+1,415
Canada's startup ecosystem is rapidly growing, with significant activity in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. As of 2023, Canada hosts around 10,000 startups, supported by a favorable business environment and government incentives such as the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax credit. In 2022, Canadian startups attracted approximately CAD $10 billion in venture capital funding, underscoring the country's robust entrepreneurial landscape.
As of 2023, Canada's startup ecosystem comprises about 10,000 startups. The market has shown substantial growth, with venture capital investments reaching CAD $10 billion in 2022. This impressive financial influx highlights the ecosystem's capacity for expansion and innovation, attracting entrepreneurs and investors alike. The diverse range of industries represented within the Canadian startup landscape further enhances its market size and potential.
Canada's startup ecosystem is characterized by several key strengths, including a high quality of life, a diverse and skilled workforce, and robust support for innovation and research. The country excels in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), clean technology, and biotechnology. These strengths are bolstered by world-class educational institutions and a strong emphasis on R&D, positioning Canada as a competitive player in the global startup arena.
Toronto, often dubbed 'Silicon Valley North,' is a major hub for tech startups, particularly in AI and fintech. Montreal boasts a vibrant AI research community, contributing significantly to advancements in machine learning and related fields. Vancouver is renowned for its expertise in software development and gaming. These cities collectively drive Canada's innovation, making substantial contributions to the country's economic growth and technological advancements.
Beyond the major cities, emerging hubs like Ottawa, Calgary, and Waterloo are gaining traction. Ottawa is noted for its strength in telecommunications and software, Calgary for its focus on energy and cleantech, and Waterloo for its burgeoning tech scene and strong ties to academic institutions. These emerging hubs are expanding Canada's startup ecosystem, providing new opportunities and attracting a diverse talent pool.
Canada's startup ecosystem benefits from a robust network of accelerators, incubators, and co-working spaces. Notable initiatives like the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto and the Creative Destruction Lab in various cities provide startups with mentorship, resources, and access to capital. This supportive infrastructure is crucial for nurturing early-stage companies and fostering a collaborative entrepreneurial environment.
Despite its strengths, the Canadian startup ecosystem faces challenges such as access to late-stage funding and a smaller market size compared to the U.S. Additionally, navigating regulatory frameworks and attracting international talent can be hurdles for startups. Addressing these challenges requires strategic investments and policy support to sustain growth and competitiveness in the global market.
Canada's strategic location and trade agreements offer startups significant opportunities for international expansion. The emphasis on sustainability and green technology drives innovation in sectors like clean energy and environmental solutions. Continued investment in AI, biotechnology, and other emerging technologies positions Canada for sustained growth. The future outlook for Canada's startup ecosystem is promising, with strong potential to play a pivotal role in the global innovation landscape.
The Canadian startup ecosystem demonstrates remarkable resilience and adaptability, essential for navigating global economic shifts and market dynamics. The country's multicultural society and diverse talent pool foster a rich environment for innovation. As Canada continues to invest in its entrepreneurial infrastructure and support systems, it is well-equipped to handle future challenges and capitalize on new opportunities, ensuring sustained growth and success.
Canada's startup ecosystem is supported by numerous influential angel investors who provide crucial early-stage funding and mentorship. Notable figures include Mike Volker, a prolific angel investor with investments in over 100 startups, and Dan Martell, known for his investments in tech and SaaS companies. These investors typically contribute between CAD $25,000 and CAD $500,000 per deal, offering not only capital but also strategic guidance and industry expertise, which are vital for the growth and development of nascent companies.
Leading venture capital firms in Canada play a critical role in driving the growth of startups. Firms such as BDC Capital, Real Ventures, and Inovia Capital are at the forefront, providing substantial funding to high-growth companies. BDC Capital, for instance, has invested in over 700 companies, supporting a wide range of sectors including cleantech, healthcare, and ICT. These firms typically engage in Series A to Series C funding rounds, with investment sizes ranging from CAD $1 million to CAD $50 million, facilitating significant scaling opportunities for startups.
The investment size and scope in Canada's startup ecosystem vary widely, catering to different stages of business growth. Early-stage investments, often provided by angel investors, range from CAD $25,000 to CAD $2 million. For growth-stage companies, venture capital firms offer larger funding rounds, typically between CAD $5 million and CAD $50 million. The scope of these investments spans various sectors, including AI, biotechnology, fintech, and cleantech, reflecting the diverse and dynamic nature of Canada's entrepreneurial landscape.
Canada's venture capital and angel investment activity are robust, with a significant number of deals annually. In 2022, over 600 venture capital deals were recorded, amounting to approximately CAD $10 billion in investments. This high level of activity underscores the vibrancy of the Canadian startup ecosystem, with both angel investors and venture capital firms actively seeking out and funding promising startups across a broad spectrum of industries.
The future outlook for Canada's investment market is highly optimistic. With continued emphasis on innovation and technology, sectors such as AI, biotechnology, and clean technology are expected to drive substantial growth. Government support through initiatives like the SR&ED tax credit further bolsters the ecosystem. As global interest in sustainable and innovative solutions increases, Canada's startups are well-positioned to attract significant international investments, fostering an environment ripe for continued expansion and success.
