Women are excelling like never before in Canada’s tech ecosystem and shifting the conversation past barriers to focus on ideas and results. We interviewed 25 women from across the startup ecosystem to find out what the ecosystem is doing right, and where it can improve.
Building an inclusive tech ecosystem that recognizes, supports, and elevates groundbreaking ideas, regardless of who they originate from, is essential to Canadian innovation and the global economy. For Canada’s female founders, investors, and leaders, those efforts have certainly paid off as the conversation on inclusiveness shifts away from barriers to success and leans into action and opportunity. Instead of highlighting challenges, women are shining a light on their accomplishments and demonstrating the potential and power that diverse leadership brings to Canadian ventures. This evolved perspective is key to nurturing a diverse ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders in the coming years.
To better understand the evolving role of women in the Canadian tech ecosystem, we spoke to 25 women founders and CEOs, investors, accelerators, and ecosystem experts representing a range of perspectives, industries, and stages of growth.
What we learned is the journey toward a truly inclusive landscape is complex, but not unattainable. It requires a systemic shift that will define the opportunities for the next generation of leaders and open doors to fresh perspectives that drive impactful, market-driven change.
Focus on ideas and results to harness the benefits of diversity
Throughout our discussions with key female stakeholders, a prevalent theme emerged: these leaders are less interested in conversations about “movements” or narratives about being underestimated or outnumbered. They want to focus on designing an ecosystem where ideas and results—not gender—determine success.
“The conversations we need now are about celebrating the power of collaboration, the imperative for speed, and the demand to deliver meaningful results,” says Sue Paish, CEO of Digital Supercluster. “There is a huge opportunity to advance successful innovation by celebrating the diversity of experience and perspectives that fuel innovation, leaving behind previous narratives about ‘differences’ and embracing a focus on working together. Leveraging diversity will unlock new opportunities and, ultimately, greater returns for all.”
During our interviews we asked every individual, “If there was one thing you could change, what would it be and why?” A common response was that we shouldn’t be discussing “gender divide” in the year 2025. While gender is important, it’s not everything. We should acknowledge intersectionality—men and women are different—but also recognize that differences are prevalent across the entire tech ecosystem. A failure to acknowledge differences in our ecosystem may lead to missed opportunities in innovation, economic development, untapped markets, and investor returns.
“True innovation happens when we stop focusing on what sets us apart and start embracing how the intersectionality of age, race, and gender enriches our perspectives.”
“True innovation happens when we stop focusing on what sets us apart and start embracing how the intersectionality of age, race, and gender enriches our perspectives,” says Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of Dr.Bill. “In my own life and career, the diverse viewpoints I’ve encountered have been invaluable, pushing me to think differently and achieve more. By harnessing these varied experiences, we can drive collective progress and shape the future of our industries.”
The insights compiled through our interviews form the basis for our recommendations to harness diversity in the Canadian venture ecosystem and benefit all stakeholders.
Funding based on performance and potential, not identity
Today’s women founders increasingly focus on results and potential, rather than gender, to secure startup funding and help level the playing field for women across the ecosystem. It’s a strategy backed by evidence that women-led startups often outperform startups founded by their male counterparts.
Research by BCG indicates female-founded startups generate 2.5x higher revenue per dollar invested than startups founded by males. According to a 2022 report by PitchBook, startups founded or co-founded by women between 2012 and 2022 outperformed their all-male counterparts on exit valuations with a median valuation of $27 million US compared to $21 million US for male-only teams.
The women leaders we spoke to are keen to draw attention to market-driven metrics to ensure funding decisions are framed around business fundamentals, rather than just identity, with emphasis on the inherent value gender diversity brings to companies.
“One thing we don’t do well, and have fallen short collectively, is selling the value proposition of women, what they bring to table, their special skill set,” says Karimah Es Sabar, CEO & General Partner at Quark Venture LP. “A combination of women and men together in companies is ideal to build high impact teams. Some of the best boards are men and women, not one or the other. Many women CEOs offer better productivity and output.”
