🇨🇦 Accelerators, incubators and startup programs in Canada

Accelerators, incubators and startup programs in Canada

• 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

• FounderFuel

  Accelerator · Montreal

  Montreal accelerator accepting pre-revenue companies with strong teams, co-investing for equity.

  Offers: funding, mentoring

• Foresight

  Accelerator · Vancouver

  Canada's largest cleantech accelerator, with $2.24B deployed across its portfolio and 30,000+ industry connections.

  Offers: mentoring, community

• Scale AI

  Accelerator · Montreal

  Canada's AI global innovation cluster, among the few programmes writing real non-repayable cash, up to $50K.

  Offers: funding

• Invest Ottawa

  Accelerator · Ottawa · Free access

  Ottawa's economic development and accelerator hub, offering programmes with no cash and no equity taken.

  Offers: mentoring, community

• Openfor.co

  Incubator · Virtual, global

  The virtual incubator for individuals: accelerator-grade support before you have a company, joinable from Canada or anywhere. This atlas is one of its projects.

  Offers: mentoring, community, info, funding

• Innovative Solutions Canada

  Program · Nationwide

  Federal procurement programme where government departments buy and test innovations from Canadian startups, acting as a first customer.

  Offers: funding

• Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI)

  Program · Nationwide

  BDC-managed federal programme putting public money into private Canadian VC funds, including a new $1B commitment starting in 2026.

  Offers: investment

• CanExport SMEs

  Program · Nationwide

  Federal funding covering part of the cost of entering new international markets for Canadian small businesses.

  Offers: funding

• Mitacs

  Program · Nationwide

  National non-profit funding graduate-student research internships inside Canadian companies.

  Offers: funding

• Global Talent Stream

  Program · Nationwide · Free access

  Fast-track work permits for specialised foreign tech talent hired by Canadian companies.

  Offers: info

• Strategic Innovation Fund

  Program · Nationwide

  Federal fund for large-scale R&D and scale-up projects, typically for later-stage companies.

  Offers: funding

• Ontario Innovation Tax Credit

  Program · Toronto

  8% refundable provincial credit that stacks with federal SR&ED for Ontario companies, to roughly 43% combined.

  Offers: funding

• Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)

  Program · Toronto

  Provincial agency funding industry-academic R&D projects and early commercialisation in Ontario.

  Offers: funding, mentoring

• Investissement Québec

  Program · Montreal

  Quebec's investment agency, offering financing and venture investment for Quebec companies.

  Offers: investment, funding

• Alberta Innovates

  Program · Calgary

  Alberta's provincial research and innovation agency, funding tech startups and applied research.

  Offers: funding

• Innovate BC

  Program · Vancouver

  British Columbia's innovation agency, with programmes and funding for BC tech founders.

  Offers: funding, mentoring

• Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst Accelerator

  Accelerator · Brampton · Free access

  Toronto Metropolitan University's cybersecurity accelerator, which has supported 39 companies since 2020, plus a free Cyber for Startups programme with RBC.

  Offers: mentoring

• Techstars Toronto

  Accelerator · Toronto

  The Toronto edition of Techstars' three-month accelerator, with seed funding and the global Techstars network.

  Offers: funding, mentoring

• Antler Canada

  Accelerator · Toronto

  Antler's Canadian residency.

  Offers: funding, community

• InBC Investment Corp

  Program · Vancouver

  BC's $500M provincial fund writing $2M–$15M.

  Offers: investment

• Archangel Network of Funds

  Program · Toronto

  Angel fund network.

  Offers: investment

• EDC (Export Development Canada)

  Program · Ottawa

  Federal export agency investing in startups.

  Offers: investment

• Fonds de solidarité FTQ

  Program · Montreal

  Quebec labour fund investing in startups.

  Offers: investment

• Desjardins Capital

  Program · Montreal

  Desjardins' investment arm.

  Offers: investment