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Waterloo

Metro area · Canada · Pop. 121K

A public taster of the full Waterloo ecosystem on Dealroom — request a demo for live deal flow, founder pedigrees, AI-talent maps, and the full cap table for every company below.

109 Pool of Funded Startups

New Startups

32 Annual Startups FoundedAll new ventures

15 Annual Startups FundedReceived investment

get funded 45%

90Startups

34 Pre-Seed Startups$100K–1M

26 Seed Startups$1–4M

30 Series A Startups$4–15M

16Breakouts

13 Series B Breakouts$15–40M

3 Series C Breakouts$40–100M

3Scaleups

2 Mega Scaleups$100–250M

reach Mega 1.8%

1 Mega+ Scaleups$250M+

reach Mega+ 0.92%

4Valuation Outcomes

3 Unicorns($1–10B valuation)

reach Unicorn 2.8%

1 Decacorns($10–100B valuation)

reach Decacorn 0.92%

Pre-Seed

Seed

Series A

Series B

Series C

Unicorn

Decacorn

* Conversion rates are derived from current counts.

Quarterly report

Waterloo's latest quarter in venture capital

VC raised by Waterloo-headquartered companies in the quarter shown, against the quarter before and the same quarter a year earlier.

Latest complete quarter

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Largest rounds

Largest funding rounds in Waterloo

A live treemap of the largest VC rounds. Each cell is one round into Waterloo-headquartered companies, grouped by Dealroom sector.

Largest rounds in Waterloo - 2026

Every $15M+ VC round into Waterloo-headquartered companies in 2026, grouped by Dealroom sector.

- rounds · - raised

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VC investment

How much venture capital flows into Waterloo

VC investment into Waterloo-headquartered, VC-backed companies, broken down by round size, company location, sector and funding stage.

Academia

Waterloo's academic flywheel

Companies founded by university alumni or spun out of research, plus the institutions producing the most founders tied to Waterloo.

University-linked startup formation

University spinouts

914

Total alumni-founded companies

558

Of which startups (<$15M raised)

253

Breakouts ($15M-100M)

103

Scaleups ($100M+)

Top universities producing founders tied to Waterloo

🇨🇦 Waterloo Waterloo · 55 alumni unicorns

Notable alumni-founded: OpenTextFaire

Unlock the full university ranking for Waterloo on Dealroom

Location comparison

How Waterloo stacks up

Compare Waterloo with peers from the same country (Canada) — switch between combined EV, EV growth, and a growth × size view. Expand the table for the full ranking.

Calgary

$17.5B

Hamilton

$7.8B

Waterloo

$6.7B

Mississauga

$6.5B

Edmonton

$6.4B

Halifax

$2B

Combined enterprise value of each ecosystem.

Top cities in Canada ranked by combined EV. Waterloo's row is highlighted (#8).

#	Ecosystem	Combined EV	EV growth	Unicorns	VC invested	Tracked startups
1	Ottawa–Gatineau	$235B	42.9×	2	$85.7M	396
2	Toronto-Waterloo	$141B	7.5×	35	$3.1B	3,639
3	Toronto	$113B	9.9×	29	$3B	2,719
4	Vancouver	$73.7B	10.4×	21	$1.8B	1,728
5	Montréal	$57.4B	3.5×	13	$977.4M	1,085
6	Calgary	$17.5B	12.0×	5	$276.3M	710
7	Hamilton	$7.8B	5.5×	3	$13.7M	115
8	Waterloo	$6.7B	2.5×	4	$45M	191
9	Mississauga	$6.5B	7.1×	1	$40.6M	229
10	Edmonton	$6.4B	1.9×	3	$95.9M	403
11	Halifax	$2B	5.6×	0	$132.4M	190
12	Vaughan	$822.4M	—	0	$0	47

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Country Canada North America · Pop. 41.3M · #6 startup ecosystem by EV Region North America Continent / region · Pop. 389.6M · #2 region by EV

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