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The trend is undeniable. Tech companies hailing from Silicon Valley are setting up shop in Canada to gain access to our strong talent base.
This trend shouldn’t surprise anyone. The strongest economic argument in Vancouver’s pitch to Amazon to build their HQ2 here was that the city’s tech workers have the “lowest wages of all North American tech hubs.”
Canada is particularly popular among U.S. unicorns—a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion—and the following have looked for tech talent North of the border to establish an engineering footprint outside of their hometown headquarters.
Carta – hiring in Waterloo
Palo Alto’s Carta is committed to helping private and public companies, investors, and employees manage equity and ownership. The Carta platform provides clients with everything they need to manage equity including cap table management, 409A valuations, electronic securities, scenario modelling and fund administration.
More than 900,000 investors, law firms, and employees use the platform to manage over $575 billion in equity.
Made a unicorn when Andreessen Horowitz led a $300 million funding round, Carta set up shop in Waterloo shortly after when they hired 51 former Kik employees. Carta is currently hiring software engineers and product managers in Waterloo.
Dialpad – hiring in Kitchener & Vancouver
San Francisco’s Dialpad is an enterprise business phone solution built for the modern workplace. Dialpad was founded in 2010 by Craig Walker, who is also known for being the creator of Google Voice and Yahoo! Voice.
The platform offers messaging, voice, video, and conference calling in the cloud. Dialpad’s customers range from Fortune 500 multi-nationals like Motorola Solutions to startups like Uber. The service is built on the WebRTC framework and runs on a redundant global network of seven data centers across four continents.
Dialapd recently closed a $100 million Series E funding round led by OMERS and has plans to hire over 100 engineers in 2021 in Vancouver and remotely across Canada and the US.
Instacart – hiring in Toronto
Founded in 2012, San Francisco headquartered Instacart offers same-day delivery and pickup services. The company is dedicated to delivering fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across North America in as little as an hour.
Partnering with more than 350 national, regional and local retailers, Instacart delivers from nearly 25,000 stores across more than 5,000 cities. A unicorn since 2018, Instacart has an office in Toronto’s historic Liberty Village where they are hiring software engineers and data scientists.
KeepTruckin – hiring in Vancouver
Established in 2013, KeepTruckin is modernizing the trucking industry with its fleet management platform, which brings trucks online to change the way freight is moved on our roads. Their platform enables clients to protect their businesses and improve driver safety with intelligent video telematics, while real-time GPS tracking allows companies to track vehicles, trailers, and equipment to improve operations.
San Francisco-headquartered KeepTruckin became a unicorn in 2019 and shortly after tested the waters in Canada with an engineering team at Terminal. They have since expanded their footprint in Canada with a permanent office in Vancouver and are hiring software engineers.
Turo – hiring in Toronto
Founded in 2012, Turo is a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace, which allows people to book any car they want, wherever they want it, from a community of trusted hosts across North America, the U.K. and Germany.
Customers have the chance to choose from a unique selection of nearby cars, and hosts earn extra money to reduce the costs of car ownership. The company screens every member of their community and provides 24/7 customer support, roadside assistance, insurance plans, and 24-hour free cancellation.
Turo became a unicorn in 2019 after raising a $250 million of Series E round from IAC and is now hiring account executives and marketers in Toronto.
Wish – hiring in Toronto
Launched in 2011, Wish is an e-commerce platform connecting hundreds of millions of consumers with a wide selection of products delivered directly to their doors. Supporting 500,000 merchant partners and 300 million users, the company is dedicated to providing access to the most affordable and convenient shopping experience possible.
Leveraging a global network of direct suppliers, Wish sells nearly one billion products annually. The e-commerce competitor became a unicorn several years ago, and has since then garnered $1.6 billion in total funding.