Vancouver’s tech economy has reached a decisive moment.
As Canada’s second-largest tech hub, the city is home to nearly 1,500 startups and attracted close to $2 billion in venture funding in 2024. Within a broader British Columbia technology sector of more than 11,000 companies employing over 220,000 people, Vancouver has established itself as a globally competitive tech ecosystem, with strengths across AI, digital health, climate, and enterprise technology.
With that momentum comes a shift. Vancouver has moved beyond proving it can create companies. The next phase is defined by which of those companies scale, who retains ownership as they grow, and where decision-making power sits.
Founders across the city are building for global markets from day one. They are tackling complex problems and designing businesses meant to endure. What increasingly determines success is whether founder ambition is supported by ownership, governance, and capital partners aligned with long-term value creation.
What I’m seeing with Vancouver founders right now is a sharper focus on those dynamics earlier in the company-building process. Founders are building with an explicit view on ownership and governance, making deliberate choices about cap tables, board seats, and the kind of capital they take early. Capital decisions are treated as strategic choices that shape control and resilience and determine whether companies can scale through uncertainty. That alignment shows up most clearly in how founders and capital leaders apply discipline and long-term judgement to building and governing companies.
Across Canada, women already majority-own nearly 20 percent of private-sector businesses, generating roughly $90 billion in revenue and employing close to one million Canadians. Women-led companies consistently demonstrate capital efficiency, faster paths to profitability, and resilience through market cycles. These characteristics translate directly into strong governance, deliberate risk-taking, and companies better positioned to endure volatility.
Yet in technology, women remain under-represented among venture-backed founders and among those making capital allocation and governance decisions. This creates a gap between where value is being built and where capital authority sits, and with it presents a significant opportunity. Aligning capital leadership more closely with where value is emerging is not about inclusion; it is about capturing growth already underway.
At our recent Road to the Summit Vancouver, founders like Carolyn Loncaric of AquaEye, Taran Ghatora of Blume, and Linda Biggs of Joni reflected the depth of ambition already present in British Columbia. AquaEye is developing critical safety technology that transforms how first responders locate people in water. Blume is redefining beauty and self-care through clean, sustainable products rooted in consumer trust. Joni is building women’s period care as essential health infrastructure.
These companies are not niche. They operate in large, global markets and are being built with clarity about ownership and scale. What stands out is how ambition is paired with sustainability. Decisions about capital and ownership are addressed early, because founders understand how deeply those choices shape how their companies grow over time.
Many of Vancouver’s most significant growth opportunities sit in markets where women bring differentiated insight and leadership. Healthcare and wellness, where women make up roughly 80 percent of the workforce, alongside consumer products shaped by lived experience and trust, financial platforms, enterprise solutions, and applied AI. These are durable markets that reward patient capital, informed risk assessment, and strong governance.
Even modest growth in the number of women founding and scaling companies in these sectors would unlock substantial economic value. That value compounds when women also participate as capital allocators and decision-makers.
Capital leadership influences how risk is priced and how long investors remain engaged. It also determines whether founders are supported to build enduring companies or steered toward early exits before value is fully realized. When decision-making authority broadens, governance strengthens, incentives align more closely with long-term performance, and companies are better positioned to navigate market cycles.
A generational wealth transfer is accelerating this opportunity. By 2028, women are expected to control close to $4 trillion in assets. Yet globally, women hold roughly 15 percent of venture capital partner or decision-making roles. The gap between capital ownership and capital authority represents a structural inefficiency in the market.
Momentum to address this inefficiency is already visible in Vancouver. Events like Road to the Summit, funds such as The51, Stand Up Ventures and Women’s Equity Lab, and capital leadership and educational networks like Movement51, Spring and The Forum, are expanding who participates in capital decisions and directing investment into businesses being built by women. Together, these efforts signal a shift in how capital is governed and who holds influence as companies grow.
Vancouver sits in an enviable position. Close enough to Silicon Valley to attract U.S. capital yet grounded in Canada’s collaborative research and policy ecosystem. That proximity is an advantage, but it also means early-stage companies can feel a strong pull south, where capital is often easier to access. When Vancouver’s most promising companies are funded elsewhere before Canadian capital has the chance to back and scale them, long-term ownership and economic value move with them.
As the ecosystem continues to mature, success will depend less on how many startups are created and more on whether founders can retain ownership, attract patient capital, and scale companies here. That requires more women building companies and more women shaping capital decisions.
Vancouver has spent the last decade proving it can create companies. The next decade will be defined by which companies scale, who benefits, and where decision-making power sits. Women participating as founders and capital leaders is not an equity argument; it is a competitive one. The ecosystems that recognize this early, and act on it deliberately, will shape where long-term value is built and retained.
Shelley Kuipers is the Co-Founder & CEO of The51.
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