Canadian Highlights in the 2018 Startup Genome Report

Source: https://www.alacritycanada.com/2018/04/25/canadian-highlights-in-the-2018-startup-genome/

The Startup Genome has released its report detailing the state of innovation around the world in 2018.

What is the Startup Genome? Started in 2010 by a team of researchers and entrepreneurs, the Startup Genome is an annual report that analyzes learnings from one million companies, nearly 100 ecosystems, and the world’s largest primary research with tech founders: the Voice of the Entrepreneurs. The organization’s mission is to “increase the success rate of startups and spread this global revolution so everyone that participates benefits from the new economy through job creation and economic growth.”

Last year’s Startup Genome report focused on an ecosystem ranking that stirred up some friendly competition among global tech hubs. This year Startup Genome dropped the ranking system and instead did a deep-dive of assessing 15 sub-sectors of main innovation sectors that are creating economic value.

Canadian Highlights in the Startup Genome Report:

“Canada is doing a good job of creating new technologies, investing in research and producing “brilliant” engineers”, said JF Gauthier, founder and CEO of Startup Genome. He went on to praise the federal government’s investment in sector-focused super clusters and suggests it will lead to more corporations opening offices up north in Canada.

• Ottawa is short listed (top 7 globally) for both Startup and Scaleup Success
• Thanks to companies like Shopify and FINTRAC, Ottawa is recognized as a hotbed of big data activity.
• The AI economy in Ottawa is set up to succeed thanks to Ontario’s autonomous vehicle research.
• Ottawa is listed in 3 ‘ecosystems to watch’ in AI, Cyber Security and Big Data & Analytics
• Invest Ottawa, Kanata North BIA and L-Spark are mentioned as ecosystem partners

“Ottawa is primed to be a world-class tech ecosystem. To drive this forward, we need to close the gaps between industries and build a stronger community that supports startups and innovation on all levels,” Harley Finkelstein, COO at Shopify, says in the report.

Other Canadian ecosystems to watch out for:

• Edmonton was recognized for its strengths in AI, health and life sciences and big data analytics.
• Montreal, home of Element AI, was noted for its AI and big data industries.
• The Toronto- Waterloo Region was studied together, and recognized as one of the 20 strongest startup ecosystems in the world specializing in FinTech, AI, manufacturing and robotics and life sciences and health.
• Vancouver continues to be one of Canada’s top tech ecosystems (last year it was ranked #15 in Genome’s 2017 global rankings), and is host to the country’s top health and life sciences, cleantech and gaming sector.  This year, Alacrity Canada is leveraging this success and focusing on the Cleantech Scale-Up Program. The program connects promising BC cleantech companies with international export and investment opportunities.

Canada has shown strong and promising areas across the country in this year’s Startup Genome. Alacrity is looking forward to another year of contributing to the strengthening of Canadian ecosystems, particularly in Ontario and British Columbia.

Access the full report here.