Entrepreneurship

This year brought countless reasons to celebrate as Waterloo students, alumni and researchers took bold new steps to innovate and create solutions for a complex future. 

As we wrap up 2025, we reflect with pride and share just a glimpse of student success, on-campus initiatives and groundbreaking research of our Waterloo community. 

WatSPEED at the University of Waterloo recently announced the launch of a new Chief Technology and AI Officer (AI-CTO) program — a six-month, live-online executive program designed to help senior technology leaders translate complex architectures and AI innovation into measurable business outcomes.

This year, University of Waterloo professor Larry Smith marks 45 years of teaching students to think critically about the world and act courageously to build a future of their own making. 

Smith, a professor in the Faculty of Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, specializes in forecasting and the economics of innovation. His wildly popular lectures resonate among students and alumni from across campus — many of whom credit Smith for pushing them to realize their entrepreneurial potential. 

Five startups have been awarded $10,000 Velocity Momentum Grants to help them take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. The no-strings attached funding is intended to allow founders to focus on their business full-time after graduation.

Velocity is the University of Waterloo’s centre of entrepreneurship and offers mentorship, funding and Canada’s largest tech-corridor network to help founders move ideas from the lab to market. Since 2008, Velocity has helped launch more than 500 startups that together exceed $40 billion in enterprise value.

As Global Entrepreneurship Week 2025 begins, we’re spotlighting 10 standout entrepreneurs from the University of Waterloo — students and alumni who are challenging norms, redefining industries and building a better future. These innovators are not only making waves in their respective fields but are also setting the pace for what’s next for society, health, technology, the economy and sustainability. 

Swish Solar, a cleantech company based at Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator, has closed an oversubscribed US$1.5 million pre-seed round. The new financing will accelerate market adoption of its self-cleaning solar technology that helps make renewable energy more efficient and sustainable.

“Solar panels can lose up to 60 per cent of their efficiency due to sand and snow buildup, costing the cleantech energy industry billions in lost revenue each year,” said Miswar Syed (MASc '25), CEO of Swish Solar.

What if your gym routine consisted of gliding across a forest, skewing fruits like a ninja, or racing on a Formula 1 track?   

That’s the vision behind Hiro, a Waterloo-based startup that is gamifying physiotherapy exercises for children with disabilities — by including people with disabilities at the research’s core.  

The University of Waterloo has long been a key driver of innovation, fostering entrepreneurs whose ventures shape industries and enrich communities — with alumni leading some of the region’s most vibrant and creative businesses.

While founding Canada’s next tech startup or discovering a major research breakthrough are the impetus for some University of Waterloo changemakers, others use their curiosity and imagination to find ways to unlock social impact locally and globally.

In many cases, the first steps towards making a difference happen at Waterloo where students immerse themselves in a culture of curiosity, entrepreneurship and global stewardship. It’s at Waterloo where a sense of belonging and a responsibility for others can really take root.

Friendlier, a local startup tackling Canada’s single-use plastic problem head-on, recently closed a $4.5 million dollar funding round. The company, founded in 2019 by University of Waterloo alumni Jacqueline Hanton (BASc ’20) and Kayli Smith (BASc ’20), has raised a total of $10 million and kept almost 3.7 million food and beverage containers out of landfills.