With the largest economy and population of Canada’s provinces, Ontario has long spearheaded the nation’s industrial and technological growth. Now in the 21st century, new markets and technologies are opening up offering opportunities for the nation to both diversify its economy and establish leadership in new sectors.
Here we’re going to take a look at Ontario’s fastest growing industries as of 2023. Each is home to world-beating startups and innovation set to ensure Canada retains relevance at the forefront of emergent technologies for years to come.
Gaming
One area in which Ontario has long enjoyed leadership is as part of the global gaming industry. While it’s commonly assumed that Japan and the United States hold a monopoly on this sector, some of the world’s largest developers and publishers are based out of Canada.
Among these are Ubisoft and Electronic Arts. These two studios and their subsidiaries alone accounted for nearly 30% of global game sales in 2022 thanks to the phenomenal success of franchises such as Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed.
While this sector of the market can reasonably be considered relatively mature in Ontario, there is one notable exception when it comes to the wider games market. We refer here to iGaming, which has enjoyed enormous growth in Ontario since 2017. This is because five years ago the USA repealed PASPA – federal legislation designed to restrict sports betting and casinos.
Following its removal, a wave of legalisation has swept across the USA, and Ontario, as the leading Canadian province for iGaming already, has benefitted from this and moved towards relaxing some of its own regulations to keep pace with its southern neighbours.
Now popular platforms such as CasinoBonusCA are emerging as leaders in this space for all those seeking quality online Ontario casinos replete with a rich array of sign-up offers and welcome bonuses for those looking for easy access to real-money gaming.
Financial Technology
Ontario is home to two major centres of finance in Ottawa and Toronto. As these form the central business districts of the world’s 9th largest economy, Ontario knows a thing or two about global trade and finance. In fact, the Great White North has increasingly come to represent a Fintech powerhouse in the 21st century.
Few places on the continent can match Ontario for the diversity and extent of its offerings in this sector. Among the startups and companies that conduct their business out of the province is Railz, a prominent example of Toronto’s leadership in the data-as-a-service market. Founded in 2020, Railz is a platform that serves up real-time accounting insights and data to businesses to help them make informed strategic decisions.
There’s also STACK – a Fintech bank and money management platform that gives users complete control over their banking right from their smartphones. Likewise empowering people to take their finances into their own hands comes Billsy, a Canadian company focused on innovating in the area of digital payments. It offers a suite of subscription management tools and assists businesses in automating recurring payments and gleaning valuable insight from analytics.
Finally, FutureVault, another Fintech service that calls Ontario home, furnishes its customers with an encrypted vault designed to safeguard precious data from attack. In the modern climate of cybersecurity scares, the success of FutureVault’s digital vault solution in Canada’s business home highlights the high premium its financial sector places on security and privacy.
Digital Commerce
One of the greatest startup success stories to come out of Ottawa in recent years is Shopify. Since its founding in 2006, Shopify has grown to become a $83 (USD) business in use across the globe. In identifying the growing need for flexible point-of-sale platforms for small businesses undergoing digital transformation, it’s an example of a product appearing in the right place, and right time, to capitalise on a pressing need.
What’s more, the success of Shopify has helped raise the profile of Ontario’s eCommerce business culture, which is nothing but a good thing for the region’s economy, and its global customers alike.
Among the rising stars of this sector are a number of startups providing focused services to meet core consumer demands including Fable Home – a bespoke direct-to-customer kitchen furniture retailer based out of Toronto.
Also worth noting are Endy, a custom mattress and bedding provider and Bunz – a sustainably-minded community trading platform that encourages users to recycle and trade products rather than throw them away.