena was founded on the principles of trust, respect and authenticity.” —Shada McShannon Director of People, Partners & DEI at Vena Vena Is a Fun Place To Work. Come Grow With Us. We’re hiring! Vena has offices in Toronto, Canada and London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

This October, Vena’s Mental Health employee-run resource group is dedicating the entire month to raising mental health awareness and cultivating support in our workplace. The theme for the month is, “Together for Mental Health at Vena.” This is the second consecutive year the employee-run resource group—what we call a Vena resource group (VRG) in our organization—is committed to amping up its ongoing efforts to promote mental health awareness and to raise our voices against stigma in a month-long campaign. “It is all of our responsibility to reduce the stigma of mental health conversations in the workplace every day. But we wanted to do more. Setting aside a month each year to highlight the importance of this work and to make it a top priority can make a huge impact on the overall health and happiness of employees—at work and at home,” says Jean Goldsmith, Mental Health Co-chair and Director, Learning & Development at Vena. "Setting aside a month each year to highlight the importance of this work and to make it a top priority can make a huge impact on the overall health and happiness of employees—at work and at home.” —Jean Goldsmith Mental Health Co-chair and Director, Learning & Development at Vena Mental Illness Awareness Week The month-long celebrations are in recognition of World Mental Health Day and Mental Illness Awareness Week. Each week will kick off with a Well-Being Monday, an opportunity for Venanites to start their week off with balance, calm and a healthy state of mind. Some planned activities include practicing gratitude, getting in the flow state (art explorations and bullet journalling) and stress relief tips for parents and kids. Mindfulness and Meditation Tuesdays will be devoted to the sharing of Headspace tips. This year, Vena was excited to offer our employees a subscription to Headspace, the digital mindfulness program that offers more personalized support, guidance, tools and access to mental health and wellness resources. The app also provides support for parents/caregivers and their children. (Learn more about our wellness-first workplace here.) Mid week, meditation sessions will be offered by Greg Jones, the Mental Health VRG’s other Co-chair and Director, Facilities at Vena. “We wanted to promote the idea that the workplace doesn’t have to be a place filled with anxiety and stress. With the right tools and support, it can be an ideal place for mindfulness and meditation. Finding time in your day to meditate at work helps reduce stress while boosting focus, energy and productivity,” says Greg. “We wanted to promote the idea that the workplace doesn’t have to be a place filled with anxiety and stress. With the right tools and support, it can be an ideal place for mindfulness and meditation." —Greg Jones Mental Health Co-chair and Director, Facilities at Vena Mental Health Professionals Each week will also feature various talks along with lunch and learn sessions given by health and wellness professionals working in different fields: Marie-Claire Conlin, Education Specialist, Gambling, Gaming and Technology Use (GGTU) at CAMH, will be hosting a talk on digital well-being and burnout. Dr. Merry Lin, Clinical Psychologist, Author and Podcaster will host a session on the seven forms of rest. Chris Coulter, Co-Executive Director, HowAreYouFeeling.org, will give a talk on helping kids understand their feelings as the key to a satisfying life. Meghan Lloyd, Registered Social Worker and experienced Psychotherapist, MA, MSW, RSW, will be hosting a talk on navigating transitions and anxiety. Image: Courtesy of Marie-Claire Conlin Mental Health and Laughter The Mental Health VRG is also excited to bring all Venanites together for an evening of fun and laughs as they present their second annual Virtual Comedy Night. Hosted by Marlena Kaesler and featuring guests, including Amy Yu, Gordon Hecht, Rush Kazi, Ada Nicolle, Andy Wong, Elizabeth Rasiuk, Matthew Ardill and headliner Marc Hallworth—all mental health advocates—the evening promises to delight the audience as the comedians share their own personal tales and struggles with mental health. “We want to remind everyone that it’s okay to laugh about mental health,” says Marlena Keasler. “Using humor to engage our audiences in discussions about mental health helps reduce the stigma.” Image: Courtesy of Rush Kazi Image: Courtesy of Amy Yu Image: Courtesy of Marc Hallworth Vena Is a Fun Place To Work. Come Grow With Us. We’re hiring! Vena has offices in Toronto, Canada and in London, England. Visit our Careers page for current job openings or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena.

