The Rise of Waterloo: How this Small Canadian City Became a Global Tech Hub

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Waterloo, Ontario, located less than an hour away from Toronto, has long been known as the center of Canadian education and innovation. The city serves as the home of the University of Waterloo, and it’s also the headquarters of many high-profile tech companies like Kik Interactive, Thalmic Labs, and BlackBerry (which recently rebranded itself to BlackBerry Technology Solutions). But did you know that Waterloo isn’t just a hotspot for technological development? It’s also an excellent place to find food and entertainment!

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A brief history of Waterloo

Waterloo is the birthplace of Canada’s most important technological achievement to date, the world’s first electronic digital computer. The University of Waterloo has made waves in the tech industry by producing some of Canada’s best engineers and programmers, and is now being acknowledged as one of the top five schools for engineering in North America.

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Engineering students at UWaterloo have access to state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, including over 500 hours per week in specialized labs for software development.

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The tech boom

Since the 1990s, Canada’s tech sector has been growing steadily, and now it’s one of the country’s most important economic drivers. The industry employs roughly 300,000 people, and generates upwards of $30 billion in annual revenues. But there are very few cities in Canada that have been able to capitalize on the tech boom as much as Waterloo, Ontario. The city boasts more than 1,000 technology companies employing 40,000 people.