Vancouver Tech Ecosystem Guide
The Vancouver startup ecosystem has dramatically grown in the last decade and the city is quickly becoming recognized as one of the top startup hubs in North America. What makes Vancouver the perfect location for a booming tech ecosystem are the numerous organizational support systems, government funding options and accessibility to the US market. However, sometimes the density of different support structures can become daunting and overwhelming.
At Launch Academy, we’ve created a guide to outline all the different options accessible to startups in Vancouver and neighbouring cities. The information provided in this guide is meant to serve as an overview of the resources in the ecosystem, but you’re encouraged to dig a bit deeper into the options that are suitable to your company.
Launch Academy
Launch Academy is Vancouver’s leading tech hub focused on helping startups as a non-profit incubator since 2012. They help companies launch, scale, and grow through their Launchpad program, as well as help companies move and expand their businesses to North America through the Maple Program. Launch Academy is also home to other supporting organizations such as Grow Tech Labs, Growworks, and the VR/AR Hub.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Tech
Stage: Ideation, Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Mentorship, Events, Perks, Media Room, Green Room, Workshops, Webinars, Access to Networks
Programs: peer to peer workshops, exclusive networking event, LEAP program, Maple Startup Visa program.
Spring
Spring was founded in January 2014 with the mission of making impact entrepreneurship mainstream. Spring is using business as a force for good to empower social impact leaders with the know-how, network and support needed to build a better business.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Social Impact
Stage: Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Mentorship, consulting
Programs: Funding Routable, Leaders Roundtable, Impact Startup Visa
League of Innovators
League of Innovators is a national Canadian charity with a goal of building entrepreneurial acumen for youth, at scale. League of Innovators is a suite of accessible programs and tools to provide youth educational experiences that shorten their path to success, empower their ability to be their own boss, and amplify their impact as future innovators and entrepreneurs.
Location: Olympic Village
Industry Focus: All Industries
Stage: Ideation, Seed
Supporting Services: Events, Courses, Online Sessions,
Programs: Connector Hub Program, Launch Program,
Entrepreneurship@UBC
Entrepreneurship@UBC helps UBC entrepreneurs grow their skills, connect with resources to transform ideas into sustainable ventures. Their programs and resources are available to UBC-related startups that have at least one of the founders of the startup must be a UBC student, faculty, staff, or recent alumna/alumnus (up to 5 years from graduation).
Location: West Point Grey
Industry Focus: Life Sciences, Tech, Social Ventures
Stage: Ideation, Seed
Supporting Services: Events, Mentors, Training Programs
Programs: Incubation Program (The Academy), Acceleration Program (HATCH)
Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre
Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre is Western Canada’s first clean technology accelerator. They foster the growth of small and medium size businesses (SMEs) in the development and commercialization of viable technology solutions. Their programs support the discovery of sustainable and profitable business models through parallel processes of Customer Development and Agile Product Development.
Location: Burnaby
Stage: Ideation, Seed, and Growth
Industry Focus: Clean Tech
Supporting Services: Events, Mentors, Training, EiRs (Executives in Residence)
Programs: Launch Program, Growth Program, Challenge Program
Futurpreneur
Futurpreneur is a non-profit organization that provides financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring business owners aged 18–39. They have supported more that 11,400 young business owners and supply a network of more than 3,000 volunteer mentors.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: All Industries
Stage: Ideation, Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Pre-launch Coaching, Online Resources, Financing Support, Mentorship.
Programs: Start-up Program, Side Hustle Program
Innovation Boulevard
Innovation Boulevard delivers a variety of services and programs that spark the growth and success of BC-based health technology companies. Through their accelerator and mentorship programs, they help health tech companies access expertise, financial resources, and the networks to grow their business and enter new markets through all stages of development, from idea to revenue growth acceleration.
Location: Surrey
Industry Focus: Health Tech
Stage: Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: EiR (Executives-in-Residence), Education, Events, Grant Writing Support, Fundraising, Mentorship, Access to Networks
Programs: Innovation Boulevard Program
The Cube
The Cube is a shared studio space dedicated to building and growing Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) companies. The Cube provides support to accelerate the growth of your business by getting access to expert advice, workshops, events, programs, education, and potential investment.
