The people and companies building Canadian tech

BenchSci builds AI that reads biomedical research the way a PhD scientist would, turning millions of papers and experiments into a knowledge graph pharma teams use to pick reagents and design preclinical studies. Founded in Toronto in 2015, its ASCEND platform serves 16 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies (company count, 2026; 14 of 20 at its 2023 TechTO talk).

Blue J turns tax research from hours of digging into a conversation. Founded by three University of Toronto law professors, its generative AI platform answers US, Canadian, and UK tax questions in seconds with citations to primary sources — after betting the business on generative AI in 2023, it grew 360% in 2024 and raised a US$122M Series D.

Boardy is an AI superconnector you talk to like a person — over a phone call, LinkedIn, email or WhatsApp — that learns what you're building and who you need, then makes double-opt-in warm intros. Founded in Toronto in 2024 by Clearco co-founder Andrew D'Souza, it raised its Creandum-led seed through its own introductions.

Borrowell gives Canadians free weekly credit scores and reports — the first company in the country to do it — then helps them act on the numbers with Molly, an AI credit coach, credit-building tools, and matched financial product recommendations. Founded in Toronto in 2014, it passed four million members in June 2026.

Chexy is a Toronto fintech that lets Canadians put rent — and other bills that don't normally take cards, like property taxes and utilities — on their credit cards, earning points and building credit along the way. Founded in 2022, it serves 200,000+ users and — per founder Liza Akhvledziani on stage in June 2026 — has just crossed $2 billion in annualized payment volume.

Clearco funds e-commerce brands with revenue-based capital instead of equity: merchants connect their sales and ad accounts, get an offer in about a day, and repay from revenue — no personal guarantees, no board seats. Started in 2015 as Clearbanc advancing $20 to Uber drivers, it has put over $3 billion into more than 10,000 businesses.

Clio makes the cloud software that runs law firms — case management, client intake, billing, payments, and now AI drafting and research. Founded in Burnaby in 2007 on the bet that lawyers would trust the cloud, it passed US$500M ARR in May 2026, raised a record US$900M Series F, and acquired vLex for US$1B.

Clutch is Canada's largest online used-car retailer. Shoppers browse thousands of inspected, certified vehicles at clutch.ca, buy or finance entirely online, and get the car delivered to their driveway with a 10-day money-back guarantee. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Toronto, Clutch turned profitable in 2024, passed $400 million in annualized revenue by early 2025, and crossed $1 billion in cumulative vehicle purchases in mid-2025.

eSentire is a Waterloo-founded cybersecurity company that pioneered managed detection and response: a 24/7 security operations team that hunts, investigates, and shuts down threats on customers' behalf. Founded in 2001, it protects more than 2,000 organizations across 80-plus countries (company-stated as of 2026) and passed a US$1 billion valuation in 2022.

EvenUp builds AI that drafts demand packages and case documents for US personal injury firms, helping injury victims capture full settlement value. Its three co-founders are Canadian expats — Saam Mashhad, a former Norton Rose Fulbright litigator, told the story on the TechTO stage in Toronto — and the company passed a $2B valuation in 2025.

Fable is a Toronto accessibility research platform that connects enterprise product teams with a vetted, paid community of people with disabilities, so companies like Microsoft, Walmart, and Slack can research, test, and improve digital products with real assistive technology users. Founded in 2018 out of OCAD University's inclusive design program, it had raised over $50 million CAD as of early 2025, with the October 2024 Series B its most recent round as of July 2026.

Felix is a Toronto digital healthcare company that lets Canadians handle everyday health online — from birth control and ED to weight loss, mental health, and menopause. Patients complete a questionnaire, a licensed clinician reviews it and prescribes where appropriate, and medication ships to their door with follow-up chat included. Over one million patients served since 2019.

FreshBooks makes invoicing and accounting software for small, service-based businesses — the plumbers, designers, and agencies spreadsheets forgot. Mike McDerment started it in his parents' basement in 2003, bootstrapped it for ten years, then raised two big rounds once the model was proven. Tens of millions of people have used it since.

