A new report from Startup Genome called the Global Startup Ecosystem Report has recognized Toronto-Waterloo as the top tech ecosystem in Canada and in the global top-15.
For the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, this year’s report marks a return to form – achieving 14th overall and 7th in North America – after dipping to 17th in 2020.
The Startup Genome report is the world’s most comprehensive and widely-read research on startups, with 280 innovation ecosystems and more than 3 million companies included in the analysis. The report ranks ecosystems using five success factors: performance, funding, connectedness, market reach, talent and knowledge.
Startup Genome reports that Toronto-Waterloo is one of the fastest-growing and densest innovation clusters in the world. In fact, between 2013 and 2018, the region created more tech jobs than New York, Seattle and Boston combined.
Overall, the ecosystem ranks in the top-10 for global ecosystem funding, top-10 for ecosystem talent and experience and top-5 for regional ecosystem funding. Generally speaking, these results mirror the reporting from CBRE, which recently included Toronto as the #4 tech talent market in North America and Waterloo as the #1 small tech talent market in North America.
Here are the top 15 ecosystems from the 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Report:
1. Silicon Valley
2. New York City (tie)
2. London (tie)
4. Beijing
5. Boston
6. Los Angeles
7. Tel Aviv
8. Shanghai
9. Tokyo
10. Seattle
11. Washington, DC
12. Paris
13. Amsterdam-Delta
14. Toronto-Waterloo (tie)
14. Chicago (tie)
Why did Toronto-Waterloo make the list?
Startup Genome notes that this region is home to 20% of Canada’s university students, with the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto representing two of the largest and highest-ranked tech-focused post-secondary institutions in Canada.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, investment into Toronto-Waterloo continued to accelerate, pulling in $4.4 billion in VC funding and resulting in numerous new unicorns like PointClickCare, ApplyBoard and Arctic Wolf.
Toronto-Waterloo is also home to “what’s widely considered the most diverse population on the planet,” and at least 300,000 tech workers.
When outlining the reasons to move a tech company to Canada, Startup Genome highlights the rich and diverse talent pool, data privacy and sovereignty, as well as strong social values – a focus on quality-of-life and social good.
The full report results are available on the Startup Genome website.