Support and mentorship are critical components of Canada's startup ecosystem. Angel investors and venture capitalists often provide more than just financial backing; they offer strategic advice, industry connections, and operational support. Programs like MaRS Discovery District in Toronto and Creative Destruction Lab across various cities enhance this support, offering structured mentorship, resources, and access to capital. This comprehensive support system helps startups navigate early challenges and scale effectively.
The Canadian government and various institutions play a pivotal role in nurturing the startup ecosystem. Initiatives such as the SR&ED tax credit and the Canada Small Business Financing Program provide substantial financial support and incentives. Additionally, organizations like Innovate Canada and provincial programs offer grants, loans, and advisory services. This extensive support infrastructure is vital for fostering innovation, reducing financial barriers, and promoting sustainable growth within the startup community.
Canada's startup ecosystem is bolstered by top angel investors, leading venture capital firms, and extensive support systems. With a diverse range of investment sizes and scopes, the market is poised for significant growth. The future outlook remains positive, driven by innovation, government support, and a collaborative environment. As Canada continues to attract global investments and foster entrepreneurial talent, it stands to become a key player in the global startup landscape, contributing to advancements across various high-growth sectors.
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Seattle - Washington, U.S.A. - Canada
Education • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (& Marketing) • Cosmetics (& Fashion) • A.I. (& Big Data) • Food & Beverage • Payments
Heather Redman is a Co-Founder and serves as Managing Director at Flying Fish Partners. She serves as Advisor at 9Mile Labs. Redman also serves as a Board Member at Beneficial State Bank. Previously, Redman served as Vice President, Business Operations & General Counsel at Indix. She was Senior Vice President at Summit Power Group and Executive and Senior Vice President at each of AtomShockwave, Inc., Getty Images, Inc., and PhotoDisc, Inc. While at PhotoDisc and Atom, she led the negotiations for the successful sale of these companies and negotiated many acquisitions on the buy side. She was also General Counsel of Getty Images, a publicly traded company, and managed that company's listing on NASDAQ. Her career has had equal parts business and law, and has included heading product development and acquisition for Atom, wind power development and project financing for Summit and COO positions. She is experienced in corporate development and finance, business development and intellectual property strategy. She is a consummate networker. She serves as the Vice Chair of the Washington Technology Industry Association board and the Chair of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees. She has served on the boards of several privately held companies and many industry associations and non-profit companies as well as on numerous advisory boards. She is active in local and national policy and politics. She is also an investor and Advisor in TechStars, 9 Mile Labs, Founders' Co-op, Alliance of Angels and makes approximately ten of her own independent angel investments per year. She is also a Regent of Washington State University (WSU). She holds a JD (with distinction) from Stanford and her BA from Reed.
, U.S.A. - U.K. - Singapore - Israel - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • AgroTech • Entertainment (& Sports) • CleanTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Gaming (& eSports) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Woman Focused • UrbanTech
Frank Meehan is a Co-Founder and serves as Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures. He also is an Angel Investor. He serves as Partner at SparkLabs. Jimmy is Co-founder and President of N3N, an IoT platform company and Cisco's first global IoT investment. They service numerous Fortune 500 companies and governments, such as Samsung Electronics, POSCO, Port of Singapore, The North Face, and Hyundai Motors. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer at Kuato. He served as Board Member at Spinlist. He previously served as N3N's CEO. He received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, and also an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Jimmy also completed the Stanford University's Graduate School of Business's Executive Management Program.
Salt Lake City - New York - Toronto (Ontario) - Toronto (), Canada - U.S.A.
FinTech (& Financials services) • Payments
Fintech VC - that’s it. Super boring.
Fintech VC- that’s it. Super boring.
Most Interested In
Companies disrupting all aspects of financial services with technology (fintech)
Not Interested In
Anything that is not fintech
Christian Lassonde is the Founder and serves as Managing Partner at Impression Ventures. He serves as a Board member of Finaeo. Lassonde is a tech founder and CEO, having built and sold Virtual Greats, a luxury online IP rights broker, and Millions of Us, a digital agency. He has also taught high-growth technology entrepreneurship at The Next 36 to over 30 companies. Those companies have gone on to build successful products and raise millions of dollars in follow-on financing. Christian spent a decade in San Francisco selling and building software for Second Life, LucasArts and Electronic Arts to customers Sony, Nike, Warner Brothers, General Motors, Coke, Intel and many more Fortune 500 companies. He holds an MBA from the USF, a BESc in computer engineering and a BSc in computer science from Western. Christian is currently Vice-Chair of SickKids Foundation, Chair of the TFS Foundation, serves on the Fintech Advisory Council for the Ontario Securities Commission, and a former Governor of the Board of Western University.