We strive to ensure ALL belong at Vena. We know how important it is. We live it and we feel it every day in our workplace, but when our employees tell us so, we know we’re right on track to making diversity, equity and inclusion a top priority across every level of our organization. We’re extremely thankful to our employees for their feedback and so pleased to announce that because of their ratings at Comparably, a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform, our CEO Hunter Madeley has been named to Comparably’s 2022 annual lists for Best CEOs for Women and Best CEOs for Diversity. Hunter took the helm at Vena at the tail end of 2019 to continue his track record of leading transformational growth at some of the cloud’s most important companies. He was instrumental in guiding Vena forward with responsiveness, empathy and support for its employees, customers and community throughout the pandemic and continues to lead the company with a growth mindset. This includes helping Vena raise $300 million in Series C funding and strategically building Vena’s executive leadership team to power scale and industry-leading growth with the recent appointments of Le Huong Truong, Allison Munro and Hugh Cumming. Comparably’s 5th Annual list of Best CEOs for Women represents the top-ranked CEOs based on anonymous sentiment ratings from female employees on Comparably.com over a 12-month period (June 24, 2021 through June 24, 2022). Said Comparably CEO Jason Nazar, “The chief executives on this year’s list have fostered company cultures that embrace diversity and inclusion, as shown by the feedback from their female employees. The consensus is that these top-rated CEOs lead with empathy and emotional intelligence.” Comparably’s annual list of Best CEOs for Diversity represents the top-ranked CEOs based on anonymous sentiment ratings from BIPOC employees (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) on Comparably.com over the same 12-month period. According to Nazar, all CEOs on this year’s list understand that listening to and promoting the voices of all diverse employees is critical and implement equity and inclusion at the forefront of how they lead. “Every day, we strive to find ways to be better and to do better within our workplace, for our customers and in the community." —Hunter Madeley CEO, Vena “I’m proud to work with great people who support each other and hold one another accountable to living our Core Values—Customer Trust, One Team, Respect & Authenticity and Execution Excellence —here at Vena, and any recognition we receive is a direct result of our collective efforts,” says Vena CEO Hunter Madely. “Every day, we strive to find ways to be better and to do better within our workplace, for our customers and in the community. It is an honor to be recognized for these awards, but more than anything, they are a reflection of the culture and the company we are all building together.” In 2022, Vena also won Comparably Awards for Best Company Outlook and Best Marketing Teams. Read about it here. DEI at Vena Our One Team spirit and CORE values drive us to make a difference inside and outside of Vena and that starts with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Vena. Our DEI efforts are focused around four pillars: Talent Attraction and Acquisition, Employee Experience, Leadership and Learning, and VRG and Community Impact. Our employees are engaged in our DEI efforts and value the strides that we’ve made in building a diverse, inclusive culture. We are just as committed to Making a Difference in our communities. To ensure equal rights and opportunities for everyone, and offer assistance to those suffering during challenging times, we partner with organizations, charities and companies with powerful social impact initiatives. We have come together to raise funds for organizations such as Second Harvest, Breakfast Club of Canada, Feeding America, The Trussell Trust, Black Health Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, St. Felix Centre and more through company-led initiatives and our Vena Cares employee resource group. This group inspires Venanties to positively impact causes that are meaningful to them. Vena Cares is just one of our seven employee-led and company-supported Vena Resource Groups (VRGs), each of which have a platform to join the conversations happening internally and externally—with company-provided best practice support guidelines and annual budgets to support them. Each group has an executive sponsor from our leadership team and receives ongoing support from Shada McShannon, our Director, People Partners & DEI. Our other VRGs include: Network for Women (N4W): Empowering women+ in the tech sector. Green Team: Promoting sustainable and environmentally responsible habits at Vena and beyond. Their efforts have led to Vena making more eco-friendly choices and have encouraged employees to make their own sustainable lifestyle choices. Va11y (our accessibility group): Acting as the voice of an accessible Vena by representing the needs of our customers, staff and collaborators. Mental Health VRG: Raising broader mental health awareness in an effort to normalize and destigmatize mental health conversations, reduce barriers to accessing health and empower Venanites to create a supportive work environment. This year, we were also delighted to celebrate the formation of two new VRGs: Melanite (for Black employees and allies): Open to all employees looking to learn, grow and contribute to a diverse, inclusive and supportive work environment. Spectrum: Dedicated to creating and nurturing a safe community for 2SLGBTQIA+ members and allies at Vena. All of our employees company-wide are also given time to volunteer each year and are encouraged to support an organization, charity or cause of their choice. We also recently introduced company-sponsored volunteer days to further support collaboration and team building. Vena wrapped up 2021 with Comparably Awards for Best Company Culture, Best Company for Diversity, Best Company for Women and Best CEO? Learn more here. Our Open Door Policy On Comparably, one of our Vena employees shared, “They value employees and always want to hear from us about our culture. They embrace an open door policy and they are approachable. They are always trying to ensure Vena is a supportive, inclusive and great place to work!” At Vena, we always encourage transparency and open communication in our workplace, even when it’s uncomfortable. When we act with our better, better, never best mentality, we are constantly striving for improvement across all areas of our organization. "They value employees and always want to hear from us about our culture. They embrace an open door policy and they are approachable. They are always trying to ensure Vena is a supportive, inclusive and great place to work!" —Anonymous Reviewer Comparably So how do we do this? We ask for feedback and we ask for it often, through surveys, at our Ask Me Anything open discussions at our weekly town halls and through our internal communication channels. And it doesn’t end there. Feedback isn’t just boxes to check. We take employee feedback seriously and act on it. For instance, based on employee feedback, we recently made changes to our Parental Leave Policy to make it more inclusive and equitable. Read all about it here. Come Grow With Us Vena is hiring! We are a hybrid remote-office workplace with offices in Toronto, Canada and London, England. Visit our newly launched Careers site for current job openings and follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to learn more about life at Vena. Vena was named one of Greater Toronto’s 2022 Top Employers. Click here. About Comparably Comparably is a leading workplace culture and corporate brand reputation platform with over 15 million anonymous employee ratings on 70,000 companies. With the most comprehensive data on large and SMB organizations in nearly 20 different workplace categories—based on gender, ethnicity, age, experience, industry, location, education —it is one of the most used SaaS platforms for employer branding and a trusted third party site for workplace culture and compensation. Click here for more information on Comparably’s studies and annual Best Places to Work & Best Brands Awards. For the full list of Comparably awards Vena won in 2021, click here.