Built in Vancouver: 21 Homegrown Startups Defining the City in 2026

Vancouver is now the #43 startup ecosystem globally and #2 in Canada, according to StartupBlink's 2026 index, with six unicorns and a top three that has collectively raised more than USD $13.6B. If you want a fast, useful snapshot of what is actually being built here, this is the list: 21 homegrown Vancouver startups, who founded them, what stage they are at, and what they do.

We picked companies headquartered or substantially founded in Metro Vancouver, weighted toward those raising, hiring, or shipping in 2025 and 2026. For deeper context on the broader province, see our BC startup ecosystem breakdown.

Why Vancouver, and why now

A few numbers to set the table. British Columbia pulled in $938 million in venture capital in Q3 2025 alone. The metro's tech workforce sits at nearly 150,000, the third-largest in Canada. In 2024, Vancouver startups attracted over $1.4 billion in VC, up 35% year over year, and by mid-2025 more than 50 funding rounds had already closed.

The operating cost gap is still real. Vancouver runs 30 to 40% cheaper than Seattle or San Francisco on engineering-heavy teams. Median Series A valuations have climbed from $15M in 2023 to about $22M in 2025, signalling that better companies, not just cheap ones, are coming out of the city.

Core sectors: CleanTech, BioTech, gaming, FinTech, Web3, and B2B software. Legacy proof points that Vancouver companies scale globally include Slack (originally Tiny Speck), Hootsuite, Absolute Software, and Lululemon's digital division.

Deep tech and quantum

1. Photonic — Quantum computing. Founded by Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Photonic is building silicon-based photonic qubits and is one of the anchor deep-tech bets in the region.

2. General Fusion — Fusion energy. Burnaby-based, working on magnetized target fusion, one of the longest-running deep-tech companies in the province.

3. D-Wave — Quantum annealing. Public, but still Burnaby-headquartered and still a magnet for local quantum talent.

AI and developer tools

4. LayerZero Labs — Omnichain interoperability protocol. One of the highest-valued crypto infrastructure companies with Vancouver roots.

5. Dooly — Sales workflow and AI note-taking for revenue teams. A durable Vancouver SaaS story.

6. Klue — Competitive intelligence platform for enterprise sales and product marketing teams.

7. Jane Software — Practice management SaaS for health and wellness clinics. Bootstrapped for years, quietly one of the most-used vertical SaaS tools in North America.

Fintech and payments

8. Mogo — Personal finance and crypto. Public, still shipping.

9. Grow (Grow Technologies) — Fintech tooling for credit unions and banks.

Climate, energy, and mobility

10. Svante — Carbon capture. Filter-based CO2 capture systems for heavy industry.

11. Moment Energy — Second-life EV battery storage. Coquitlam-based, taking used EV packs and building commercial energy storage.

12. Damon Motors — Electric motorcycles. High-performance EV two-wheelers.

13. Ionomr Innovations — Ion-exchange membranes for green hydrogen and fuel cells.

14. E-One Moli Energy — Advanced lithium-ion cell manufacturing, one of the few North American cell makers.

Health, bio, and life sciences

15. AbCellera — Antibody discovery. Public and still one of the anchor biotech employers in the city.

16. Aspect Biosystems — 3D bioprinting for tissue therapeutics, with a high-profile partnership pipeline.

Consumer, creator, and commerce

17. Thinkific — Course creation platform for creators and educators. Public, headquartered in Vancouver.

18. Article — Direct-to-consumer furniture. Digital-first, category-defining brand.

19. Later — Social media scheduling and creator marketing. Merged with Mavrck, still a core Vancouver software employer.

20. Copperleaf — Asset investment planning software for utilities and infrastructure operators.

21. Trulioo — Global identity verification. One of the reliable late-stage private companies in the ecosystem.

What this list tells you as a founder

Three patterns to notice.

First, deep tech is real here. Photonic, General Fusion, D-Wave, Svante, Ionomr, and AbCellera are not weekend projects. They rely on UBC and SFU research pipelines and on patient capital that is comfortable underwriting long timelines. If you are a technical founder considering Vancouver versus Toronto or choosing a province, the deep-tech density is a real reason to pick BC.

Second, vertical SaaS keeps winning. Jane, Klue, Dooly, Thinkific, Copperleaf, and Later all built durable revenue by owning a narrow workflow. None of them needed a Bay Area zip code to do it, though many of their customers and later-stage investors are American. If that describes your path, our guide on Canadian founders raising from US investors is worth a read.

Third, capital is here but selective. 50-plus rounds by mid-2025 is a healthy pace, but the median Series A now sits around $22M, which means the bar on traction has moved up. Pre-seed and seed founders should plan runway accordingly. We cover the current bar in raising pre-seed in Canada 2026.

The physical scene is expanding too

New spaces like Althra, North House, and COAST Hub in Victoria are opening, and projects such as Game On (led by Chris Neumann) and The Syndicate are actively trying to "bend gravity toward Vancouver." If you are picking a workspace or a neighbourhood, our best coworking spaces for Vancouver founders and Gastown founders guide go deeper.

Meet the founders behind these companies

Reading a list is one thing. Sitting across from a founder who is one round ahead of you is another. Founder Feast runs curated dinners in Vancouver with vetted founders across exactly the sectors above: deep tech, vertical SaaS, fintech, climate, and health. Small tables, no pitching, real conversations.

If you are building in Vancouver and want to meet the people actually shipping the companies on this list, apply to join a Founder Feast dinner.