September Wrap-up: Taking flight in more ways than one

Time always seems to speed up when September arrives and this year is no different.

In the last month, Waterloo has welcomed a significant new global ecosystem ranking, multiple homegrown companies have reached exciting milestones and the flight offerings from our local airport continue to expand.

Here are the top stories from September 2022:

Toronto-Waterloo a top-10 global fintech ecosystem

It’s official – the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is one of the world’s great fintech communities. A new Startup Genome report ranks Toronto-Waterloo #7 in the world, ahead of Boston, Paris and Chicago. The main drivers of our success? Growing funding support, incredible homegrown talent and an immigration program that gives companies located in Canada a massive advantage.

ApplyBoard named a top-5 Canadian startup

When do we stop calling ApplyBoard – the world’s largest online platform for international student recruitment – a startup? The answer: not yet, according to LinkedIn, which just named ApplyBoard the #5 startup in Canada in terms of employee growth, jobseeker interest, member engagement and how effective they are at recruiting from LinkedIn’s Top Companies list.

Flair Airlines expanding flights from Waterloo Region

Flair Airlines will increase flight frequency, increase the number of aircraft and offer new destinations flying out of Region of Waterloo International Airport starting next summer thanks to spiking interest in travel. This includes new flights to seasonal destinations – like Mexico – and communities across Canada. The airport is currently under construction – a $35 million project that will double its size by Spring 2023.

Avidbots raises $70M to expand fleet of robots

Homegrown robotics innovator Avidbots has announced a new $70 million Series C raise that will support the expansion of its fleet of commercial cleaning robots, enhance its autonomy software and help the company grow in international markets. They currently have more than 1,000 Avidbot Neo robots cleaning schools, hospitals, airports and shopping malls in 12 countries around the world.

IMAX acquires Waterloo startup SSIMWAVE

One of the world’s most recognizable entertainment technology brands – IMAX – needed to drive greater product innovation, so they acquired two-time Emmy Award-winning Waterloo-based startup SSIMWAVE.

“SSIMWAVE is doing revolutionary work at the intersection of human visual perception and image enhancement technology. By putting the power of our global brand behind their award-winning engineering team and product suite, IMAX takes a big step toward a new horizon in our ability to deliver the best images for any creator, across every screen,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX.

UWaterloo takes on California in new "5 Charts" comparison

How does Canada’s top tech university – the University of Waterloo – compare to the best that California has to offer? Wonder no more – we’ve crunched the numbers in a new edition of our “5 Charts” series, which compares UWaterloo to Caltech, Stanford, UCLA and more.

Want to learn more about Waterloo’s exceptional business community? Visit our website or contact us.