A comprehensive study by McKinsey on the relationship between leadership diversity and company performance makes a strong business case for ethnic and gender diversity on executive teams. In 2023, companies in the top quartile of women representation had a 39 per cent greater likelihood of financial outperformance (placing above the median profitability of other companies in the same industry and region) than the bottom-quartile companies – up from 15 per cent in 2015.
Meanwhile, the financial benefit of ethnic diversity has been consistent since 2015 in which the top quartile of ethnically diverse companies had a 33 per cent greater likelihood of outperformance, versus 39 per cent in 2023. Furthermore, companies in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity in executive teams are on average nine per cent more likely to outperform their peers.
While it’s clear the ecosystem has evolved to expand funding opportunities for women and other underrepresented groups, legacy biases still exist and concerted efforts to overcome them must continue. Segregated funding streams dedicated to gender diverse founders are still necessary, however the long-term solution is to integrate women-founded businesses into mainstream venture capital (VC) portfolios. These can additionally be equipped with initiatives such as anonymized pitch decks or scoring systems to help reduce biases, as well as minimize ill-conceived perceptions that founders receive funding because of gender or identity.
VC firms can also make efforts to increase the number of women and diverse investors at the partner level to add diverse voices to investment committees and limit biases. This can help ensure capital allocation better reflects market realities and help identify potential markets representative of the changing demographics of modern-day Canada that may be systematically overlooked and underserved.
“Teams that are diverse perform better,” says April Hicke, Co-founder of Toast, a membership-based collective for women in tech. “When we think about diversity, we think about race and gender and sexual orientation, but really, what comes with those differences and what we’re looking for is a diversity of thought and experience and background of life experience.”
Empowered to navigate the ecosystem
Founders that leverage strategic partnerships across accelerators, VCs, and advisory networks are often better positioned to accelerate their startups’ growth. Female leaders have long emphasized ecosystem-building as both a support mechanism, and a strategic approach to expand reach, capability, and market access. A robust system in Canada supports the efforts of women-led startups to build their networking muscle with investors and peers through programs such as female-focused accelerators and incubators.
“When we dedicate this space to support women, we give them more exposure to the ecosystem, then that helps tackle the stereotypes.”
Victoria Xu, angel investor and founder of CleanInnoGen says, “When we dedicate this space to support women, we give them more exposure to the ecosystem, then that helps tackle the stereotypes. We know we shouldn’t have gender discrimination, but if we don’t have exposure to enough successful cases, then our brain automatically still has that pattern recognition.”
This type of programming can help empower women entrepreneurs to navigate the biases they may face when seeking funding. A study by Harvard Business Review on the interactions between VCs and entrepreneurs, found VCs tended to ask male founders questions about the potential for gain (promotion questions), and female founders questions about the potential for loss (prevention questions). This bias was displayed across both male and female VCs. The difference in questioning resulted in a huge funding disparity with the founders raising $3.8 million less, on average, for every additional prevention question asked.
SheBoot, which is a women-led program and women investor fund for women-led technology companies helps women overcome this hurdle through programs and workshops, like ‘Investor Questions’. Julia Elvidge, Chair and Co-founder of SheBoot says, “The workshop aims to help founders reframe preventative questions to be promotional to help guide and lead the discussion with investors.”
Sarah Daniele-Martineau, CEO and Co-founder of Mydoma, attests to the power of women-dedicated spaces in the startup ecosystem, such as the L-Spark accelerator program she attended. “I met great people, built my network, formed long lasting relationships with people who invested in us and even joined our board. The networking opportunities were invaluable and made an impact on me.”
Canada is home to many organizations, from accelerators to venture funds, that help female founders scale their startups, including those below:
The Forum – A national charity that’s educated, mentored, and uplifted over 18,000 women entrepreneurs across Canada since 2002.
