Toronto-Waterloo Region Corridor Ranked Top 20 on Global Startup Ecosystem
Source：startupgenome
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Toronto
Update Time：2022/10/17
Toronto-Waterloo region corridor has placed 17th globally for its startup ecosystem, according to a global report because it links the country’s biggest, most diverse city with one of Canada’s leading centers for innovation.
The Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER): Fintech Edition from Startup Genome is the world’s most comprehensive and widely read research on startups with 280 entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems and 3 million startups analyzed.
The corridor is among only three startup ecosystems in the world that are strong in four of the hottest areas - financial technology, artificial intelligence-big data, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing-robotics,
Key highlights from the report reveal that since 2012, global average Series A rounds have tripled to more than US$18 million. Additionally, since the pandemic, tech companies grew 2.3 times more than their non-tech counterparts. A record 540 companies achieved unicorn status (a unicorn is a privately held startup company valued at over US$1 billion) in 2021, up from 150 in 2020. In fact, nineteen ecosystems including Brisbane, Luxembourg, Santiago-Valparaiso, and Ho Chi Minh City achieved their first unicorns in 2021.
In terms of global rankings, North America continues to dominate, with 47 percent of the top 30 ecosystems. Nearly half of the venture capital deployed in Canada last year, a record C$7.7 billion, went to companies based in Toronto and Waterloo. Like Montréal, Toronto and Waterloo are known for their developments in Life Sciences; the foundation of this success comes from the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo. The report said the Toronto-Waterloo corridor is home to North America’s third-largest and fastest-growing innovation ecosystem.
Startup Genome’s founder and CEO, J.F. Gauthier, offered a glowing review of the Toronto-Waterloo startup ecosystem, specifically highlighting some of the major entrepreneurial incubators in the region.
“One key to the region’s ongoing success as a hub for innovation is its multiculturalism, which the report notes is driven by Canada’s social-democratic values, in turn attracting talent from around the world, “ Gauthier says.
As a hotbed for talent, the region has seen a flourishing of new companies working in AI, cybersecurity, fintech, healthtech, and sustainability.
Source: https://startupgenome.com/articles/gser-fintech2022