Location: Downtown East Side
Industry Focus: Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Stage: Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Mentorship, Education, Meeting Space, Green Room
Programs: HyperGrowth Program, SaaS Growth Engine Program, Corporate Innovation Program
TriCelerate
TriCelerate has been building startups in the tri-cities since 2014. Their Innovation Hub provides the space and support necessary to launch and scale new ventures.
Location: Coquitlam
Industry Focus: Tech, Hardware, B2B, E-commerce
Stage: Ideation, Seed
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Mentorship, Education, 3D Printer, Meeting Space?
Programs: Innovation Hub
RadiusSFU
RADIUS is a social innovation hub based out of the Beedie School of Business and SFU. RADIUS builds programs to collaboratively develop, test, and accelerate innovative responses to tough social problems. They offer training, events and educational opportunities.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Social Impact
Stage: Ideation, Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Training, Education, Mentorship
Programs: Labs & Ventures Programs, Professional Development Programs, SFU Student Programs
Accel-Rx
Accel-Rx is Canada’s national health innovation accelerator. They enable health science start-ups to grow, mature and become investor-ready by giving the support to transcend innovations into commercialization. Accel-Rx works in partnership with each company to assess development gaps and determine each company’s programming needs followed by the creation of a milestone-based plan.
Location: Yaletown
Industry Focus: Health Tech
Stage: Ideation, Seed
Supporting Services: Events, Webinars, Mentorship, Investor Forums, Financial Resources.
Programs: Accel-Rx Program
Grow Tech Labs
Grow Tech Labs is an accelerator for cannabis technology companies. By combining access to financing with the delivery of world class programs rooted in innovation, entrepreneurship and mentorship, Grow Tech Labs is expanding British Columbia’s influence as a global cannabis capital.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Cannabis
Stage: Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Mentorship, Prototype Support, Investor Network.
Programs: Cannabis Innovation Program
Devhub
Devhub was created by Lighthouse Labs to help support the growth of developers by bringing them together through education, community initiatives, and co-working space. Devhub is a place where members can learn, code, and teach, whether they’ve been coding for two decades or ten weeks.
Location: Downtown
Industry Focus: Developers
Stage: All Stages
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Hackathons, Lunch & Learns
Programs: N/A
VR/AR Hub
The VR/AR Hub was created in partnership with Launch Academy and the VR/AR Association Vancouver. The VR/AR Hub offers permanent desk space, training and education programs, VR and AR equipment rentals, workshops & events, as well as mentorship from Silicon Valley-based investors along with local founders and experts.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality
Stage: Seed, Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Mentorship, VR/AR Equipment, Green Room
Programs: N/A
BC Tech Hub
The BC Tech Hub is the place helping acceleration burgeoning tech anchors and enterprise companies have space to connect and learn from one another. The Hub is best suited for growth stage companies that are scaling rapidly. Since 2014, more than 70 companies, government agencies, and enterprise organizations have called the BC Tech Hub home.
Location: Strathcona/Mount Pleasant
Industry Focus: Tech
Stage: Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Government Program Concierge, Financing Support, Video Production Space
Programs: HyperGrowth, Sales Growth Engine, and HyperGlobal.
VentureLabs
SFU VentureLabs is a world class science and technology accelerator. Their mission is to scale-up technology companies by connecting them with the talent, research capacity, entrepreneurial expertise, capital and international expansion opportunities needed to accelerate growth.
Location: Gastown
Industry Focus: Ideation, Seed
Stage: Growth
Supporting Services: Events, Workshops, Mentorship
Programs: Venture Acceleration Program, C2CAN, Zone Startups India, Innovate Network of Canada, Scale-up Services
MakerLabs
MakerLabs is a maker-space in Vancouver that provides you with the tools, space, and skills to make almost anything. There is 42'000 square feet of workshops, common areas and studios. The communal work areas include: wood shop, metal shop, CNC router table, laser cutters, sewing machines and electronics area.
Location: Downtown Eastside
Industry Focus: N/A
Stage: N/A
Supporting Services: Tools, Classes, Workshops
Programs: Tools for Women — Residency ProgramSFU Venture Labs
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Startup Stages
