One of Canada’s top polytechnic institutes, Conestoga College produces work-ready talent in everything from marketing and tech to skilled trades and engineering. This is the first stop for manufacturers expanding to Waterloo.
An excellent university with strengths in both arts and business, Wilfrid Laurier University is home to the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, which has programs focused on managing tech companies.
It’s Canada’s top tech school, with the largest computer science enrollment among the global top-25 programs. UWaterloo is also home to Canada’s largest engineering school and has been recognized as “Canada’s Most Innovative University” for three decades.
A network of faculty, coaches, entrepreneurs, community leaders and organizations that support Conestoga College students in entrepreneurship, including the Venture Lab incubator for new businesses and the Gig Lab incubator for freelancers.
The first of its kind in Canada, the Google for Startups Accelerator is a ten-week program for Seed to Series A Canadian startups working with machine learning and artificial intelligence. They provide mentorship, technical support, workshops and more.
StartUp Lab is an incubator that provides support, mentorship and resources to startups and social ventures with Laurier student and alumni founders. Companies in the StartUp Lab program have access to a network of entrepreneurs and deskspace within Lazaridis Hall.
Catalyst137 is a world-class hub built for growth-oriented, globally-focused firms. In addition to highly-flexible commercial space options, they provide a suite of services and are now home to the Catalyst Commons co-working space.
One of Canada’s top innovation hubs, Communitech has led the Waterloo tech community for more than 25 years. They offer programs and support for startups, scale-ups and innovation-focused multinationals.