National Post (National Edition)
Precise skills base reeling in more immigration
ENTREPRENEURS ARE COMING FOR CANADA’S TALENT AND NETWORKS, OBSERVERS SAY
It’s been a true globe-trotting entrepreneurial journey for Sharoon Thomas and Rituparna (Ritu) Panda. They’re the cofounders of Fulfil.io in Toronto, an AI-based platform that specializes in connecting sales, fulfilment and purchasing functions through a single source.
Toronto wasn’t their first stop on their quest to found a company. Thomas and Panda started Fulfil.io in India in 2015, and within two months were accepted into an accelerator program in Silicon Valley.
When the program was finished, Thomas says, there was no clear visa path for immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. to stay there. The only option for getting a visa would be to reduce their majority equity holding and give up control to a board.
So when Extreme Venture Partners (EVP) sent them an invitation to consider Canada, they decided to try their fortunes here. EVP is a Toronto-based VC firm whose most recent fund is focused mainly on immigrating international startups to Canada.
“It made perfect sense for us to come to Canada,” Thomas says. “Our largest partner, Shopify, is headquartered here, and our biggest competitor is based out of Waterloo. We realized if we wanted to build a large company, we could do it from here.”
Since they started their move last September, not only have they experienced constant growth, the team has been accepted into the Communitech Rev program, which is focused on companies with a vision and process to scale to $100 million in sales.
A key concern when choosing the country of choice was ensuring the right talent would be both available and secure, Panda says. “If we want to bring someone in, we don’t want them held up at the border. So much could go wrong.”
Immigration risk is increasingly becoming an issue for entrepreneurs running a business in North America, says Ray Sharma, EVP’s CEO and founder. “The last thing startups need is immigration risk. How can you grow a business when you don’t know whether the country will kick you out?”
Long before the threat of travel bans, Hamid Akbari, founder and chief executive of BlancLabs, a digital innovation consultancy in Toronto, says he chose Canada when many of his friends were heading to Silicon Valley. He says processes on the immigration front for entrepreneurs starting out in Canada have improved even more since he arrived from Iran in 2005. “Canada truly celebrates diversity, not just in work, but in (instituting) regulations that are good for innovation and economic prosperity.”
Our diversity also plays a key role in his global branding efforts, since Akbari can find the skills within easy reach. “The greatest thing is you have talented people who can come in and help build the economy, (who) also have bridges to commerce at a global level. If I need to figure out how to crack the Colombian market, I can find top-notch Colombian people here.”
Immigrant entrepreneurs are increasingly prevalent in the Canadian economy thanks to the strong government support and welcoming immigration policy. A MaRS annual survey of Ontario-based startups shows that in 2015, more than 54 per cent of MaRS-supported ventures had a foreign-born founder, up from 42 per cent in 2013.
There are some very logical reasons that immigrants represent such a large portion of the startup community, says Anna Kostecka, senior learning manager at Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). “Because we have a merit-based system, people that are immigrating here have quite high levels of skills and education. Also, people making the transition to Canada are more entrepreneurial by nature. In many cases, they already had businesses in their counties of origin, or might have found barriers to employment and decide to start a business on their own.”
This is not to say it’s always smooth sailing, “The barriers are still similar for everyone, especially when it comes to access to capital. To start, it’s very important for immigrants to have a network.”
That’s where such organizations as TRIEC, ACCESS Employment, local community service agencies and MaRS help, by providing networking opportunities, workshops and general guidance on navigating the system. Many financial services institutions also have dedicated divisions that focus on immigrant entrepreneurship.
Sharma firmly believes that immigrant entrepreneurs count among the strongest contributors to Canadian innovation and the economy.
Having funded 100 companies to date — a good portion of which are international, he says diversity brings the “randomness” needed to allow success to happen.
“It’s an opportunistic moment in time. Canada is a premier country brand in the world, so it’s a no-brainer to bring your business here to get a ramp up to the North American market.”