{"id":29499,"date":"2023-06-30T04:08:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T08:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/embrace-of-ai-and-immigration-has-turned-toronto-into-a-tech-hub-whats-not-to-like\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T04:08:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T08:08:41","slug":"embrace-of-ai-and-immigration-has-turned-toronto-into-a-tech-hub-whats-not-to-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=29499","title":{"rendered":"Embrace of AI and immigration has turned Toronto into a tech hub: \u2018What\u2019s not to like?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto is booming, and its tech scene is the engine behind it all. <\/p>\n

The Canadian city of 3 million is the fastest-growing in North America and is home to some 2,000 startups, along with more construction cranes than San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Seattle combined. There are also some 65,000 STEM graduates annually in the region.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real nice buzz. Tech is driving the economy here,\u201d said Stephen Lund, chief executive of Toronto Global, an agency that promotes investment in the city. He noted, however, that this \u201calso offers challenges [when it comes] to building out transit and keeping housing costs from rising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto is North America\u2019s third-largest tech hub, with about 290,000 tech workers, trailing only Silicon Valley with 379,000 and New York City with 344,500, according to CBRE, a real-estate company that tracks hiring.<\/p>\n

Last year, Microsoft Corp.
\n MSFT,
\n -0.24%<\/bg-quote>
\n opened four floors of new office space near the top of a 50-story glass tower in downtown Toronto. Apple Inc.
\n AAPL,
\n +0.18%<\/bg-quote>
\n and Amazon.com Inc.
\n AMZN,
\n -0.88%<\/bg-quote>
\n occupy towers down the street, and Alphabet Inc.\u2019s
\n GOOGL,
\n -0.90%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n

GOOG,
\n -0.88%<\/bg-quote>
\n Google has a new building just around the corner. Pinterest Inc.
\n PINS,
\n -1.78%<\/bg-quote>
\n and Stripe, a payments company, are also in the neighborhood. IBM Corp.
\n IBM,
\n +1.75%<\/bg-quote>
\n alone employs 6,500 people in Toronto.<\/p>\n

In all, about 200 companies \u2014 most of them in tech \u2014 have relocated to or expanded in Toronto over the last three years, Lund said.<\/p>\n

\u201cToronto\u2019s appeal is ample funding, a diverse ecosystem, tolerant immigration policies for workers and an exploding fintech scene. What\u2019s not to like?\u201d said Jayme Derkson, marketing director at fintech company XTM Inc.<\/p>\n

Krista Jones is the creator of Momentum, a program that aims to help Canadian companies reach $100 million in revenue by 2024. \u201cToronto has the highest concentration of [artificial-intelligence] companies in the world, but Canada breeds a different kind of entrepreneur who is purpose-built and responsible about tech use,\u201d Jones said, noting that half of the region\u2019s tech founders were born somewhere else, mostly in Europe or Asia.<\/p>\n

\u2018Meeting of minds\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Collision tech conference has been held in Toronto for the past five years, and this week\u2019s event drew more than 37,000 people and is expected to contribute about $36 million to the city\u2019s economy, according to projections from Destination Toronto, a tourism organization. <\/p>\n

Vinod Bidarkoppa, chief technology officer of Walmart Inc.\u2019s
\n WMT,
\n -0.68%<\/bg-quote>
\n Sam\u2019s Club, described Collision as a \u201cmeeting of minds\u201d on responsible tech use. <\/p>\n

\u201cDeep learning and machine learning were a thing here 10 years ago,\u201d said Ariel Garten, a Canadian known for her work integrating art and science.<\/p>\n

XTM\u2019s Derkson added that in Canada, \u201cAI is not as frenzied as in the U.S., but Canada tries to follow a responsible approach to tech and closely watches the behavior of our neighbor to the south.\u201d <\/p>\n

Toronto is home to startups such as the AI-focused Cohere and TransPod, a tube-transportation company.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is open-minded, tolerant to different cultures and has basic health coverage, although it has higher taxes than the U.S.,\u201d said Sebastien Gendron, co-founder and chief executive of TransPod. The eight-year-old company is working on multiyear projects in western Canada and in Texas to help move people and freight, and it plans to add 20 people to its 50-person workforce this year.<\/p>\n

An open border<\/h2>\n

Even as the U.S. immigration system faces political and logistical problems, U.S.-based companies with offices in Toronto can expedite the hiring of skilled workers \u2014 the lifeblood of the tech industry \u2014 from other countries. <\/strong>The Canadian government has introduced programs designed to attract engineering talent to a country that is already diverse: About half of Toronto\u2019s residents were born outside the country, according to city officials. Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Indian, Korean and Chinese neighborhoods enhance the cultural landscape.<\/p>\n

In addition, Ontario passed a law banning companies from enforcing noncompete clauses in employment contracts, which has led to employees founding startups. Toronto native Jeff Shiner, CEO of online security company 1Password, points to a rich vein of talent from the nearby universities of London and Waterloo, as well as a surge in accelerators over the past decade. <\/p>\n

Breakneck growth does come with infrastructure challenges, as Lund and other locals acknowledge. Toronto\u2019s roads are often choked with traffic and the city is among the most expensive on the continent. Public transportation is via electric streetcars and buses, along with a subway that is limited to the downtown area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most diverse cities in the world. We have an innovative climate and great food,\u201d said Amy Thibodeau, a Toronto resident who is chief design officer at Gusto Inc., a cloud-based payroll, benefits and human-resource-management software company. She previously worked at Shopify Inc.
\n SHOP,
\n -1.33%<\/bg-quote>
\n and Facebook
\n META,
\n -1.32%<\/bg-quote>.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

But, she noted, \u201ctraffic here is awful, and one of the reasons is that the city is growing really quickly. Transit hasn\u2019t caught up.\u201d<\/p>\n

One unknown for the tech sector is how it will work with the city\u2019s incoming mayor, Olivia Chow, who was elected on Monday. Unlike her predecessor, John Tory, Chow doesn\u2019t have a particularly close relationship with the tech sector.<\/p>\n

And funding for startups in Toronto pales in comparison with Silicon Valley, where they hauled in $67.4 billion in 2022, according to research firm Tracxn Technologies. <\/strong>In Toronto, that figure was $4 billion, though some local tech leaders scoff at the urgency U.S. business leaders attach to fundraising and accumulating customers in search of a business. <\/p>\n

But venture funding is flowing into Toronto now, because \u201cVC dollars always follow talent,\u201d noted Kyle Stanford, a venture-capital analyst at PitchBook.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto is booming, and its tech scene is the engine behind it all. The Canadian city of 3 million is the fastest-growing in North America and is home to some 2,000 startups, along with more construction cranes than San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Seattle combined. There are also some 65,000 STEM graduates annually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-29499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbrace of AI and immigration has turned Toronto into a tech hub: \u2018What\u2019s not to like?\u2019 | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Toronto is booming, and its tech scene is the engine behind it all. 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