With considerable tech start-ups and significant investments, Toronto is slowly booming as a Tec Town, providing opportunities to accelerate tech advancements

Toronto start-ups presented concerns that the social media companies were driving tech salaries to Silicon Valley levels as they recruited top engineers across the city. As the tech industry continues to expand and communities worldwide compete for tech jobs outside Silicon Valley, many executives, investors, and entrepreneurs are encouraging warm climes to be the next big tech hubs.

With significant investment from local universities, government agencies, business leaders and Canada’s liberal immigration policies, Toronto is now the third-largest tech hub in North America. It has become home to more tech workers than other prominent regions.

In addition, Toronto’s tech workforce is growing more rapidly than any hub in the US. Unlike many cities, Toronto will have the resources needed to sustain the trend. There is a need for anchor companies that can provide a transformative impact. Entrepreneurs belong to these companies and start their own. These anchor companies, including the Canadian e-commerce giant and American companies, have reached Toronto for the researchers and engineers who are already in Toronto. Toronto is now a place to make a long-term bet to build connections with the school cluster in the area and create a new pipeline for hiring.

Over the last year, a big global company hired more than 100 engineers in Toronto, tripling its Canadian workforce. Household internet platforms established similar technology hubs in the city, and emerging artificial intelligence firms joined them.

In Toronto, US-based firms can also accelerate the arrival of new tech talent from other countries, involving a talent stream that has long been a significant part of the American tech industry. As the US immigration system slowed and sputtered for a few years, Canada introduced programmes intended to bring skilled workers into an unusually diverse country.

Furthermore, in and around Toronto, local institutions focus on feeding the tech ecosystem. Backed by a 100 million USD donation from local business leaders, the University of Toronto is establishing a complex that will shelter AI and biotech companies.

However, investment in new Toronto companies is still small compared with Silicon Valley. Investors have recently raised 132 billion USD in Silicon Valley tech start-ups. On the other hand, in Toronto, that figure was 5.4 billion USD. Nonetheless, it is tech talent that drives a tech hub, and Toronto has greater potential for advancing its tech ecosystem.