Canada’s Technology Business Sector in the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor

For tech globetrotters, the Silicon Valley, or the San Francisco Bay Area, is the promised holy land of the tech world.

However, experts see the many opportunities for business growth in Canada, especially in cities such as Toronto and Waterloo.

In CBRE’s 2018 Tech Talent report, Toronto moved to fourth place from sixth in 2017 — making it the first time a Canadian marketplace for talent scored within the top five. A large part of Toronto’s success comes from a growth in tech jobs and the increasing pool of high-quality and well-educated tech talent in the local area.

As of 2018, tech companies in Toronto have added 28,900 jobs — representing a 13.6 per cent increase from the year before. Today, 15 per cent of all jobs in Toronto is open to tech workers — that’s 401,000 jobs.

Toronto also offers one of the most diverse pools of tech talent in Canada and worldwide.

BBC Radio recognized Toronto for its multiculturalism when it named the city the most culturally diverse city in the world.

The support for Canadian women entrepreneurs and FemTech — enterprises focusing on women’s health and wellbeing — are on the rise in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor.

The top five marketplaces in the report were the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and New York.

Another 2018 report from the TechStartups Team placed the Waterloo region first in every category for startups in terms of cost of living, availability of venture capital (VC) funding, entrepreneurial spirit, and tech talent. The lower cost of living also drives more tech talent and entrepreneurs into the region.

Waterloo trumps Toronto in the amount of VC investment available. For 100,000 people, there is $15.5 million worth of investment – that’s twice the rate of investment in Toronto. Active VCs in the area include Sequoia, OMERS Ventures, Tencent, and Bessemer. The Chinese investor Tencent’s $50 million deal with chat app Kik values the app company at $1 billion.

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