🇨🇦 Startup ecosystem in Canada
The Open Ecosystem Atlas lists 215 organisations and people supporting startup founders in Canada: 95 investors, 67 mentors, 36 programs, 11 media, 4 corporates and 2 startups & venues. Most are based in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. 19 of them are free to reach.
Open in the Atlas mapInvestors in Canada · 95
Inovia Capital
VC · Montreal
Founded 2007, seed through growth, with $2.2B AUM and offices in Canada, the US and UK.
Offers: investment
Georgian
VC · Toronto
Series A to growth investor in B2B software applying AI, with an in-house applied-AI R&D team working directly with portfolio companies.
Offers: investment
Radical Ventures
VC · Toronto
AI-focused VC behind Cohere and Waabi, with a $650M USD Fund 4, investing seed to Series B in AI-native companies.
Offers: investment
OMERS Ventures
VC · Toronto
Venture arm of one of Canada's largest pension plans, first checks of $5M to $25M.
Offers: investment
BDC Capital
VC · Montreal
BDC's venture arm, investing across seed to growth, one of the most active VCs in Canada.
Offers: investment
Real Ventures
VC · Montreal
One of Canada's most active seed investors, anchoring Montreal's early-stage scene.
Offers: investment
Golden Ventures
VC · Toronto
Seed-stage fund investing across North America in software and fintech, founded by Matt Golden.
Offers: investment
Version One Ventures
VC · Vancouver
Early-stage fund founded by Boris Wertz, strong in B2B SaaS and network-driven businesses.
Offers: investment
Panache Ventures
VC · Montreal
Pre-seed fund writing first cheques up to $1.5M across Canada.
Offers: investment
Garage Capital
VC · Waterloo
Pre-seed fund writing $200K to $750K cheques from Waterloo.
Offers: investment
Relay Ventures
VC · Toronto
Series A investor with portfolio including Playmaker and PubNub; co-launched Realize Capital Partners, a Social Finance Fund manager.
Offers: investment
Vanedge Capital
VC · Vancouver
Series A investor that leads or co-leads Canadian tech rounds from Vancouver.
Offers: investment
Mentors in Canada · 67
Ajay Agrawal
Mentor · Toronto · Free access
Founder of Creative Destruction Lab and professor at U of T's Rotman School, co-author of Prediction Machines.
Offers: mentoring
Scott Lake
Mentor · Ottawa
Co-founder of Shopify.
Offers: mentoring
Daniel Weinand
Mentor · Ottawa
Co-founder of Shopify.
Offers: mentoring
Aidan Gomez
Mentor · Toronto
Co-founder and CEO of Cohere, and co-author of the Transformer paper.
Offers: mentoring
Nick Frosst
Mentor · Toronto
Co-founder of Cohere.
Offers: mentoring
Ivan Zhang
Mentor · Toronto
Co-founder of Cohere.
Offers: mentoring
Raquel Urtasun
Mentor · Toronto
Founder and CEO of Waabi, the autonomous-trucking AI company, and a University of Toronto professor.
Offers: mentoring
Yoshua Bengio
Mentor · Montreal
Founder and scientific adviser of Mila, Quebec's AI institute, and a Turing Award winner.
Offers: mentoring
Richard Sutton
Mentor · Edmonton
Pioneer of reinforcement learning and chief scientific adviser at Amii in Edmonton.
Offers: mentoring
Nicole Janssen
Mentor · Edmonton
Co-founder of AltaML, an applied-AI company in Edmonton.
Offers: mentoring
Stewart Butterfield
Mentor · Vancouver
Co-founder of Slack and Flickr, both started in Canada.
Offers: mentoring
Mike McDerment
Mentor · Toronto
Co-founder and former CEO of FreshBooks.
Offers: mentoring
Programs in Canada · 36
SR&ED Tax Credit
Program · Nationwide
Canada's main R&D incentive: up to 35% refundable for Canadian-controlled private companies, and Budget 2025 doubled the qualifying limit to $6M.
Offers: funding
NRC IRAP
Program · Nationwide
The National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program: non-dilutive funding from roughly $50K to $1M+ plus advisers for tech SMEs.
Offers: funding, mentoring
BDC
Program · Montreal
Business Development Bank of Canada, the federal development bank: startup loans, venture debt and, through BDC Capital, one of the country's most active VC investors.
Offers: funding, investment
Startup Visa Program
Program · Nationwide · Free access
Permanent-residence route for foreign founders who secure support from a designated Canadian VC, angel group or incubator.
