OUR VISION

Vancouver’s frontier technology and startup ecosystem is vibrant, young, and one of the fastest-growing sectors in the economy.

The region is an established innovation cluster and has the potential to become the premier destination for bleeding-edge tech, benefitting both the city and the world. Right now, there’s a gap for early-stage, foundational support needed for startups to thrive.

The Frontier Collective focuses on attracting and multiplying the talent pool and growing investment into the region. As Vancouver transitions away from a resource-intensive economy, we need to tell our tech stories, and create a new narrative to raise the profile of our region.

More people now work in technology in BC than forestry, mining, and oil and gas combined. Now is the time to double down.

Why Vancouver?

 
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Industry

  • Vancouver’s VR/AR industry is the second largest in the world, rooted in the largest cluster of top VFX and animation studios in the world.

  • Vancouver hosts 230+ artificial intelligence startups, and is top 3 for AI talent in Canada, producing award-winning technologies.

  • Vancouver hosts Canada’s fastest growing lifesciences sector, Canada’s largest private and public biotech companies, and state of the art biotech startups.

  • Vancouver is a top global ecosystem for climate tech, such as fuel cell and hydogen cell innovation, and is one of the greenest cities in the world.

  • The region’s global entertainment industry has a 40 year legacy. We are home to the third largest film and TV production centre in North America, and one of the top video game clusters in the world.

 
 

People

  • Vancouver is the #1 fastest growing tech employment region in North America.

  • The tech industry employs 115,000+ tech professionals in British Columbia with approximately 75,000 working in Metro Vancouver.

  • It has inclusive immigration landscape, inspiring global companies and leading entrepreneurs to set up offices here.

  • The frontier technology, creative technology, and tech startup ecosystem will soon account for most high-paying jobs.

  • Individuals from the city’s world-leading creative, biotech, AI, VR/AR, and climate tech industries continue to spin off their own companies.

 
 

Ecosystem

  • 14 new tech unicorns in 2021.

  • Home to offices for some of the world’s tech giants: Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Lululemon, Cisco, Samsung, SAP, Intel, Salesforce, Eventbrite, TELUS, Hootsuite, D-wave, 1Qbit, and Slack.

  • A centre for creative industries, including Disney, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), MPC, Double Negative, DHX Media, Animal Logic, and Bardel Entertainment.

  • Known colloquially as “Hollywood North”.


Why Frontier technology?

  • Economic gain

    - As the digital economy plays a greater role in everyday life, future jobs and GDP will come from the tech startup and frontier technology ecosystem.

    - McKinsey estimates that AI may deliver an additional economic output of around $13 trillion USD by 2030, increasing global GDP by roughly 1.2% annually.

    - Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will boost GDP worldwide by $1 trillion USD by 2030. In 2019 alone, these technologies increased GDP by $46.4 billion.

    - New technologies re-invigorate traditional production sectors and speed up industrialization and economic structural transformation. Innovation brings positive change and can affect the labour market, increasing profits, jobs, and wages.

  • Social impact

    - As we move into the fourth industrial revolution, these technologies will enhance our daily lives, create efficiencies and connectivity, and strengthen education.

    - Frontier technologies will help improve safety. AI was used during the pandemic to monitor outbreaks, track and trace cases, and assess risks of infection. VR/AR are used in Vancouver-to train doctors fo surgeAy, improve safety by visualizing mining sites, and more.

    - Frontier technologies will help combat climate change. Novel materials create higher capacity and cleaner fuel cells, agtech innovation helps expand our food production without taxing the environment, and more

The next wave of innovation is frontier technology.

If we act now to strengthen our ecosystem, our city is in a unique position to lead the world.

Share our vision?

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