San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A. - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland
BioTech • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • DeepTech
Daniel Gross the founder of Greplin, a search engine. Greplin operated by linking together various online accounts into one search experience. For example, a customer could search their Facebook, Gmail and Dropbox accounts from one unified service without check each individually. In 2011, Greplin raised $4 million in funding from venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Gross was one of Sequoia's youngest founders at the time. They introduced a premium offering at $5 a month, which allowed customers to link enterprise-facing services like Salesforce. In 2012 the company renamed itself to “Cue” and launched an additional predictive search features. In addition to search, Cue offered customers an automatic and intelligent agenda of their day. This included files, emails, addresses, phone numbers and more that were deemed algorithmically relevant. Cue was a similar product to Google Now. He is Y-Combinator's first Israeli.
New York - Newark, U.S.A. - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Sales (& Marketing) • Cosmetics (& Fashion) • Entertainment (& Sports)
CEO of FUBU and The Shark Group | TV Personality on ABC Shark Tank
Daymond John is a Co-Founder and serves as President & Chief Executive Officer at Fubu. John served as an Advisor at Innovation Capital Advisors. Previously, he served as a Board Member at Resultly. In 2009, Daymond became co-star on ABC's hit series Shark Tank, where aspiring entrepreneurs present their companies to a panel of successful business icons to raise capital. Daymond invested in several of the companies on the show and has emerged as a spokesman for active angel investing. In 2007, Daymond released his first book, Display of Power, the story of how he built FUBU into a global fashion power. In 2010, his second book, The Brand Within, examines the loyalty-based relationships that brands and celebrities seek to establish with their customers and fans.
Ottawa, U.S.A. - Canada
PropTech • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • HealthTech (& Fitness) • Real Estate (& Construction)
Lance Laking serves as Senior Investment Director at MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. Lance also serves as a Boartd Member of viscore. He is also a mentor, advisor and facilitator of Entrepreneurship Programs for MaRS Venture Services. In addition to MaRS, Lance is a member of the Board at Expertfile, and an active Angel Investor. Lance was recently Executive Chairman at Granite Networks where he lead the sale of the company to Rogers Communications. He previously served as President and CEO of BTI Systems where he was responsible for securing more than US$55M in growth capital (BTI acquired by Juniper Networks in January 2016). Prior to joining BTI, Lance founded the Canadian subsidiary of HUBER+SUHNER, a Swiss-based wireless and optical component manufacturer.
Toronto (Ontario) - Toronto (), Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • FinTech (& Financials services) • Hardware (& Manufacturing) • HealthTech (& Fitness)
Seed VC with a soft-spot for B2B SaaS and predictive analytics applications
Investor, Director of Data & Operations at Graphite Ventures
Chicago - Toronto (Ontario) - Portland - Seattle - Tel Aviv - Ann Arbor - San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A. - Canada - Israel
Hospitality (& Events) • AgroTech • A.I. (& Big Data) • Logistics (& Distribution) • Robotics • Mobility
General Partner at Trucks Venture Capital, Lecturer at Stanford University
General Partner at Trucks Venture Capital, Lecturer at Stanford University
San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A. - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland
Media • Online Social
Digital Platforms, Services, Brands and Lifestyle
Gordon Rubenstein serves as Managing Partner at Raine Ventures. He was a Board Member at Plexchat. He serves as the Board Observer at Amuse. Gordon is the Managing Partner of Raine Ventures where he leads Raine's venture capital group. Prior to joining Raine in 2013, Gordon founded and managed Pacific Partners, an operationally-focused venture capital partnership with backing from George Soros, Sam Zell, leading technology executives and entrepreneurs as well as partners from KKR, Silver Lake and Freeman Spogli. In addition, Gordon co-founded Astro Gaming (acquired by Skullcandy (Nasdaq: SKUL)), and Rave Digital Media (acquired by AMC Entertainment). Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of Tastemade Inc. and Prism Skylabs and was involved at the board level and / or actively involved with Machinima, ZEFR, eHarmony, VivaReal, Audience Science, BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and Convio (listed publicly on Nasdaq, then acquired by Blackbaud (Nasdaq: BLKB)). Gordon has an A.B. from the University of Michigan.
New York - San Francisco Bay Area - California, U.S.A. - Canada
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Businesses Solutions • A.I. (& Big Data) • Analytics • Cloud Services (& Infrastructure) • Aerospace (& Defense) • Mobility • Online Social
Chief Business Officer at Lambda School
Most Interested In
See my top three list
Not Interested In
Um.. bad ideas.
Head of Product Partnerships @uber. Previously Product @facebook New York, Product Mgr @facebook Games, Director of BD at @facebook, @stanford-university MBA/d.school.
Annapolis - Ann Arbor - Michigan, U.S.A. - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • Retail (& E-Commerce) • Online Social
Investor at Banana Capital
New York, U.S.A. - Canada - Mexico - Global: U.S.A., Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., Israel, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland - Brazil
Software (Web Marketplace Saas..) • PropTech • FinTech (& Financials services) • Energy • A.I. (& Big Data) • Blockchain (& Cryptos) • Web Security (& Privacy) • Impact • Insurance (& InsurTech) • Real Estate (& Construction) • Woman Focused
Most Interested In
FinTech/InsurTech/PropTech/ESG/Enterprise Software - Seed to Growth Equity - Global Investment Mandate - Contact: jeff@rueoneinvestments.com
