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Why BC HardTech Is Having Its Moment

WRITTEN BY DAN MILLAR, CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER AT MISTYWEST

For the last decade and a half, Silicon Valley has had its software moment. But now, the pendulum is swinging back to the physical world, and hardware is making a run for it—with British Columbia emerging as an unexpected contender and declaring “No more Mr. Soft Tech!”

Except, when it comes to building globally competitive companies, Canada still has some bias to work out.

HardTech Forum (formerly Vancouver Hardware Meetup) recently convened to explore how BC’s hardware ecosystem can become harder, better, faster, stronger—competing with other internationally established tech hubs. Moderated by Taylor Cooper and hosted by MistyWest, the panel featured thought leaders from across Canada’s venture, finance, and innovation landscape: Reynald Hoskinson (VP of Technology at FORM), Keith Ippel (Founder of Spring), Michael Ansara (Export Development Canada), and Byron Thom (Partner at BDC).

So, how can BC—and Canada—move from promising to globally prominent in HardTech? From public funding to strategic partnerships, here are the top takeaways from the discussion.

Left to right: Byron Thom, Michael Ansara, Keith Ippel, Reynald Hoskinson and Taylor Cooper

HardTech matters now more than ever

HardTech has always been hard: capital-intensive, slow to scale, and complicated to manufacture. But as Taylor Cooper pointed out, “atoms are cool again.”

Climate change, maturing software markets, and post-COVID investor shifts are driving renewed interest in clean tech, health tech, and advanced manufacturing. At the same time, friend-shoring—the move to source from geopolitical allies—is pushing governments to reinvest in domestic manufacturing. “You don’t want your economy to have no manufacturing capacity for geopolitical and economic reasons,” said Cooper.

BC is well-positioned to lead this shift. With a strong technical talent pool from UBC, SFU, and BCIT, and clean tech pioneers like Carbon Engineering, the region is gaining momentum. “Six years ago at Creative Destruction Lab, there were maybe one or two hardware startups,” Cooper recalled. “Now we’re seeing serious traction.”

‘Buff Doge’ has long been the funding for software in BC

Local roots with lasting impact

The panel contrasted two iconic BC-grown companies—Brightside (a UBC spinout pioneering HDR display technology) and Hootsuite (scaled locally to unicorn status)—as metaphors for the different ways tech companies can grow and impact an ecosystem.

Brightside, of which panelist Reynald Hoskinson was a researcher, was acquired early by Dolby. “They were buying the idea—the projection of that technology into the future,” said Hoskinson.

Although Dolby eventually shuttered the Vancouver lab when revenue didn’t scale quickly enough, the acquisition seeded expertise that radiated into ventures like Recon Instruments, Kite Company Creator, and Chrysalix VC.

Vancouver has remained home to BC business Hootsuite since it was founded

“A lot of those people are still in the industry,” said Hoskinson. “The company had a lasting effect.”

Hootsuite, by contrast, scaled locally with US venture funding but stayed headquartered in Vancouver. Its growth seeded capital and experience into the ecosystem, even without an IPO.

Despite their differences, both companies had something crucial in common: founders who stayed engaged at a local level.

“The real value isn’t just in the exit—it’s in what the people go on to build afterward,” said Byron Thom. “We need to build systems that survive cycles. We need anchor companies to retain executive and sales talent.”

Bridging the talent gap and beating the CapEx trap

BC is quietly amassing the ingredients for a world-class HardTech hub—one of which being strong technical talent coming out of our universities. But there’s a critical missing piece: senior sales and executive leadership talent, especially for companies trying to scale beyond $10M in revenue.

“Getting to your first five or ten clients? There’s support for that,” said Thom. “But building the infrastructure to go from $10 million to $100 million—that’s where Canada lacks depth.”

To navigate this gap, the panel suggested several strategies:

Taking programs like Sales Primer and New Ventures BC that offer sales training, mentoring and advisory services to founders looking to level-up
Building bridge talent by importing senior leaders or training internally
Thinking beyond Vancouver: ecosystems like Singapore, Oslo, and Helsinki are emerging hard tech hubs that offer both funding and leadership pipelines.

And then there’s the ever-present elephant in the room: capital expenditure (a topic which MistyWest has dedicated past panel discussions to). Once seen as a dealbreaker for hardware startups, many early-stage companies are using smart go-to-market strategies to overcome the CapEx hurdle: Victoria-based Open Ocean Robotics is building made-to-order solar-powered autonomous boats, and ChopValue upcycles chopsticks into furniture via a network of microfactories in 20+ cities.

The solar-powered data collection USV from Open Ocean Robotics, who are building units made-to-order. Image Source: Open Ocean Robotics

Connecting to the right capital at the right time

Keith Ippel assured the audience that financial support is not out of reach for BC businesses. “It’s not that we lack capital,” he said. “We just haven’t connected to it efficiently.”

If you’re building a HardTech company in Canada, you should know these acronyms:

BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) provides early and growth-stage capital. Thom noted that 50% of BDC’s Industrial Innovation Fund portfolio includes hardware components. BDC’s $450M Industrial Innovation Fund has backed multiple BC-based hard tech startups.
EDC (Export Development Canada) supports companies scaling internationally by co-investing in equity, backing export contracts, and bridging growth-related financing gaps.

EDC, long seen as “just” a trade credit insurer, now plays a far broader role in supporting Canadian scale-ups. “We’re here to help you say yes to that 10,000-unit order,” said Michael Ansara.

He shared the example of MineSense Technologies, a geophysical hardware company whose first major contract was with Canadian mining giant Teck. While the deal was domestic, the output was ultimately exported—making the company eligible for EDC’s support.

“Even when the initial sale isn’t international, we saw them as an integral part of the supply chain to create exports,” Ansara explained. BDC is also an investor in MineSense, as well as on their board.

Vancouver-based MineSense is a pioneer in digital mining solutions, and was named one of 2024’s Global Cleantech 100. Image Source: MineSense

Scaling locally to compete globally

One of the Forum’s most resonant themes was the importance of staying rooted while thinking globally. “We need anchor companies,” said Thom. “Not just to retain talent, but to attract it.” BC doesn’t need to copy Silicon Valley—we just need to back our own people, stay focused, and keep building.

But the future of BC HardTech isn’t just about building prototypes. It’s about building confidence, competence, and collaboration over competition. Whether you’re selling your first headset, scaling your ops, or hiring your 100th employee—success in HardTech takes a village.

“Sometimes the exit is the win,” said Ippel, “but sometimes it’s the ripple effect after the exit that powers an ecosystem for decades.”

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