Federal government invests more than $50 million in MaRS, Invest Ottawa, Communitech to help startups

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government is investing more than $50 million over five years to “bring together” Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District, Ottawa’s Invest Ottawa and Waterloo’s Communitech to create the new ‘Scale-Up Platform.’

Trudeau made the announcement at a press conference in Waterloo where he said that the government was “stepping up” and providing this investment so that the companies will offer different services such as market access, finding the right talent and raising capital.

A breakdown of the money is as follows: Communitech will receive $18 million, MaRS Discovery District will receive $17.5 million, and Invest Ottawa will receive $16.9 million.

The new Scale-Up platform will “leverage” the respective skills from these companies to help 30 tech companies in Southern Ontario grow and achieve revenues of $100 million CAD by 2024.

The money will also be put towards offering programs to get local companies to take off and to help startups and provide the support they need to grow overall.

“When it comes to innovation, Canada is home to countless success stories. We have all the right ingredients to lead the future of technology,” Trudeau said. “This is great news for the sector but also the entire community. When it comes to innovation we can’t afford to get complacent.”

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from MobileSyrup http://bit.ly/2Imt5Er