Region’s tech startup community gets multi-million dollar boost
Posted Jul 21, 2015 12:26:10 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a good day to be a tech startup in Waterloo Region.
The Canadian Government has announced up to $9.7 million in local funding over the next five years.
The money will go to Communitech, the University of Waterloo’s Velocity incubator, Wilfrid Laurier University’s LaunchPad, and the Waterloo Accelerator Centre.
Communitech CEO Iain Klugman says the money allows them to build on what they’ve built over the last 20 years as a community:
“It allows us to focus on emerging areas such as hardware with Velocity Foundry, it allows us to invest in scale-ups to help those companies get on the exponential growth curve, and it helps us sustain the startup momentum, which is necessary in a healthy ecosystem, through the investments in the Accelerator Centre.”
Gary Goodyear, Minister of State and Cambridge-North Dumfries MP, says tech communities like Waterloo Region’s are the heartbeat of the Canadian economy.
“This is where our economy is transitioning toward,” says Goodyear, “the higher quality, higher knowledge-based economy.”
The investment comes through the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program.
Stephen Woodworth, MP for Kitchener-Centre, called accelerators and incubators a “critical component” in a venture capital environment.
“This [funding] will enable even more small businesses to develop their ideas and get them to the marketplace,” says Woodworth.
