MaRS collaborates with Microsoft to help Canadian startups scale

April 30, 2019 – Today, MaRS Discovery District, one of North America’s largest urban innovation hubs located in the heart of downtown Toronto, announced a collaboration with Microsoft for the Canadian startup community.

As part of the agreement, MaRS and Microsoft will host a series of marquee events with the goal of raising the profile of Canadian entrepreneurs while driving engagement with corporate teams able to offer expertise to help companies grow.

“The Canadian startup ecosystem is going through tremendous growth, and our talent and inventiveness is attracting attention around the world,” said Yung Wu, CEO of MaRS. “A partnership with Microsoft will helps our startup scale globally, and increase our country’s competitiveness.”

“By fostering a unique community of startups in Toronto, MaRS has created a model that is now replicated around the world,” said Adam Nanjee, Managing Director of Startups, Microsoft Canada. “MaRS is the ideal partner that will allow Microsoft to meet its objective of empowering entrepreneurs and building integrated communities.”

Through the collaboration, MaRS will curate and host events, including: quarterly tech showcases profiling 6-8 Canadian startups; regular events featuring leading experts in key sectors and industries in Canada; and “MaRS Mornings,” a popular early morning lecture and fireside chat series.

Qualified firms will also benefit from the Microsoft for Startups program which provides Canadian entrepreneurs up to $120,000 in Microsoft Azure cloud credits combined with enterprise-grade technical support and dedicated resources, provided by Microsoft’s global sales team and partners, to help the marketing and sales teams of startups effectively sell their cloud solutions.

Connected to over 1,200 Canadian startups, top venture capital firms, and 120 full-time tenants including corporate innovation partners, MaRS is Canada’s central hub for growing and scaling tech companies.

In addition to events, Microsoft will have a footprint within the MaRS campus to animate its Microsoft Reactor, a dedicated space bringing together founders, developers and business leaders for high quality technical, business and community events.

About MaRS Discovery District:

MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) in Toronto is North America’s largest urban innovation hub. Our purpose is to help innovators change the world. MaRS supports promising ventures tackling key challenges in the health, cleantech, fintech and enterprise sectors as they start, grow and scale. In addition, the MaRS community fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration to drive breakthrough discoveries and new solutions to be adopted in Canada and beyond, growing our economy and delivering societal impact at scale.

For press inquiries:

Corey Black, Manager, Communications
media@marsdd.com or 416.673.8152.