Calgary seeing tech sector spike; shift might be reshaping city's economy

Are tech companies reshaping Calgary's economy? Calgary is seeing a spike in new tech companies setting up shop, and that shift may well be re-shaping the city's economy.

While energy pumps in the most jobs and money, Calgary's technology sector is starting to surge.

Alberta ranks fourth in the country for tech investment by a wide margin, but many are banking on Calgary's potential, including Neo Financial, which hit a major fundraising goal this month.

"Raising over $360 million when the average fundraising is $1 (million to) $3 million. That's creating new jobs. That's creating more growth and really putting Calgary on the tech map," said Jeff Adamson with Neo Financial.

Neo is one of five privately-owned Calgary start-ups valued at more than $1 billion.

"Other people around the world are going, 'There must be something happening in Calgary,'" said Brad Parry with Calgary Economic Development.

The total number of tech companies in the city has ballooned by 94 per cent compared to five years ago.

"We've seen a 78 per cent growth in tech jobs in our city in that time period, which is almost 60,000 jobs. That's mind-blowing," Parry said.

Calgary is the No. 20 market in North America for tech talent.

"Calgary's got a lot of really big, interesting problems to solve in energy, in agriculture, in transportation, financial services, and these entrepreneurial people are taking their experience and solving those problems through start-ups and people are paying attention," said Terry Rock with Innovation YYC.

That's promising news to local entrepreneurs starting their journey.

"There are a lot of young, very talented people here in Calgary. I'm absolutely confident that we can pull this off here in Calgary," said Emiliya Ursova, Cookmesh creator.

While the city can't let up on efforts to attract tech businesses, the other challenge will be to keep them.

"Importantly, maintain the control here in Calgary, which basically means that the headquarters can be here, the opportunities are going to be created here," Adamson said.

Calgary Economic Development says the value of the city's technology sector has more than quadrupled in the past five years, to more than $8 billion.