WeBC – Provides support for women to start, develop, lead, and grow their businesses in all regions of BC.
WEOC – Supports a diverse membership of organizations that directly impact the growth and success of women entrepreneurs, and delivers the WEOC National Loan Program.
SheBoot – Tackles the funding gap facing women entrepreneurs by increasing the number of women making and receiving investment.
The Firehood – A membership-based movement to increase the participation, leadership, and prosperity of women in tech.
WVenture – Offers high-touch, live programs for bold women with big goals at every stage of business.
Sandpiper Ventures – A seed stage VC fund investing in women and women’s innovation.
The51 – A venture fund and Financial Feminist™ platform where investors and entrepreneurs democratize access to capital for women and gender-diverse founders.
Women’s Equity Lab (WEL) – A community of women investors from around the world managing a growing portfolio of investments. Over 70 per cent of WEL investments are in women-run and women-led businesses.
Standup Ventures – Invests in seed-stage for-profit technology companies with at least one woman in a C-level leadership position within the company who has an equitable amount of ownership.
MaRs RBC Women in Cleantech – Recruits 7-10 women entrepreneurs for a two-year program focused on advancing their ideas into market-ready cleantech products with the potential for global impact.
Natasha Kostenuk, Co-founder and CEO of cleantech startup, Ayrton Energy, encourages women entrepreneurs to participate in the programs across Canada. “We wouldn’t have had the success we’ve had so far without the RBC Women in Cleantech Accelerator program. It has been a big part of helping us connect with investors and the immensely valuable peer network,” says Kostenuk. “My advice to the next cohort is to lean into the group, participate in everything and prioritize the women in cleantech events and meetings to maximize the value the program has to offer.”
Flexible capital options
Realistic and flexible capital options designed to expand the definitions of a Canadian founder and investor can help overcome old biases and unlock new opportunities. Interestingly, 70 per cent of founders of unicorn companies (worth $1 billion USD or more) are women, people of colour, or immigrants according to a study by Defiance Capital.
Investors who understand that funding structures should evolve alongside emerging market demands will help support a wider variety of growth pathways and timelines.
“We need to redefine risk and recognize different models and metrics and how we define success.”
“We need to redefine risk and recognize different models and metrics and how we define success,” says Jill Earthy, CEO of the strategic investment fund InBC. “Women tend to be more realistic in their visions and outcomes. Projections also tend to be very conservative.”
From venture portfolios that prioritize innovative, founder-aligned financing models to accelerators offering flexible terms, Canada’s innovation landscape is beginning to support ventures with flexible capital options. Canadian impact fund Spring Impact Capital offers a model for enabling funding decisions aligned with diverse business needs. To help minimize potential inequities of who receives VC funding, it expanded the definition of who can be an impact investor and redefined the metrics of a successful investment.
“Women entrepreneurs are less experienced in seeking finance. But even if they’re not less experienced, there’s still the mentality of giving less to women than to men,” Sabar says, adding women have high value traits that may be overlooked, for example, “They know how to juggle and they’re used to multitasking. They manage their money really well.”
Setting realistic expectations can help build an inclusive and balanced ecosystem that recognizes it needs more than just unicorns. Startups that focus on profitability alongside sustainability and social impact (referred to as “zebras”) play a critical role, and scaling their economic activity in Canada should also be prioritized. As Earthy points out, “Zebras are real, unicorns are not.”
Building a tech ecosystem that advances the country’s most groundbreaking ideas is essential to Canadian innovation and its prominence in the global economy. Supporting diversity in its many forms – from ideas to founders to emerging markets – is key to that success.
RBCx offers support to startups in all stages of growth, backing some of Canada’s most daring tech companies and idea generators. We turn our experience, networks, and capital into your competitive advantage to help you scale and make a meaningful impact on the world. Speak with an RBCx Advisor to learn more about how we can help your business grow.
