The fastest growing tech companies in Canada
September 22, 2006
The 2006 “Fast 50″
Deloitte published its annual list of Fast 50 winners a couple days ago (press release). The full list can be found in Simon Avery’s Globe and Mail article. Here are the top ten winners:
- Westport Innovations
- Redline Communications
- Airborne Entertainment
- RuggedCom
- DragonWave
- Imaging Dynamics
- Tira Wireless
- Rutter
- Digital Oilfield
- Elluminate
Under-funded nation
The article points out that the level of Canadian venture capital investment today is down to about $1.7 billion from $5 billion in “the boom days of 2000″. According to Deloitte, more than half of the Fast 50 are self-funded and receiving no venture capital support.
“As a nation, Canada is under-funded from a VC perspective, and it’s exacerbated by the tech downturn.”
David Ferguson, managing general partner of VenGrowth Private Equity Partners Inc.
According to OCRI http://www.ocri.ca , VC funding in Ottawa is at $114.65M for 2006 YTD, compared to $359.40M in all of 2005. That’s a huge drop. OCRI only captures funding that is announced and the year’s not done, but even then, it’s clear there’s a signifcant drop. I don’t think it’s being felt in the short term, but long term, the people I talk to in the tech industry are nervous.