Gotcare is a Toronto home-care provider that matches Canadians with personal support workers and nurses through its own matching platform, then puts those workers on payroll at a living wage — $23 an hour and up (2022 rate), plus benefits — betting that better-paid caregivers are the fix for Canada's home-care shortage.

KOHO gives Canadians a no-fee alternative to a checking account: a reloadable card and app that pay interest on balances, round up spare change into savings, and build credit history. Founded in 2014 and now Toronto-based, as of mid-2026 it serves over 2.5 million users and is in the late stages of applying to become a federally licensed Schedule 1 bank.

Optimity is a Toronto-built health and wellness rewards platform that pays people for everyday healthy habits — walking, micro-learning quizzes, mental-health check-ins — all carrot, no stick. It syncs with 100+ wearables, works with insurers and reinsurers to keep policyholders engaged, and serves over seven million members (7.3M as of early 2026) after buying and relaunching Carrot Rewards.

Rootly is an AI-native on-call and incident management platform that lets engineering teams detect, respond to, and learn from outages without leaving Slack or Microsoft Teams. Founded in 2020 by Instacart alumni JJ Tang and Quentin Rousseau, the YC-backed, Toronto-headquartered company counts LinkedIn, NVIDIA, Figma, Dropbox, and Wealthsimple among its customers.

Online video platform founded in Toronto in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski. Rumble hosts creator uploads and livestreams and has expanded into cloud infrastructure and advertising services. Built without outside funding in its early years, the company went public on Nasdaq under the ticker RUM in September 2022, reported 56 million average monthly active users in the first quarter of 2026, and completed its acquisition of AI-infrastructure company Northern Data in June 2026.

Sheertex knits tights from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene, a ballistic-grade polymer stronger than steel by weight, so a pair lasts 20-50 wears instead of 3-4. Founder Katherine Homuth raised about $250M and built a 300-person vertically integrated Montreal plant before SRTX hit insolvency in 2026; Québec hosiery maker AYK International owns the brand as of mid-2026.

Shopify is a commerce platform that lets anyone set up an online store and sell across the web, social media, and in person. Founded and headquartered in Ottawa, it now powers millions of merchants in more than 175 countries, who sold $378 billion of goods through the platform in 2025.

Spellbook puts AI contract drafting and review inside Microsoft Word, where lawyers already work. Born in St. John's after five years as legal-tech startup Rally, it shipped one of the first generative-AI contract tools in 2022 and now serves 4,500+ legal teams in 80+ countries, with a US$50M Series B led by Khosla Ventures.

Super.com started as SnapTravel, selling discount hotel rooms over text, and grew into a savings super app for everyday Americans — travel deals, a cashback card that builds credit, interest-free cash advances, and a $15/month Super+ membership. Founded in Toronto in 2016; $1B+ in savings delivered and a $1.2B valuation as of 2026.

Voiceflow is a Toronto-founded platform where product, support, and engineering teams design, test, and manage AI agents together — chat and voice, on whichever model fits. Born in 2018 out of frustration building Alexa skills with spreadsheets and flowcharts, it powers agents for 4,000+ customers as of July 2026, including JP Morgan, The Home Depot, and StubHub.

Toronto fintech whose free-to-start accounting and invoicing software lets small business owners manage their finances without an accounting degree, earning its revenue on payments, payroll, and an optional Pro plan. Founded in 2009, Wave grew past 400,000 businesses by 2019, sold to H&R Block that year for about C$537M, and as of 2026 still operates from Toronto as an H&R Block company.

Wealthsimple is a Toronto fintech serving 4 million+ Canadians with investing, cash, tax and crypto in one app. Founded in 2014 by Mike Katchen and Brett Huneycutt, it holds $60B+ in assets and in 2024 beat a big-five bank on net new deposits for the first time.