Waterloo-linked startups on track for billion-dollar annual revenues

Nine startups with links to the University of Waterloo were named in a recent report tracking Canadian companies on their way to $1 billion annual revenues, including four companies that grew out of Waterloo’s renowned entrepreneurship program and startup incubator Velocity.

“Canada’s tech ecosystem continues to evolve,” says Adrien Côté, executive director of Velocity. “Communitech’s report adds a new lens and reveals the depth of impact people from the University of Waterloo make in Canada’s economy. Likewise, evolving the conditions that attract and support entrepreneurially minded people to Waterloo continues to be our mission.”

Waterloo’s distinctive innovation ecosystem encourages entrepreneurs by opening pathways from research to commercialization through incubators, corporate partnerships and a unique intellectual property policy that lets creators own what they invent.

The nine companies on their way to billion-dollar annual revenues with links to Waterloo are:

• ApplyBoard, an educational technology company that streamlines the application process for international students, which was co-founded by Waterloo alums Martin Basiri (MASc ’13) along with his brothers Meti and Massi Basiri. ApplyBoard was incubated at Velocity.
• Arctic Wolf, a cybersecurity company co-founded by Waterloo alum Kim Tremblay (BMath, ’84), has achieved tremendous growth since acquiring its “unicorn” status only two years ago.
• ClearCo, a financial technology company co-founded by Waterloo alums Andrew D’Souza (BASc ’08) and Ivan Gritsiniak (BMath ’16), achieved “unicorn” status in 2021.
• Ecopia, an artificial intelligence company co-founded by University of Waterloo alums Yuanming Shu (MSc ’10, PhD ’15) and Shuo Tan (MSc ’10), is changing how we map the world. Ecopia was incubated at Velocity.
• eSentire, a cybersecurity company founded by a Waterloo alum, Eldon Sprickerhoff (BMath ’91).
• Faire, a wholesale marketplace company co-founded by Waterloo alum Marcelo Cortes (BCS ’04) is currently valued at $12.4B. Faire was incubated at Velocity.
• Solink, a cloud video security company co-founded by Waterloo alum Mike Matta (BASc ’07).
• Trusscore, a building material company whose founder, Dave Caputo, is chair of the board for Communitech, and which was incubated at Velocity.
• Vidyard, a SaaS company co-founded by Waterloo alums Michael Litt (BASc ’11) and Devon Gallaway (BASc ’10), which provides a platform for asynchronous communications grew exponentially during the pandemic. Vidyard was incubated at Velocity.

Communitech partnered with well-known Canadian finance companies and business analysts to generate robust data for the report, which followed criteria related to annual revenue and year-on-year revenue growth.