Canada startup and venture ecosystem

BDC described Canadian seed-stage activity as relatively strong in 2026, while reporting too few companies scaling successfully and more selective capital at Series A and later stages. BDC also said AI accounted for nearly half of Canadian venture capital invested in 2025.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape 2026; Canada must scale what it creates: BDC’s VC Landscape report warns VC gaps now a sovereignty issue

CVCA called ICT the most active venture sector in Q1 2026; cleantech received $208 million, or 22% of quarter venture capital, across 12 deals. These findings are specific to that quarter.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Venture Capital Q1 2026

Waterloo EDC reports more than 95 AI businesses in the Waterloo community. Mila reports more than 1,400 people advancing AI; its Entrepreneurship Lab supported more than 50 startups that collectively raised over $100 million, and Mila reported 12 affiliated startups in 2025.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Check Out Our World-class Applied Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem; About Mila; Impact Report 2024-2025

Startup Genome ranked Toronto-Waterloo 20th in its 2025 regional report, two places below its prior position. This is a regional ranking, not a country ranking.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: North America’s Startup Powerhouses Hold Strong in GSER 2025

Waterloo EDC reports more than 95 AI businesses in the Waterloo community. Mila separately reports an AI community of more than 1,400 people and entrepreneurship program outputs.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Check Out Our World-class Applied Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem; About Mila; Impact Report 2024-2025

CDL-Rockies is located in Calgary, and CDL-Atlantic describes its venture focus as blue-green technology.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Calgary; Halifax

Cohere describes its business as enterprise AI and reports four major Series A-through-D rounds from 2021 to 2024 totaling nearly $1 billion. The reviewed claims do not establish its current headquarters or founding location.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: About Our Company

Shopify says its platform was released in 2006 and reports $378 billion in GMV for 2025. The reviewed claims do not establish its current headquarters or founding location.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: About us

For financing plans, distinguish BDC’s account of relatively strong seed activity from its report of greater selectivity at Series A and later; national investment totals do not establish an individual company’s eligibility or likelihood of funding.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Year-End 2025; Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape 2026

Keep sector signals tied to their periods: BDC’s AI figure covers 2025, while CVCA’s ICT and cleantech observations describe Q1 2026. They are not a single current sector allocation.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Canada must scale what it creates: BDC’s VC Landscape report warns VC gaps now a sovereignty issue; Venture Capital Q1 2026

CVCA’s 2025 full-year decline and H1 2026 increase in dollars alongside fewer deals are period-specific signals. Consider deal counts as well as dollars, and do not read a half-year result as a full-year trend.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Year-End 2025; H1 2026

For scale-up assessment, BDC reports selective Series A-and-later capital and foreign-investor dependence in late-stage deals. This is BDC’s market diagnosis, not a prediction about an individual company.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape 2026; Canada must scale what it creates: BDC’s VC Landscape report warns VC gaps now a sovereignty issue

BDC reports that late-stage deals remain heavily dependent on foreign investors. Its account of relatively strong seed activity alongside greater selectivity at Series A and later stages highlights a financing transition, without establishing that all early-stage companies face the same conditions.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape 2026; Canada must scale what it creates: BDC’s VC Landscape report warns VC gaps now a sovereignty issue

The federal government says the territories account for about 40% of Canada’s land mass and about 3% of its population. These figures describe a territorial land-population imbalance, not startup activity or capital access.

As of Oct 2, 2026. Official information. Source: Provinces and territories