Toronto has the Entrepreneurs. Imagine If It Had the Cash.

Canada’s Toronto-Kitchener-Waterloo corridor has the three key components of a strong startup ecosystem: entrepreneurs, academia, and investors. However, the last one lags relative to Silicon Valley and other top-ranked tech ecosystems.

The Corridor’s Strengths

The corridor runs about 100 kilometres west from Toronto, Canada’s largest city and financial centre, to the Waterloo Region, home to Kitchener and Waterloo. It packs big universities, including the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo, a large pool of engineering graduates, and a long list of tech companies into a single commuting zone.

That’s the entrepreneur and academia side of the equation, and it’s a strong one. The trouble has been turning those people and ideas into companies that can grow big without leaving. Growth takes capital, and in 2016 the capital was concentrated somewhere else.

Following the Money

VC investment in Canada rose to $2.3 billion (Canadian) in 2015, and 42% of that went to Ontario companies, according to data released by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. While that represents a 12% increase year-on-year, the number is a fraction of the US$13.5 billion (CDN$17.6 billion) captured by San Francisco Bay Area companies, according to research by Richard Florida and the Martin Prosperity Institute.

Put another way, one region of the United States attracted several times as much venture money as all of Canada combined. Venture capital tends to cluster in a few places because investors like to be close to the companies they back, and because successful founders often become investors in the same city. That makes the gap hard to close from the outside.

Building Bridges to the Valley

Cities outside of the world’s largest VC concentrations need to innovate to create conduits that tap these hubs. The C100’s Venture North event in Toronto addresses this problem. The C100 runs programs, including Venture North, which aim to do this by connecting Canadian entrepreneurs with compatriots active in Silicon Valley to foster partnership and investment.

The idea behind the C100 is simple. Plenty of Canadians hold senior roles at Silicon Valley companies and investment firms. Rather than asking founders to move south to meet them, the organization brings that experience and those contacts to Canadian startups while they stay based in Canada. Today its membership includes hundreds of Canadian CEOs, executives and founders from the world’s technology companies.

What’s Changed Since 2016

Canadian venture investment has grown a lot since this article was written. According to the CVCA’s year-end 2025 market overview, CAD $8.0 billion was invested across 571 venture capital deals in 2025, compared with $2.3 billion in 2015. Ontario accounted for just over half of the venture dollars deployed.

The same report shows the problem hasn’t gone away entirely. 2025 totals were down 6% from 2024, deal count fell 12%, and exits were scarce: 29 venture-backed exits with CAD $358 million in disclosed value, and no IPOs. Capital also became more concentrated, with average deal size rising to CAD $23.06 million in the fourth quarter.

The C100 is still at work on the same problem. It now describes itself as a global community of Canadians in tech and runs Fellows and Growth programs for Canadian-based founders. It says companies that have completed its programs have collectively raised over $13.2 billion in venture funding, created more than 23,000 jobs and reached cumulative valuations above $26.6 billion.

What It Means for Founders

For founders in the corridor, the funding picture is much better than it was in 2016, but the core lesson of this piece still applies. Money and experience are still more concentrated south of the border, so it pays to build relationships there early rather than waiting until you need a big round.

Programs like the C100’s are one way in. Others include investors who back Canadian companies from the U.S., and Canadian founders who’ve already scaled and are willing to help. The goal is the same as it was in 2016: build the company in Canada, while borrowing as much of Silicon Valley’s capital and know-how as you can.