A new study suggests Canada's tech-sector brain drain is getting worse, and our reporters are answering your questions about what it means for the economy and workforce.Graeme Roy/The Canadian Press
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Brain drain has been a perennial problem in Canada’s tech sector and a new study suggests it has accelerated.
Toronto venture-capital firm Leaders Fund found that just 32.4 per cent of Canadian-led “high-potential” startups launched in 2024 were headquartered in Canada. (The study defined these startups as having raised US$1-million, with most of their senior leaders educated in Canada. The survey tracked 2,932 such companies over a decade.)
From 2015 to 2019, that figure exceeded 67 per cent. Much of the decline has occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic began. As a result, Canada is producing relatively fewer of the world’s high-potential startups, the study finds.
Tech founders leaving Canada at accelerating rate, survey finds
Most of the movement has been to the United States, home to nearly half of the new Canadian-led high-potential startups founded in 2024. That’s almost double the level from the class of 2019.
Tech reporters Sean Silcoff and Joe Castaldo answered reader questions about the brain-drain problem in Canada’s tech industry and what the country could do to keep its talent.