StartupBlink

189 Top startups in Waterloo for July 2026

We rank Top Hat, TextNow and Cylance in Waterloo along with 186 other startups based on an algorithm that scores startups based on total investment, employee count, and quarterly website traffic. Waterloo is part of Kitchener Waterloo startup ecosystem which ranks #107 globally and #42 in North America.

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Top Unicorn Startups in Waterloo for 2026

Two startups have achieved unicorn status by exceeding USD 1 billion in valuation. Collectively, the top two unicorns in Waterloo have raised more than USD 4.3B.
1st
ApplyBoard logo
ApplyBoardSB Score: 621

ApplyBoard is the leading online platform for students looking to study abroad. With the largest selection of programs worldwide, students can easily find, apply, and secure placements at top universities.

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Website
www.applyboard.com
Employee range
1,001 – 5,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$480.5M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
eSentire logo
eSentireSB Score: 470

eSentire is the Authority in Managed Detection and Response, protecting the critical data and applications of 1500+ organizations in 80+ countries, representing 35 industries from known and unknown cyber threats. Founded in 2001, the company’s mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they become business disrupting events. Combining cutting-edge machine learning XDR technology, 24/7 Threat Hunting, and proven security operations leadership, eSentire mitigates business risk, and enables security at scale. The Team eSentire difference means enterprises are protected by the best in the business with a named Cyber Risk Advisor, 24/7 access to SOC Cyber Analysts & Elite Threat Hunters, and industry-leading threat intelligence research from eSentire’s Threat Response Unit (TRU). eSentire provides Managed Risk, Managed Detection and Response and Incident Response services. For more information, visit www.esentire.com and follow @eSentire.

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Website
www.esentire.com
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$39.2M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:2

Best Startups in Waterloo for 2026

1st
Top Hat logo
Top HatSB Score: 640

As a student engagement and interactive teaching platform, Top Hat’s software helps college professors activate classrooms. In a world of digital distractions, countless academic studies have reinforced the reality that students better understand the day’s lesson if they’re asked to engage with peers, interact with complex material and participate in class. In Top Hat, students use their personal devices for quizzes, polls, and difficult simulations, transforming lecture halls from passive to active learning environments. As an advocate for traditional, on-campus education, Top Hat not only modernizes established teaching methods but also facilitates new approaches including the ‘flipped classroom,’ ‘group learning.

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Website
www.tophat.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$234.4M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
TextNow logo
TextNowSB Score: 578

We believe communication belongs to everyone. We exist to democratize phone service. TextNow is evolving the way the world connects and that’s because we’re made up of people with curious minds who bring an optimistic, yet critical lens into the work we do. We’re the largest provider of free phone service in the nation. And we’re just getting started. Join TextNow and break down barriers to communication with us.

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Website
www.textnow.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Cylance logo
CylanceSB Score: 577

BlackBerry provides wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. It is widely known for the development of the Blackberry smartphone. It offers the BlackBerry wireless communications platform solution, which includes the commpression and security infrastructure services enabling BlackBerry hand-held wireless devices to send and receive wireless messages and data. It is engaged in the sale of BlackBerry hand-held devices and the provision of data communication. Its portfolio of products and solutions includes the BlackBerry wireless solution, the BlackBerry Wireless Hand-held product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools, and other software and hardware. It also provides QNX software for embedded systems market and BBM, which is known as an instant mobile to mobile private messaging service. BlackBerry also carries expertise in allowing third party commercial and enterprise software developers to build and deploy custom applications to run on BlackBerry smartphones. In addition, it provides its users with the BlackBerry Messenger Social Apps Platform, push, payments, advertising, location, maps, analytics, and Scoreloop services as well as repair and maintenance services. BlackBerry is engaged in the sales of its solutions through wireless communication carriers and third party distribution channels.

View Full Page
Website
www.blackberry.com/us/en.html
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$297M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
OpenText logo
OpenTextSB Score: 566

Vor Biopharma is an immuno-oncology company that develops therapies for treating cancer. It is focused on developing technologies that can enable selective targeting of cancer cells without impacting normal cells. Cell surface-targeted immunotherapies, such as bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, generally target both cancer and normal cells, causing substantial toxicities and limiting their potential. The company is taking a fundamentally novel approach to targeting cancer selectively by developing hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that have been engineered to be protected from specifically targeted immunotherapies. These HSCs are designed to generate healthy, functional cells that are also protected from depletion by cancer-targeted therapies.

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Website
www.opentext.com
Employee range
101 – 250
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$152M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
5th
Auvik Networks logo
Auvik NetworksSB Score: 509

Auvik’s cloud-based network management software keeps IT networks around the world running optimally. By automating and simplifying network management, Auvik helps rocket an IT team’s efficiency and capacity, while protecting the business from network risk. Auvik is one of the fastest growing North American technology companies, and is winner of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Deloitte Fast 500, and recognized as the #1 ranked Canadian company in the FT Americas’ Fastest Growing Companies 2020. Visit www.auvik.com or follow @AuvikNetworks on Twitter. Auvik is a registered trademark of Auvik Networks Inc.

