For decades, Waterloo has cultivated a reputation as one of North America’s most dynamic tech communities. What makes us a world-renowned tech hub?
Watch our new video to find out.
A community built on tech
That video covered a lot – here is the proof to back it all up.
“Waterloo is part of the second largest technology cluster in North America…”
Our community is the western anchor of the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, which boasts more than 15,000 tech companies, 200,000 tech workers and 5,200 tech startups. In just 105km (65mi), we have 16 universities and colleges and over seven million people. A global centre of talent, growth, innovation and discovery, the Corridor is North America’s largest technology cluster outside of Silicon Valley.
“Our collaborative ecosystem and unrivalled talent pool supports industry giants like Google, Shopify and OpenText, scaling companies like Vidyard and North, and a growing community of more than 1,700 startups.”
Yes, those businesses are all in Waterloo. We also have a ton of non-tech businesses with significant footprints in Waterloo in order to take advantage of our tech know-how, including TD Bank, Ford and SAP. Five of our homegrown tech companies were recently included on the list of Canadian companies that are most likely to become “unicorns” – private companies with a $1+ billion valuation – and BlackBerry still calls Waterloo home (and they’re doing very well for themselves). Last but not least, there’s also a large number of startups – just a couple of years ago The Globe and Mail said we’d actually formed more than 1,800 new startups in just five years, so our number might be conservative.
“From software to hardware, Waterloo is pushing progress in a variety of cutting-edge fields, from artificial intelligence and next-generation quantum technologies to automotive tech and the internet-of-things…”
One thing that sets Waterloo apart is that it excels at both software and hardware technologies. For every software-oriented business like Google, OpenText and Vidyard, we have a company like Clearpath Robotics, Avidbots or North creating exciting and innovative new hardware tech. Then, of course, we also have an exploding artificial intelligence business community with more than 95 companies, and one of the world’s few applied quantum tech clusters.
“Supporting these advancements are a diversity of innovation hubs, incubators and manufacturing spaces that make invention possible, and three highly-regarded post-secondary institutions, including the world-renowned University of Waterloo.”
Our world-renowned tech business community can depend on an equally renowned industry support network that includes organizations like Communitech, the Accelerator Centre, Velocity, Catalyst137 and more. Our tech companies can also draw tech talent from three excellent post-secondary institutions. The University of Waterloo is home to Canada’s #1 Computer Science program, #2 Engineering program and the world’s largest co-operative education program. Our community also hosts Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College, both of which have fantastic tech-oriented programming, which ensures companies operating in Waterloo have direct access to a tech talent pipeline.
“The future of technology is here. Join us.”
Want to invent the future? We can help. Our suite of complimentary business expansion services includes helping you develop a business growth strategy that meets your company’s unique needs, connecting you with Waterloo talent sources and identifying real estate that meets your needs.