Talent:

Markham is a magnet for talent. Startups located in the city benefit from an incredibly well-educated and skilled talent pool.

• 71.4% of Markham residents have some post-secondary education, compared to the Canadian population at 67.4%. Over 70% of Markham residents are visible minorities, reflecting a melting pot of diverse cultures, ideas, and expertise.

• Our talent pipeline is fed by seven world class universities and eight colleges within an hour drive, including the local campus of Seneca College.

• In 2024, York University will open the doors to its Markham campus in 2024, welcoming 4,200 students. Offering programs from four faculties, which will strongly reflect the needs of Markham’s economic landscape.

• In 2021, nearly 60% of immigrants that landed in Markham were economic immigrants.

• The Canada Startup Visa is a program that allows foreign entrepreneurs to relocate to Canada and start a business. It helps innovative startups access the Canadian market and grow their businesses.

Support for Startups:

There are plenty of relevant business support programs from different levels of government and institutions that Markham startups can access to scale their enterprises.

- The Markham Small Business Centre (MSBC) is a resource center for starting and growing a small business in Markham. The team at MSBC helps entrepreneurs make informed decisions before starting a business in the city. - Markham has a robust ecosystem of organizations supporting startups including YSpace at York University, ventureLAB, and Seneca HELIX, which all run various programs to a diverse group of entrepreneurs.




Taxes:

• Startups based in Ontario can take advantage of a lower tax rate of 3.2% through the small business deduction rate (8.3%) for the year.
• Tax Credit is available for eligible corporations in Ontario for their R&D activities. They can claim a non-refundable tax credit on scientific research and experimental development expenses to reduce their corporate income tax.
• Markham has the lowest average property tax increase for the last 15 years in a row, compared to other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area. The commercial tax rate is 1.57% and the industrial tax rate is 1.81%

Public Sector Incentives





The public sector is highly involved in the startup ecosystem of Markham. The financial support for Markham startups comes from both municipal and provincial levels. Some of the public sector funding opportunities available in Markham include:



• Markham Starter Company Plus Program aims to assist entrepreneurs in starting, expanding, or growing their small businesses in the city. The program offers training, education, and advisory services, as well as the chance to receive grant funding of up to US $5,000 and mentorship from local business leaders.
  
  

• ventureLAB is a leading global founder community for hardware technology and enterprise software companies in Canada. ventureLAB’s initiatives focus on raising capital, talent retention, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition have enabled thousands of companies to create over 4,700 jobs and raise more than $275 million in investment capital. Leading programs include:
  
  

• Hardware Catalyst Initiative — Canada’s only lab and incubator for founders building hardware and semiconductor-focused products, enabling the creation of transformative technologies that will power our products of tomorrow, including healthcare technology, consumer electronics, telecommunications, smart energy, connected transportation, and more.
  
  

• Capital Investment Program — works with scale-ready companies to establish a long-term capital strategy and support rapid business growth. Since 2012, ventureLAB’s advisors have worked with hundreds of founders, enabling them to raise over $150 million in private investment.
  
  

• Canada Catalyst Program — will support the transition of growth-stage tech companies outside of Canada with the vision of breaking into North American Markets. Providing customized business advice, specialized programming and access to world class talent from Canadian institutions for international start-ups to accelerate their growth in York Region- Canada’s second-largest tech hub.
  
  

• Ready 4 Market is the program of the Ontario Centre of Innovation. The program helps Ontario-based tech startups secure funding for the early stages of their development. The program provides investments of up to US $ 250,000 and works with companies that are seeking to raise a total of US $ 500,000 to US $ 2 million in funding.
  
  

• The Life Sciences Innovation Fund (LSIF) is an early-stage investment fund that helps life sciences and healthcare technology companies develop and bring their made-in-Ontario health solutions to market. The fund provides US $ 500,000 in early-stage risk capital to companies in the human health sector and is managed by the Ontario Center of Innovation. This fund supports companies in scaling their operations in Ontario and beyond.
  
  

• YSpace’s Technology Accelerator is designed to support entrepreneurs as they find product-market fit, build traction, and unlock their roadmap for scale through bootcamps, workshops, one-on-one mentorship, along with over $60k in startup support and up to $30K in cash awards.
  
  

Private Investors





Markham startups are raising capital from Canadian and international investors (e.g Google, Alchemist Ventures, Plug & Play). The ecosystem is also the base for numerous private-sector investors, including:



• Good News Ventures is an industry agnostic, pre-seed/seed stage ICT venture capital fund, which focuses on startups based in North America or serving the North American market with interesting business models including SaaS, enterprise/SMB, B2B/B2B2C, and crypto. We invest in companies in all software categories including AI/ML, IoT, infrastructure, blockchain and quantum computing.
  
  

• JCTeam Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in empowering early-stage start-ups and entrepreneurs with strategic capital investment in order to support their growth and success.





• Rogue Insight Capital is an angel investment fund that offers strategy, direction, capital, and access to an extensive network of companies with innovative ideas and forward-thinking approaches. They are investing in Canadian as well as startups around the world.
  
  

• York Angels is an angel investor network that connects local entrepreneurs seeking early and mid-stage capital with investors who are willing to provide it.
  
  

• Bild Alternative Investment Corporation (BAIC) is a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage investments in North America and Asia. Energy, healthcare, and biotechnology are among the industries BAIC invests in.