How to get a startup program in Canada, as it works in Canada
Posted October 20, 2018 11:05:32Today’s tech-centric landscape is rife with competition.
While some startups have gone international, a growing number are located in Canada.
That means Canadian companies are more likely to be found in tech hubs like Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa than their U.S. counterparts.
“It’s not a matter of whether a Canadian company will make money here,” says Kevin Kelly, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo who specializes in the technology industry.
“It’s a matter if a Canadian startup can get funding, and how that money will be spent.”
Kelly is among the researchers who have been studying the business of Canadian startups.
“I don’t think you’ll ever see a large number of Canadian companies making money in the U.K.,” he says.
“But I do think that there are a lot of Canadians who are starting companies.”
Kelly’s study, which has been published in a peer-reviewed journal, looks at how Canadian startups have been able to attract investors, develop a team, and attract support from governments and international companies.
The study looked at the U-2 program, which allows U..
S.-based startups to compete with their Canadian competitors.
Under the program, companies can enter a program for three years and get an annual allocation of $1 million to develop their business plans.
If they successfully complete the three-year program, they can then get $1.25 million in funding.
“The goal of the program is to allow a company to be a part of the U,S.
ecosystem and build their own businesses, and that’s a huge success story,” Kelly says.
The program has also helped the U’s startup ecosystem grow over the past decade.
“If a company wants to get funding and a foothold, the U has become a great place to do that.”
Kelly, who co-authored the study with fellow researchers, says that when the U was created in 1990, there was little information available on how Canadian companies could get funding.
He says the U program has changed that.
“There are a bunch of data points on how many companies have been funded by U.s., and those are the data points that you want to track,” Kelly said.
“We know that the U helped to support the startup ecosystem in the early years of the Internet.”
Kelly says that the research found that the program helped Canadian startups grow their teams and get the funding they needed.
“The more Canadian companies that have an opportunity to work with U. of S. companies, the more likely that those companies will be successful,” Kelly added.
The report says that Canadian startups are also getting support from the U government.
In 2017, the government funded more than $6.3 billion in funding for Canadian startups, according to the U Business Development Bank, which oversees the program.
That funding was up 23.4% from the previous year.
“We’re really grateful for the support from our U. S. counterparts and the U BDI, as we see a lot more of the opportunities in Canada for startups,” Kelly adds.
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