Vancouver was just named the top life sciences startup ecosystem in Canada

Credit: Matt Wang

According to Startup Genome, Vancouver ranks No. 21 worldwide

When innovation policy advisory and research firm Startup Genome announced the Life Sciences edition of its 2021 Global Startup Ecosystem Report last week, Silicon Valley topped the list (shocker). And while the announcement of the No. 1 spot is about as surprising as Simone Biles winning a gold medal, we’re pretty excited about No. 21.

Vancouver, which can now be called the Tamara Manina of life science ecosystems (she’s the 21st-most-decorated Olympic gymnast in the world, and yes, we’re sticking with this metaphor), ranked the highest of all Canadian cities. Startup Genome gathered data from 3 million companies across 280 ecosystems, judging each region on six factors: performance, funding, connectedness, market reach, knowledge and talent.

Though Vancouver was the only Canadian city to reach the top 25, four more made the list of ecosystems to watch—Montreal, Quebec City, Edmonton and Toronto-Waterloo.

Global findings concluded that 48 percent of the top 25 life sciences startup ecosystems are in North America (Boston, New York, San Diego and Los Angeles all beat out Vancouver) but 70 percent of the continent’s entire ecosystem value comes from Silicon Valley, New York City, Boston and L.A. alone. They’re the true GOATs.

You can read the whole report here.