Tech CEOs say Liberal innovation agenda does little to help firms scale up: poll
OTTAWA — The federal government’s big-ticket efforts to support high-growth tech firms are offering little for emerging companies that have already outgrown the fledgling start-up phase, according to a new survey of CEOs in Canada’s sector.
The insights are among the early findings of a three-year research project focused on properly defining mid-sized “scale-up” firms, outlining what prevents them from growing into big companies in Canada and ensuring they’re central to policy discussions.
“Scale-ups do not see their interests reflected in the federal innovation agenda,” said a document summarizing the opinions of executives at 48 of these firms during interviews last summer. The research is a collaboration between industry and the University of Toronto.