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Website
www.auvik.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$33.3M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
6th
Dejero Labs logo
Dejero LabsSB Score: 464

Dejero provides video streaming and connectivity solutions.Powered by intelligent network aggregation technology, it combine diverse telecommunication networks including 4G/5G cellular, GEO/MEO/LEO satellite, and fixed broadband, to create a software-defined ‘network of networks’ managed in the cloud. The result is enhanced reliability, expanded coverage, and greater bandwidth for its global customers. Founded in 2008 and privately held, Dejero is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

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Website
www.dejero.com
Employee range
101 – 250
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$52M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
7th
Robotiq logo
RobotiqSB Score: 448

Robotiq’s mission is to free human hands from tedious tasks so companies and workers can focus where they truly create value. They achieve this by making flexible, plug & play robotic grippers and sensors. They further simplify and accelerate their customers’ robotics projects by connecting them with experts on DoF.robotiq.com, a community for automation professionals.

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Website
robotiq.com
Employee range
101 – 250
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$23.2M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
8th
Mappedin  logo
Mappedin SB Score: 446

Mappedin is a global leader in indoor mapping and spatial data management. Our solutions power billions of square feet of indoor space and guide millions of people visiting malls, stadiums, airports, offices, healthcare facilities, warehouses, universities, and more. We’re making maps as powerful indoors as they are outdoors. With custom enterprise solutions, easy-to-use developer tools, and a revolutionary self-service mapmaking platform, we enable our customers to enhance indoor experiences, optimize spaces, track assets, and ensure public safety with AI-powered mapping technology. Mappedin was established on March 2, 2011 in Waterloo, Ontario by Hongwei Liu.

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Website
www.mappedin.com
Employee range
51 – 100
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$16.1M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
9th
Plum.io logo
Plum.ioSB Score: 426

Revolutionary talent assessment platform Plum is talent realized. Universally designed, Plum uses objective data to measure and match human potential to job needs, enhancing talent decisions across the employee lifecycle. With unmatched scalability, Plum empowers organizations to quantify job fit, improve quality of hire, identify potential, provide personalized career insights and create high-performing teams from one platform. Plum has been named a Top HR Product of the Year by Human Resource Executive, won an HR Tech Award from Lighthouse Research & Advisory and secured High Performer status with G2. Visit www.plum.io to learn more.

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Website
plum.io
Employee range
11 – 50
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$14.5M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
10th
Stock Target Advisor logo

Candela designs and builds electric hydrofoil boats and ferries, integrating hydrofoil technology to enable vessels that fly above the water, reduce energy use by around 80 percent, and deliver quiet, high-speed, zero-emission performance. It offers models such as the leisure-oriented C-7 and C-8 boats, featuring retractable foils and advanced electric drive systems, as well as the P-12 electric ferry designed for fast, efficient passenger transport. The company develops its motors, sensors, flight-control software, and hardware in-house to deliver fully optimized hydrofoil vessels that outperform combustion counterparts in efficiency and range.

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Website
www.stocktargetadvisor.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$96.2M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
11th
Hive.co logo
Hive.coSB Score: 404

Hive is a dynamic customer data and email platform that empowers brands to personalize and automate their marketing campaigns. By harnessing Hive's innovative technology, brands can increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and drive greater engagement and spending.

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Website
www.hive.co
Employee range
11 – 50
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$120K
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:114

Most Funded Startups in Waterloo for 2026

The top three most funded startups in Waterloo have raised total funding of more than USD 683M. Cylance has 0.27% more funding than Top Hat.
1st
Cylance logo
CylanceSB Score: 577

BlackBerry provides wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. It is widely known for the development of the Blackberry smartphone. It offers the BlackBerry wireless communications platform solution, which includes the commpression and security infrastructure services enabling BlackBerry hand-held wireless devices to send and receive wireless messages and data. It is engaged in the sale of BlackBerry hand-held devices and the provision of data communication. Its portfolio of products and solutions includes the BlackBerry wireless solution, the BlackBerry Wireless Hand-held product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools, and other software and hardware. It also provides QNX software for embedded systems market and BBM, which is known as an instant mobile to mobile private messaging service. BlackBerry also carries expertise in allowing third party commercial and enterprise software developers to build and deploy custom applications to run on BlackBerry smartphones. In addition, it provides its users with the BlackBerry Messenger Social Apps Platform, push, payments, advertising, location, maps, analytics, and Scoreloop services as well as repair and maintenance services. BlackBerry is engaged in the sales of its solutions through wireless communication carriers and third party distribution channels.

