In parallel with this fall in ranking, Canada’s top three ecosystems have seen a combined loss of $66B in EV compared to their peak EV share of the top-50 startup ecosystems (see table below):
Peak EV Share of Top-50
2025 EV if stable share (USD)
2025 EV Actual (USD)
Opportunity Loss %
Opportunity Loss USD
City
Peak Year
Toronto
1.36% 0.85% 0.54%
2018 2020 2018
$96B $55B $35B
$64B $30B $26B
-33% -45% -26%
$ -32B $ -25B $ -9B
Vancouver Montreal
It also means fewer exits and IPOs. Canadian startup ecosystems previously produced public tech corporations on US and Canadian stock exchanges with combined market capitalizations of $230 billion USD and approximately 200,000 employees. Thus, a 33% average loss in startup EV over the last five years can be estimated to lead to a 33% lower production of public tech corporations with a combined market cap of approximately $77 billion USD and a loss of over 67,000 higher-paying jobs. Combined with the loss of $66 billion USD in startup EV, this suggests an estimated loss of approximately 143 billion in Tech sector value (startup EV plus public Tech market cap) and 133,000 fewer higher-paying startup jobs (at 1 job per $1M USD in market cap) as well as lower economic growth, exports and FDI. This does not include second- and third-order effects, for instance fewer exits resulting in less capital being recycled back into the ecosystem, contributing to a structural deceleration in investment and EV growth over time and compounding the challenge of turning around Canadian startup ecosystems. Furthermore, because startup ecosystems have grown at a rate of about 9.5% over the last 5 years and 14% over 10 years – 4 to 6 times faster than the rest of our economies – the gap translated into larger and larger losses over the long run, even assuming Canada resumes growing at the average global rate. It also means
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