Information and Communications Technology

Canada’s most dynamic tech ecosystem

With hundreds of startups, Canada’s fastest-growing scale-ups and some of the world’s biggest tech companies, Waterloo is the most dynamic tech business ecosystem in Canada.

We have 500+ tech startups working on solutions in fintech, autotech, robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and more. In 2020, Deloitte reported that Waterloo was home to some of the fastest-growing tech companies in Canada and, since 2020, we’ve added four unicorn companies – Faire, ApplyBoard, eSentire and Arctic Wolf. Our cadre of tech multinationals includes significant Google, SAP, EPAM Systems and BlackBerry offices. Want to know more about our tech business community? Download our ecosystem maps:

• Artificial Intelligence

• Fintech

• Autotech

 Our support ecosystem is one-of-a-kind, with Canada’s top innovation hub (Communitech), Canada’s #1 private business accelerator (The Accelerator Centre) and Canada’s most productive incubator (Velocity) working together to help startups, scale-ups and established companies innovate and grow.

All of this is within a 10km/6.5mi radius.

North America’s #1 small tech talent market

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–Canada’s top technology university– helps fill this outstanding tech talent pipeline. Our experiential learning programs – known as co-operative education– ensure that most engineering and computer science students graduate with two years of on-the-job experience at world-class companies, and our computer science program is ranked in the top-25 globally. More than 18% of all Canadian tech founders were trained at the University of Waterloo.

The second largest technology cluster in North America

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.  

In the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor you’ll also find 17 post-secondary institutions and more than 423,000 students. These universities and colleges include Canada’s largest engineering school, two of Canada’s top-3 computer science programs and six business schools (including three of the top-5 in Canada).

Want to know more about how joining our tech ecosystem can help your business grow? Contact the Waterloo EDC team.

Some ICT companies that are located here include: