Business and Fintech

Finance and Insurance in Waterloo and the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor

Home to the Canadian headquarters for Manulife, Sunlife and Economical Insurance, Waterloo has a long history of business success in finance and insurance. Our unique strength in technology has helped seed a thriving fintech community, with 80+ companies working in big data, operational services, cybersecurity, blockchain and financial services. 

Waterloo is also a key partner in the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, which is the second largest technology cluster in North America and one of the world’s top tech hubs. Within this area you’ll find 15,000 tech companies, including 5,200+ startups and more than 300,000 tech workers, many working in top fintech companies like WealthSimple, League and NorthOne. The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is North America’s second-largest financial and fintech hub and ranked in the top-20 globally for fintech.

The world’s highest density of corporate innovation labs

Waterloo is home to a rich collection of business, finance and fintech research and support organizations, including:

• Communitech’s Data Hub, a data-driven tech community focused on revolutionizing the way we leverage data

• The Accelerator Centre, which is the top-ranked private business accelerator in Canada, #1 in Canada for fintech and artificial intelligence and top-5 in the world

• The Waterloo Research Institute in Insurance, Securities, and Quantitative Finance (WatRisq) specializes in actuarial science, econometrics, finance and statistics risk management

• The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) researches cryptographic encryption tools that are secure in a quantum world

Waterloo is also home to a high density of corporate innovation labs, including Manulife, Scotiabank and TD Bank, many of which began as innovation outposts at Communitech.

Home to excellent finance, business and technology talent

In 2021, CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report recognized Waterloo as North America’s top small tech talent market. In three consecutive years, CBRE has ranked Waterloo #1 in Canada for tech talent quality and quality-to-cost. 

The University of Waterloo’s computer science, engineering and mathematics programs were all ranked #1 in Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University is known for its business and finance programming, particularly with programs offered through the Lazaridis School for Business and Economics.

Some business and financial services companies that are located here include: