Toronto ranked one of the fastest-growing technology innovation hubs in the world

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Toronto is one of the world’s fastest growing technology innovation hubs.

According to an annual survey of global tech industry leaders in KPMG International’s latest Global Technology Innovation report, Toronto will be leading the global innovation hubs over the next four years.

“Toronto has been rapidly grabbing the world’s attention as a destination for financial and intellectual capital in technology innovation,” said Anuj Madan, National Industry Leader for Technology, Media and Telecommunications at KPMG in Canada.

“Only a couple of years ago, Toronto likely didn’t come up in conversations as a go-to global destination for innovation. But smart and early investments in artificial intelligence and fintech, coupled with a diverse workforce, have positioned the city as an emerging global centre of influence in machine and deep learning, setting the stage for Industry 4.0.”

Toronto is home to a tech ecosystem with over 4,000 active start-ups and over 22,500 new jobs from 2015 to 2016. According to the report, Toronto is the only Canadian city to be ranked as a world-leading tech hub of the future.

As the only Canadian city listed in the report, with 6% of global leaders saying the city is outpacing the competition as it competes with Silicon Valley and San Francisco, Vancouver was named by 1% of the global respondents.

Cities outpacing the competition as leading innovation hubs

Ranking – City

1 – Shanghai, China
2 – Tokyo, Japan
3 – London, United Kingdom
3 – New York, United States
5 – Beijing, China
5 – Singapore
7 – Seoul, South Korea
8 – Bangalore, India
8 – Tel Aviv, Israel
10 – Berlin, Germany
11 – Sydney, Australia
12 – Toronto, Canada
12 – Boston, United States
12 – Chicago, United States
15 – Hong Kong, China
15 – Shenzhen, China

“Global tech titans such as Uber, Google Brain, Deep Mind and Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs are expanding their research capacity and directing their investment dollars to Toronto, tapping into the city’s multi-cultural and highly skilled workforce,” said Madan. “Additionally, more than 300 fintech firms operate in Canada today, with that number expected to grow to 1,000 over the next five years.”

Being released in two parts, the annual report captures technology innovation findings based on the views of 767 business executives globally from companies, venture capital firms and other investors that focus on tech. Of the total respondents, 7.8% are based in Canada.

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