The Best Canadian Startups of 2022

Canada’s beautiful nature, winter sports, and maple syrup are combined with a strong and rapidly developing economy. Toronto became a new mecca for young businesses three years ago, overtaking New York, Seoul, London and Tokyo.

Canada has also established a new immigration program for entrepreneurs called the Start-up Visa. You can move to Canada through this program even if you do not have enough points for age, education, or language proficiency. By the way, up to 5 people can apply for this visa: there is an opportunity to bring your family or project team with you.

We have prepared an article for you about the best Canadian startups in 2022, as it is through them that one can understand the needs and trends of the country's economy.

What are startups and what makes them tick

A startup is a young business project designed for quick profit through innovative ideas. They usually have little or no capital of their own and are funded by investors: venture capitalists, business angels or incubators. Unlike other enterprises, they don't choose an existing business model, but create their own.

The key to the success of startups is to identify hidden societal needs and find an effective way to satisfy them. For example, globally renowned companies Uber and Apple started their journey as startups. Nowadays, many people can't imagine life without an iPhone or a fast search for cheap taxis, but before, people didn't even realize they needed them.

By the way, Miro, Netflix, SpaceX, Airbnb, and LinkedIn were also startups. Sometimes, a startup is not only a separate enterprise but also an unusual product. Games like Angry Birds and Pokemon Go fall into this category, which saved their developers from bankruptcy.

Best Canadian Startups of 2022

We relied on data from the LinkedIn network for our ranking, as its algorithms help track a company's success based on factors such as customer demand, capital growth, employee growth, reviews, and other factors. The year 2022 was tough for businesses, but it is during challenging times that the most creative ideas emerge.

Neo Financial is a startup from Calgary, founded in 2019. Their app combines all the advantages of remote banking services and helps users keep track of their income and expenses by analyzing their spending. In the app, users can receive cashback from partners, pay bills and services, take out loans and even mortgages, track where and how they spend their money, and invest amounts starting from $1 CAD. Buying stocks and bonds in this app is as easy as buying a pack of chips.

Ada helps companies reduce their technical support costs. This Toronto-based company was founded in 2016. It uses artificial intelligence to set up chatbots for businesses on any media and messenger platforms. 72% of users who interact with Ada are completely satisfied with its response and do not switch to a human specialist. Unlike ordinary bots, Ada answers very complex and non-standard questions from scratch, rather than offering ready-made schemes. It's like having Chat GPT for the world of technical support, which will thoroughly study your business and serve your customers 24/7 without needing rest or a salary. Business giants like Meta and Shopify use the services of this startup.

Fable helps large businesses create applications and services for people with disabilities. The startup is based in Toronto and was founded in 2018. The project has around 50 employees, all of whom are highly skilled professional testers with some form of health limitations. They write detailed analytics of services and applications for companies such as Miro, Walmart, Shopify, and Slack, as well as offering ways to improve their accessibility for people with disabilities. It's not just about tolerance: people with disabilities are a sizable and affluent group of customers who don't have as wide a selection of products available to them. Therefore, applications that are perfectly suited to the deaf, blind, or paralyzed can earn a lot of money thanks to their loyalty.

Shakepay was founded in Montreal in 2015. Over a million Canadians have used its services during this time. This application helps you buy, sell, and earn Bitcoin quickly and without commission, completely legally. This app securely protects your money and data, and also allows you to perform all sorts of cryptocurrency manipulations: invest in it, sell it, withdraw the earned money to your account, exchange CAD for Bitcoin, and even circumvent sanctions — you can use it to send funds to any cryptocurrency wallet.

At ApplyBoard, they know how difficult it can be for students to submit documents to foreign universities. This application is based in Waterloo and was launched in 2015. Already, over 300,000 students who wish to study at universities in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK have used it. It helps users find suitable offers from universities that are personally tailored to them, contact their representatives, and also prepare and submit all necessary documents. Thanks to it, the number of rejections due to improperly filled out paperwork tends towards zero. ApplyBoard claims that 95% of their clients successfully get into the universities they have chosen. We recommend using their application if you want to get an education in Canada. By the way, you can find exclusive scholarships there.

BenchSci, a startup from Toronto, is both brilliant and simple at the same time. The company was founded in 2015 and has since been helping drug manufacturers accelerate their research. Using artificial intelligence, they analyze all available publications that may be useful to a specific company, and also summarize them briefly. They gather information about known diseases, components for their treatment, and their interactions, which simplifies the creation of new drugs. For example, with its help, manufacturers can learn about potential side effects before even testing the drug.

Cohere was founded in Toronto in 2019. The company develops software that teaches computers and artificial intelligence to more efficiently recognize voice and text requests, including such machine-unintelligible details as voice tone and intonation. Now your voice assistant will be able to understand when you are angry, upset, or in the mood to joke. This also helps businesses serve customers more efficiently, as AI not only provides answers based on the specific situation and the person's mood, but also performs some actions on behalf of the user. For example, it will help you return a product by filling out the appropriate form on the website for you.

Certn helps employers, landlords, and tenants avoid getting into trouble. The company was founded in Victoria in 2016 and since then has been used by about 3,000 businesses worldwide. Certn will conduct a check of your employee, landlord or tenant, collecting information about their past, criminal record, previous experience, skills, and even character. Companies that use their services report that the time to hire new employees has been reduced by 80%. Electronic HR works very quickly, and it is also competent and impartial. No more "why do you want to work here?" and other useless questions, the AI will objectively assess the professional suitability of each candidate.

Drop is a Toronto-based brokerage firm founded in 2015. Their app helps brands better understand millennial and Gen Z shoppers, as well as offer them more interesting products. It provides offers from brands to customers based on their preferences and also allows them to earn bonuses that can be spent on purchases. For example, you can take a survey from a store and get a decent discount on its products. Everyone wins — consumers buy more profitably, and brands sell more and better understand their audience. During its existence, the startup has attracted 500 brands, including Starbucks, Uber, and Amazon. The app is used by 50 million people who have spent $144 billion USD on it since its inception.

DapperLabs is the most unusual application on the list. It was founded in Vancouver in 2018 and is focused on games and entertainment, as well as creating NFT products. For example, users can buy or sell NBA game footage and purchase NFT tickets for events. This unusual format has its benefits — tickets cannot be spoiled, lost, or deleted, and they are highly protected from any negative impact. In the app, fans of athletes and teams can create their own communities, interest groups, buy and sell goods. Current partners of this company include NBA, NBPA, WNBA, WNBPA, LaLiga, NFL, NFLPA, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Genies and UFC. This amazing project has already attracted $600 million USD in investments from giants such as Samsung, Reddit, and DreamWorks.

Stay tuned for news on Canadian startups on our website. If you're interested in this topic, long reads about it will now be published at least once a month. And if you're an entrepreneur yourself and want to move to Canada, feel free to contact our immigration consultants.