Mastercard has brought its Labs as a Service division to Canada to answer local client demand for innovation consulting, research and development services.

Based in the company’s Toronto office, the division brings together the services of Labs – Mastercard’s global R&D arm – and Advisors – it’s professional services division. The hub will service clients in both Canada and the U.S.

The services provided by LaaS include LaunchPad, a five-day rapid prototyping and design service; Aspire, a platform for employees that helps them develop and capture new proprietary ideas; and IdeaBox, a product kit that employees can use to bring those ideas to life. It also provides unnamed services for developing pilot projects and building out products, as well as UI/UX design services and customer testing.

All of these services were available in Canada prior to the announcement through the global Advisors division, but demand from Canadian clients motivated Mastercard to provide greater local access to its experts. When it comes to the LaunchPad service specifically, 20% of projects out of the group globally involved Canadian consumers last year, and Canada was only behind the U.S. in terms of the number of projects.

“The ability to develop new ideas and timely solutions to real problems is key to growing any business,” said Jeremy Bornstein, SVP and market lead of Advisors for Mastercard in Canada. “Labs as a Service combines Mastercard’s strength in R&D and deep services expertise to deliver cost effective, customized programs that help clients take their innovations from concept to market faster.”