View Full Page
Website
www.blackberry.com/us/en.html
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$297M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Top Hat logo
Top HatSB Score: 640

As a student engagement and interactive teaching platform, Top Hat’s software helps college professors activate classrooms. In a world of digital distractions, countless academic studies have reinforced the reality that students better understand the day’s lesson if they’re asked to engage with peers, interact with complex material and participate in class. In Top Hat, students use their personal devices for quizzes, polls, and difficult simulations, transforming lecture halls from passive to active learning environments. As an advocate for traditional, on-campus education, Top Hat not only modernizes established teaching methods but also facilitates new approaches including the ‘flipped classroom,’ ‘group learning.

View Full Page
Website
www.tophat.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$234.4M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
OpenText logo
OpenTextSB Score: 566

Vor Biopharma is an immuno-oncology company that develops therapies for treating cancer. It is focused on developing technologies that can enable selective targeting of cancer cells without impacting normal cells. Cell surface-targeted immunotherapies, such as bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, generally target both cancer and normal cells, causing substantial toxicities and limiting their potential. The company is taking a fundamentally novel approach to targeting cancer selectively by developing hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that have been engineered to be protected from specifically targeted immunotherapies. These HSCs are designed to generate healthy, functional cells that are also protected from depletion by cancer-targeted therapies.

View Full Page
Website
www.opentext.com
Employee range
101 – 250
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$152M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:114

Top Hiring Startups in Waterloo by Employee Number

The top three hiring startups in Waterloo have an median employee size that is between [501-1000]
1st
Elucid Labs logo
Elucid LabsSB Score: 169

Elucid Labs is a MedTech company developing augmented intelligence imaging solution for early detection and diagnosis of skin cancer. Its proprietary imaging technology probes the molecular makeup of the skin at different layers and produces an unique fingerprint for the mole/lesion. The company has developed a proprietary AI technology translates this fingerprint into valuable clinical informatics to assist dermatologists in making better, faster, and more well informed decisions. With its technology, detection and diagnosis of skin cancer can be performed at much earlier stages of development which in turn reduces the cost of treatment as well as significantly reducing the unnecessary biopsies carried out every year.

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Website
elucidlabs.com
Employee range
10,001+
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
2nd
Cylance logo
CylanceSB Score: 577

BlackBerry provides wireless devices and solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. It is widely known for the development of the Blackberry smartphone. It offers the BlackBerry wireless communications platform solution, which includes the commpression and security infrastructure services enabling BlackBerry hand-held wireless devices to send and receive wireless messages and data. It is engaged in the sale of BlackBerry hand-held devices and the provision of data communication. Its portfolio of products and solutions includes the BlackBerry wireless solution, the BlackBerry Wireless Hand-held product line, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, software development tools, and other software and hardware. It also provides QNX software for embedded systems market and BBM, which is known as an instant mobile to mobile private messaging service. BlackBerry also carries expertise in allowing third party commercial and enterprise software developers to build and deploy custom applications to run on BlackBerry smartphones. In addition, it provides its users with the BlackBerry Messenger Social Apps Platform, push, payments, advertising, location, maps, analytics, and Scoreloop services as well as repair and maintenance services. BlackBerry is engaged in the sales of its solutions through wireless communication carriers and third party distribution channels.

View Full Page
Website
www.blackberry.com/us/en.html
Employee range
501 – 1,000
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$297M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
3rd
Top Hat logo
Top HatSB Score: 640

As a student engagement and interactive teaching platform, Top Hat’s software helps college professors activate classrooms. In a world of digital distractions, countless academic studies have reinforced the reality that students better understand the day’s lesson if they’re asked to engage with peers, interact with complex material and participate in class. In Top Hat, students use their personal devices for quizzes, polls, and difficult simulations, transforming lecture halls from passive to active learning environments. As an advocate for traditional, on-campus education, Top Hat not only modernizes established teaching methods but also facilitates new approaches including the ‘flipped classroom,’ ‘group learning.

View Full Page
Website
www.tophat.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$234.4M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)
4th
TextNow logo
TextNowSB Score: 578

We believe communication belongs to everyone. We exist to democratize phone service. TextNow is evolving the way the world connects and that’s because we’re made up of people with curious minds who bring an optimistic, yet critical lens into the work we do. We’re the largest provider of free phone service in the nation. And we’re just getting started. Join TextNow and break down barriers to communication with us.

View Full Page
Website
www.textnow.com
Employee range
251 – 500
Web Traffic (Monthly)
Funding amount
$1M
National Rank(Canada)
Regional Rank(North America)
Global Rank(Worldwide)

Total amount:189

Explore More Top Startups

Explore the Startup Ecosystem of Waterloo

National Rank

(Canada)

new

Regional Rank

(North America)

42nd

13

Global Rank

(WorldWide)

107th

31

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