{"id":100284,"date":"2026-02-23T19:43:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/894894710"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:43:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:43:37","slug":"2025-a-big-year-for-platform-calgary-city-tech-and-innovation-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/2025-a-big-year-for-platform-calgary-city-tech-and-innovation-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 a big year for Platform Calgary, city tech and innovation scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calgary\u2019s tech sector continues to boom, leading the way across North America while other markets across the globe falter, according to a newly released report.<\/p>\n

Platform Calgary\u2019s 2025 Impact Report, delivered at the Feb. 19 Community Connect even,t showed massive increases in the number of tech companies in Calgary, along with the growth in value of 13 per cent at a time when other markets internationally have dropped 14 per cent.<\/p>\n

Calgary is also the fastest-growing tech talent city in North America, with a 61 per cent increase in 2025, according to Platform Calgary\u2019s CEO Jennifer Lussier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a busy year. Let\u2019s just put it like that,\u201d she said during the delivery of the impact report.<\/p>\n

Along with the overall footprint of Calgary\u2019s tech ecosystem, more than $235 million in tech revenue was generated by these companies.<\/p>\n

At Platform Calgary, they\u2019ve seen a 36 per cent increase in the number of founders and welcomed more than 172,500 people through the doors at the 9 Avenue SE Innovation Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we track this, it\u2019s a vibrancy index,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know when you come to Platform, you\u2019re either a founder, a student, a job seeker, a career changer; you\u2019re an investor, you\u2019re a mentor or coach or subject matter expert, or you\u2019re a support partner or service organization that\u2019s helping these companies. So, we\u2019re very, very proud of these numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lussier said they continue to build an ecosystem made up of students, entrepreneurs, investors, community partners, and subject matter experts moving Calgary\u2019s tech scene forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople raise their hands to come here,\u201d she said.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to learn how to build, they want to learn how to raise money. They want to learn how to hire, and they want to learn how to generate revenue and find customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Provincial government changes could provide a big boost<\/h2>\n

Nate Glubish, Alberta\u2019s Minister of Technology and Innovation, said that while it\u2019s important to think about where the province\u2019s technology scene is going, it\u2019s important to acknowledge where it\u2019s come from.<\/p>\n

He said back in 2004, maybe $3 million annually was being invested into Alberta tech. By 2017, it was $30 million. Over the past three years, $2.1 billion has been invested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something to be excited about. It\u2019s progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making waves in not just Alberta\u2019s tech sector, but all across the country and around the world, and Calgary has been the epicenter of that. Calgary has been recognized all around the world as one of the fastest-growing and most exciting tech hubs in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glubish said the Alberta government is working on three key pillars to help drive continued momentum in the industry. First is the protection of intellectual property. He said there are amazing researchers, entrepreneurs, and innovators here, coming up with great ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have done a very poor job of commercializing those ideas and protecting those ideas and turning it into patents and protectable proprietary intellectual property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens instead is those ideas ultimately get sucked up into American companies, and they ultimately create wealth for American investors, and that is a policy failure across this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the province is developing a comprehensive IP strategy to protect those ideas.<\/p>\n

Further, to help move them forward, the province is creating a co-investment strategy. Minister Glubish said that too often companies have to look outside Alberta \u2013 and Canada \u2013 to find scale-up cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that means is that the ownership stake of those companies, the cap table, is now controlled in many cases by Americans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge there is, then you have investors who don\u2019t care about Alberta. They just care about making money, and they often will exercise their influence and their ownership to compel the founders to move that company to a different jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glubish said the Alberta government is also looking at an overhauled technology procurement plan, that streamlines the process for Alberta-based companies to navigate and succeed in a very vague government procurement process.<\/p>\n

Mindset shift is needed: CED CEO Brad Parry<\/h2>\n

While grant money is always available for startups and burgeoning tech companies, Glubish said they\u2019d prefer to help companies gain customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I know from experience is that finding a customer is so much more rewarding and valuable than finding a grant, because a grant is one-time, but a customer is for life, if you do a good job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine how valuable the customer is on your resume as an entrepreneur, if that customer is the Government of Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary Economic Development president and CEO Brad Parry agreed that getting a customer is better, and that companies and investors have to shift their mindsets to unlock more growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an adage, everybody knows, right? Canadians want to fight to be first, to be second,\u201d Parry told the audience during a panel discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to change that. We need to have people willing to take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the key is getting the stories out there, and drawing people from \u201cout of the towers\u201d in the downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be easy, and we talk about this all the time, collaboration sucks,\u201d Parry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard, but it\u2019s the most important thing we can do, and we need to get our corporates to get their head out of their ass and start to support these local companies to do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2026, Platform Calgary expects to see 300,000 people through the doors and support more than 1,200 founders in their programming.  <\/p>\n

\n

Liked it? Take a second to support Darren Krause on Patreon!<\/p>\n

\"Become<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… overall footprint of Calgary\u00e2\u0080\u0099s tech<\/span> ecosystem, more than $ … matter experts moving Calgary\u00e2\u0080\u0099s tech<\/span> scene forward. \u00e2\u0080\u009cPeople … also looking at an overhauled technology<\/span> procurement plan, that streamlines … for startups and burgeoning tech<\/span> companies, Glubish said they …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}