Canada

Atlantic Canada

MEMBERS:

Innovacorp

In my 20-year career in the biotechnology industry, I’ve worked with a lot of companies and in many jurisdictions. Something special is happening here. I’ve never seen so much momentum, collaboration, talent and innovation as I do today in Atlantic Canada’s life sciences industry.

Ecosystem by the Numbers

EARLY-STAGE FUNDING

$51 m

GLOBAL AVG.

$687 m

ECOSYSTEM VALUE

$401 m

GLOBAL AVG.

$28.6 bn

MEDIAN SEED ROUND

$674 k

GLOBAL AVG.

$671 k

MEDIAN SERIES A ROUND

$1.1 m

GLOBAL AVG.

$4.7 m

SOFT. ENGINEER SALARY

$45 k

GLOBAL AVG.

$46 k

Life Sciences

Atlantic Canada’s life sciences ecosystem is thriving, from Halifax’s $70 million Life Sciences Research Institute, an integrated facility for research and entrepreneurship, to Charlottetown’s $30 million BioCommons Research Park. According to Financial Times’ fDi Benchmark, Halifax is the third most cost-effective location for operating a life sciences research center in North America. Landmark deals recently returned over $750 million (CAD $1 billion) in exits and attracted significant investments such as ABK Biomedical’s $30 million Series B round in 2019.

Marine Tech

Atlantic Canada is home to Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, featuring more than $300 million in R&D spending from the private and public sectors. The Supercluster and six regional organizations are collaborating to double the number of ocean technology startups in the region. Atlantic Canada boasts the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship, a world-class space for ocean-related innovation, the Ocean Frontier Institute and the Marine Institute’s Holyrood Marine Base.

Reasons to Move Your Startup to Atlantic Canada

Access to Funding

The Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) is the Canadian government’s funding program that provides support for large-scale technology development and productivity-boosting projects in Canada, having contributed $2 billion dollars so far across 65 projects.

COVID-19 Policy

The Canadian Government announced $192 million under the COVID-19 stream of its Strategic Innovation Fund to deliver direct support to Canadian life sciences companies to enable them to prepare and drive solutions to treat and manage COVID-19.

Innovation Tax Credits

Individual and corporate investors can apply for the innovation equity tax credit on investments of up to $500,000, with credits ranging from 15 to 45 percent for investments in ocean technology and life sciences ventures.