Waterloo’s innovation engine

Communitech

In 1997, a group of entrepreneurs came together to help themselves—by helping each other. The result was Communitech , whose founders set out to boost Waterloo Region’s tech sector by attracting talent, investment and support. Today, it is a globally recognized public-private innovation hub for more than 1,400 startups, scaleups and large global players. “Waterloo Region is one of Canada’s most dynamic technology hubs, punching well above its weight class and helping to put Canadian tech on the world map,” says Iain Klugman, Communitech’s CEO. The 1,400 companies employ 23,000 people and attracted more than $1.4 billion in private investment over the past five years. Communitech services include the Edge and Rev accelerators for seed- and growth-stage companies, and the Fierce Founders accelerator for startups led by women. The hub also offers scale-up programming and houses corporate innovation labs for more than two dozen partners ranging from Thomson Reuters and TD Bank Group to the LCBO and Royal Canadian Air Force. It is home to the Canadian Digital Media Network, which connects 29 innovation hubs across the nation. From a foundation of stalwarts including BlackBerry, OpenText, COM DEV, Descartes Systems, Sandvine and D2L, several high-growth companies have emerged in recent years, including North, eSentire, Aeryon Labs, Vidyard, Kik, Magnet Forensics, OTTO Motors, Axonify and Miovision. Larger players such as Shopify, Google, Square, NetSuite, Intel and SAP have also set up operations here, drawn by the region’s rich talent pool. Klugman also points to the more than 50 events it holds every year, including True North —the region’s largest tech gathering. Supported by the University of Waterloo and its Velocity incubator, as well as The Accelerator Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College, the Waterloo tech community thrives on the same collaborative spirit that brought Communitech’s founders together in 1997—the spirit to succeed.