Velocity Garage now the largest free startup incubator in the world

The University of Waterloo is celebrating their official opening of the expanded Velocity Garage, the largest free startup incubator in the world.

Velocity, an entrepreneurial program with UW, has expanded in the Lang Tannery building by more than 29,000 square feet and now has space for up to 120 startups.

Groups can collaborate and share ideas through peer mentorship.

The expansion means Velocity’s software, hardware, life-sciences and social entrepreneurship startups, can now grow and support each other under one roof.

Jay Shah, director of Velocity, says its a great spot for local startups to explore their business ideas.

“Traditionally, that type of commercialization activity has happened on university campuses. That’s a great place for the fundamental research to happen, but now as that research becomes a business, and as it gets commercialized into a startup there is now a home for those companies to go without losing the benefits that typically come with that heavy technical infrastructure.”

He says right now the facility holds around 80 startups and they are ready to take on more.

“I would say it is also the best startup incubator to go to,” says Shah. “We hear that a lot from our companies in terms of what we’re able to provide in mentorship, what we’re able to provide in the sense of community, how we’re able to leverage what the University of Waterloo has, and continue using all of that infrastructure even past the students academic experience.”

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