With a 15-minute work-to-home commute, affordable living, and natural beauty, including vast lakes, trail networks, and ski hill in the middle of the city, North Bay’s quality of life is matched only by its burgeoning innovation ecosystem. Located just a three-hour drive north of the GTA, the City of North Bay’s connected network of business supports come together to help foster startups and nurture scaling ventures.
Headquartered in North Bay, IION is a regional innovation centre that assists entrepreneurs and companies in accelerating their growth and marketing new or refined products, processes, or services.
Home to Nipissing University and Canadore College, North Bay’s post-secondary institutions are involved in a wide range of research, including human sciences, information technology, and mathematical sciences.
Canadore’s Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping (iCAMP) is an example of an industry research facility focused on private-sector collaboration and technology commercialization.
North Bay startup One Red Maple hopes to level the playing field for local retailers using artificial intelligence. Their app provides pop-up notifications redirecting consumers to locally owned stores offering the same products as major online retailers. Capitalizing on innovation and technology funding through FedNor and NOHFC, the company plans to grow to 340 within the next five years.
“We’re thrilled that FedNor is helping us create an app that gives customers an easy and efficient way to shop local,” says Mark Sherry, President of One Red Maple. North Bay is one of those cities that people are just finding out about — by that, I mean it is a great place to live. It’s a very friendly community and a great place to settle down and to establish some roots.”
Learn More about One Red Maple’s startup journey in downtown North Bay at moveup.northbay.ca.
“You don’t have to be in the GTA or Montreal to work in a dynamic tech company,” says Lora Webb, CEO of MetricAid.
Launched as a startup in 2012, MetricAid has since doubled its staff and grown its customer base to over 100 hospitals across the globe. This North Bay-based physician scheduling solution SaaS company helps physicians link their availability and expertise with hospitals and clinics while reducing administrative burden so health-care providers can focus on their patients.
North Bay has caught the interest of GTA-based firms looking to scale and diversify their operations into more cost-competitive secondary markets. Newcomer to North Bay, ThinkOn recently partnered with local post-secondary provider Canadore College to establish a Digital Public Safety Centre of Excellence.
“We were purposeful in selecting North Bay for the establishment of our Global Command Centre,” says Craig McLellan, Founder and CEO of ThinkOn. “North Bay is a welcoming and supportive community. It offers a superior quality of life and excellent infrastructure on which to grow our business.”
Entrepreneurs seeking investors are well positioned with the Northern Ontario Angels, ranked as the No. 1 Angel Organization in North America. The City of North Bay is committed to helping companies grow and expand their operations.
