Ontario: A SAAS capital SAAS: Ontario is a place to grow
Ontario has the 2nd biggest tech cluster in the world
The global SAAS market is expected to grow to US$716.52 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 27.5% between 2021-2028.
By 2025, more than 85% of corporate apps will be SAAS. Companies that are 1-2 years old are reportedly starting with, on average, 29 apps. By the time they are 6 years old, that number jumps to 103. The opportunity presented by the SAAS Ops industry is clear.
The future of SAAS will focus on MicroSAAS within verticals like education, healthcare, business, on the amalgamation of SAAS and AI, and on the continued emergence of Super Apps.
Canada is home to over 6800 SAAS companies. You may have heard of some of them – Shopify, Wave Accounting, Hootsuite, League, SkyHive, Vidyard, Memi, and many more.
Revenue in the SAAS segment in Canada is projected to top US$6.68B in 2023. An annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 6.12% is expected to result in a market volume of US$8.47B by 2027. The average spend per employee in the SAAS segment is projected to reach US$318.50 in 2023 in Canada.
Ontario is the 2nd biggest tech cluster in the world after Silicon Valley. The province has exported over $8.3B in IT products and services. Industry giants like Amazon, IBM, Google, Cisco, and Shopify continue to invest in major R&D operations in Ontario. It is also home to world-class universities that attract talent from all over the globe.
GDP annually in the IT sector
of Canada’s IT workers are in Ontario
annual STEM grads
country in the world to adopt a national strategy for artificial intelligence
Tech job creation in Toronto outpaces the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York City combined
Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the ‘godfather of deep learning’, first discovered neural nets while working in Ontario. The origins of modern AI are deeply rooted here Toronto, Ottawa, and Waterloo, have become hubs for AI research and development, and have attracted significant investment. Toronto has also seen strong growth in tech job creation, outpacing the Bay Area, Seattle, and New York City combined.
Ontario has a thriving research and development (R&D) ecosystem, with many global R&D centres based here.
IT R&D centres and institutes are spread across several verticals like communications, cryptography, geographic information systems, geoinformatics, imaging, learning, microelectronics, mobile experience innovation, quantum computing, semiconductors, telecommunications, virtual laboratories, and wireless technologies.
These centres house both local tech companies like OpenText, BlackBerry, and Shopify, and international giants like LG, Cisco, and Ericsson. The province also has world-leading researchers and institutes that collaborate with businesses to develop innovative, transformative solutions.
Ontario is well positioned to take advantage of these developments, with a number of leading IoT companies based in the province, including ATS Automation Tooling Systems, Teledyne Dalsa, and Prodomax. Ontario is actively investing in the development of Smart Cities with three tech hubs in Ontario: Toronto, Kitchener, and Mississauga are working to make the concept a reality.
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