Offers: info
Futurpreneur
Program · Nationwide
Financing and mentorship for founders aged 18 to 39, up to $60K when paired with BDC, open to permanent residents and PGWP holders.
Offers: funding, mentoring
Sovereign AI Compute Strategy
Program · Nationwide
A $2B federal programme funding domestic AI compute and infrastructure for Canadian researchers and companies.
Offers: funding
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL)
Accelerator · Toronto · Free access
Non-profit seed programme founded at U of T's Rotman School, now across many sites worldwide. Zero equity, zero fees. Alumni include BenchSci, Ada, Xanadu and GPTZero.
Offers: mentoring, community
DMZ
Accelerator · Toronto
Toronto Metropolitan University's incubator, ranked the top university incubator globally; no fees, around 2–2.5% equity, plus a pre-incubation stream for very early founders.
Offers: mentoring, space, community
MaRS Discovery District
Accelerator · Toronto
North America's largest urban innovation hub, supporting tech ventures whose clients have generated $4.2B+ in revenue.
Offers: mentoring, space, community
Communitech
Accelerator · Waterloo
Waterloo's ecosystem hub with equity-free programming, including Fierce Founders Uplift: $10K cash, no equity, for women-identifying founders.
Offers: mentoring, community, funding
Velocity
Accelerator · Waterloo
University of Waterloo's incubator, with a combined alumni value around $40B and deep access to Waterloo engineering talent.
Offers: space, mentoring
Launch Academy
Accelerator · Vancouver
Vancouver's main tech accelerator, offering mentorship, capital support and community for early tech ventures.
Offers: mentoring, community
Media in Canada · 11
April Dunford
Media · Canada · Free access
Positioning consultant and author of Obviously Awesome, widely used by startup founders.
Offers: info, community
Evan Carmichael
Media · Toronto · Free access
Entrepreneur and YouTuber publishing large volumes of entrepreneurship content.
Offers: info, community
Robin Sharma
Media · Canada · Free access
Canadian author and leadership speaker, widely read by founders and professionals.
Offers: info, community
The Globe and Mail — Report on Business
Media · Toronto · Free access
Canada's national business section, covering Canadian tech, venture capital and founders.
Offers: info, community
Financial Post
Media · Toronto · Free access
National business newspaper covering Canadian companies, investment and the innovation economy.
Offers: info, community
Startupfest
Media · Montreal · Free access
Montreal's annual founder-first startup festival, with pitch competitions and investor access.
Offers: info, community
Amber Mac
Media · Toronto · Free access
Tech journalist, broadcaster and author covering technology and innovation for Canadian audiences.
Offers: info, community
BetaKit
Media · Toronto · Free access
Canada's startup and tech news outlet, covering funding rounds, founders and the ecosystem daily, plus the BetaKit podcast.
Offers: info, community
The Logic
Media · Toronto · Free access
Business and tech newsroom covering Canada's innovation economy, policy and venture capital in depth.
Offers: info, community
Dragons' Den (CBC)
Media · Toronto · Free access
CBC's long-running show where founders pitch Canadian investors on air for real deals.
Offers: info, community
Techcouver
Media · Vancouver · Free access
News and community site covering Vancouver and BC startups and tech events.
Offers: info, community
Corporates in Canada · 4
Google for Startups Accelerator: Canada
Corporate · Toronto · Free access
Google's 10-week, equity-free accelerator for Canadian AI startups; the 2026 cohort has 14 companies from coast to coast, and 145 startups have been supported since 2020.
Offers: mentoring, perks
RBC FinSec Incubator
Corporate · Toronto · Free access
Free incubator for early-stage Canadian fintech startups, run with Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and backed by RBC, with a path to RBC partnerships and procurement.
Offers: mentoring
TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good
Corporate · Vancouver
TELUS' impact venture fund, founded 2020, backing around 57 companies in health, agriculture, climate and education.
Offers: investment
TELUS Ventures
Corporate · Vancouver
The corporate venture arm of TELUS, investing in health, IoT, security and connectivity startups.
Offers: investment
Startups & venues in Canada · 2
Shopify
Startup · Ottawa
Canada's most valuable tech company, founded by Tobi Lütke in 2004; its alumni and founder are among the country's most active angels.
Offers: mentoring
Cohere
Startup · Toronto
Enterprise AI company valued around $7B, backed by Radical Ventures, and a flagship for Toronto's AI scene.
Offers: mentoring