附近上门

罢丑耻谤蝉诲补测鈥檚 featured 10 startups and an interesting discovery: Canada has become one of the top sites for foreign entrepreneurs.

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, Techstars Toronto鈥檚 managing director, told 附近上门 News that many entrepreneurs are now banned from entry into the United States, while others are experiencing issues with maintaining their U.S. visa status. In addition, many are not choosing to live here due to the current political climate, he added.

Prior to joining Techstars, Sharma was a consul general in California and said he saw firsthand the challenges of . This type of visa enables American employers to hire highly-skilled nonimmigrants.

In August, the federal government on this type of visa after suspending them in June due to record unemployment related to the pandemic. that 鈥渂etween January and April 2020, about 27,000 of the 76,000 immigration work permits that Canada issued went to Indian nationals.鈥�

When he was back in Canada, Sharma challenged the government to fast-track talented people into the country which resulted in the .

鈥淚t allows investors to find a team of founders and help them get permanent residency, like a U.S. , without immigration challenges,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e think it is an unfair advantage as an investor and something that has become more pronounced today with the U.S. travel bans and more severe lockdown on visas.鈥�

Coming to Canada

Three of the companies presenting at Demo Day were involved in the most recent accelerator program. In fact, among the 10 companies, three founders are Iranian and others hailed from countries including Nigeria, Poland, India and China, Sharma said. In almost all cases, the immigrant founders were brought in with Canada鈥檚 visa advantages, he added.

One is , a collaborative design tool startup that started in Istanbul. They were initially planning to attend a Techstars program in the U.S., however, one of the founders is an Iranian national and was not allowed to enter the country, Sharma said. Instead, the program鈥檚 director reached out to Sharma who was able to pivot the company into the Toronto accelerator.

During his pitch, co-founder and CTO Hooman Askari, an Iranian national, discussed establishing a presence in North America to be closer to the majority of the company鈥檚 customers and that now they were headquartered in Toronto. Afterward in the previously taped panel discussions, Askari described his difficulties, and those of his co-founder, , of trying to come to America.

鈥淲e tried several times, but unfortunately every time, we hit closed doors just because of my nationality and the political issues between the Iranian government and the United States,鈥� Askari said. 鈥淚t is practically impossible for any Iranian national to get a visa and travel to the United States.鈥�

After making those several attempts, he said he was just about ready to throw in the towel, when he and Gayiran decided to apply to and were accepted into the program. However, they still ran into visa issues. But then the Techstars program reached out to Sharma to see if Artboard would be able to attend the program in Toronto.

鈥淲hen we got into Toronto, we couldn鈥檛 be happier,鈥� Askari said. 鈥淚 love my job and believe we can do a lot better here.鈥�

Another company is , originally based in Poland, which has also now moved its headquarters to Toronto. The automotive startup scans cars for automatic parking enforcement and car damage documentation via autonomous robots.

鈥淚 flew to Poland to meet them, before COVID, and was blown away,鈥� Sharma said. 鈥淭he founder had mentioned a love affair with Canada since childhood, and now they have made their headquarters here.鈥�

Another company that preferred to lay some roots down in Toronto was , a startup out of Lagos, Nigeria. The company is developing a digital assets exchange that allows users in Africa to seamlessly buy and sell cryptocurrency with their local currency.

Techstars was able to help Quidax鈥檚 founders reincorporate in Toronto and get them the money services business license to operate in the country.

鈥淣ow they have become an international company with a big team in Nigeria and small team in Canada,鈥� Sharma said.

Toronto as an entrepreneur hub

Meanwhile, Toronto is the , and the tech scene is exploding there, Sharma said.

In 2017, that there were between 2,100 and 2,700 startups operating in the Toronto-Waterloo ecosystem, while , a Swiss-based website that provides data on the best places on the planet for starting a new business, ranked Toronto鈥檚 startup ecosystem as the 24th best in the world.

In addition to a pool of talent, the city is quite diverse with , he added.

鈥淭hat fact becomes valuable in attracting more entrepreneurs,鈥� Sharma said.

Despite the attraction, it is not yet as easy to raise money in Canada as it is in the U.S. However, it does provide American investors with opportunities to reach emerging markets, he said.

鈥淔or example with Quidax, U.S. investors can see the financial markets in Africa, but it may be challenging for them to directly invest,鈥� Sharma said. 鈥淏ut, here is one company in Canada operating under our laws that they could invest in and get exposure to emerging markets. It鈥檚 a message more investors can see in the global context.鈥�

Feature photo of Techstars Toronto Accelerator Managing Director Sunil Sharma behind the scenes at its September Demo Day courtesy of Sharma.
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