A new report from Startup Genome has named the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor as one of the world’s top cleantech startup ecosystems, ranking 12th overall. This area was the top-ranking cleantech ecosystem in Canada and 6th in North America.
The report ranks 35 of the world’s top innovation ecosystems on six metrics: performance, funding, startup experience, knowledge, talent and focus.
Toronto-Waterloo scored top-5 for regional ecosystem funding and top-10 for ecosystem talent and experience. Total early-stage funding was $2.3 billion, which is four times the global average and ecosystem value was $20.8 billion, which is nearly twice the global average.
Here’s how Startup Genome summarized the opportunity Toronto-Waterloo presents in cleantech:
“With unprecedented investment, strong public institutions, favourable immigration policies and one of the most-vaccinated citizenries on the globe, the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is well-positioned to advance the Canadian and global economies post-pandemic.”
In Waterloo, we have a growing community of startups, scale-ups and multinational businesses working across the cleantech spectrum, including specialties in energy storage, zero waste and electric vehicles and drivetrains.
Our ecosystem includes relatively new entrants like Turntide Technologies and BorgWarner, homegrown giants like ATS Automation and local scale-ups like Miovision, Clearpath Robotics, Canadian Shield and more.
Growth at these companies is supported by one of the most complete post-secondary communities in Canada.
Not only can Waterloo claim the country’s largest engineering school and top-ranked computer science program – both at the University of Waterloo – but a top-tier business school that holds a technology focus is located at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Conestoga College, a top polytechnic institution, produces graduates primed to work in cleantech, with programs in Applied Energy Management, Electrical Systems Engineering, Environmental Building Sciences and more.
Startup Genome previously ranked the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor 14th overall across 35 comparison ecosystems. Find the complete Startup Genome Cleantech report here.