The Inaugural Toronto Tech Week, June 23-27, 2025

Tech Without Borders: Rethinking Startup Investment in Toronto

Toronto Tech Week kicked off in high style with a bold and timely event:
Global Startups Conference — “Breaking Barriers: Rethinking Tech Investment for Startups.” Held Monday, June 23rd at the beautiful Glenn Gould Studio in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) headquarters at 250 Front St. W., the event brought together leading investors, founders, and visionaries committed to rewriting the rules of startup funding in an AI-driven world. The conference unfolded in TED-talk-style presentations, each one spotlighting a different facet of the evolving startup landscape.

Notably, Ferhan Bulca, brought both his founder and investor hats to the table. Drawing from hard-earned experience in medtech, he offered time-saving advice he wished he had known earlier. He also outlined the core pillars he now looks for as an angel investor—clarity of vision, resilience, and alignment.

Next, Michael Dales of RHA Ventures took the stage. Although his true passion lies in agriculture innovation, he walked attendees through the successful journey of VidHug, a startup that achieved a significant exit. The kicker? The original founder of VidHug is now an investor in Dales’ firm—proof that good exits create new ecosystems.

Eoin Callan, representing Bloom Impact Capital, brought a sense of urgency to the stage. His message: If we don’t rethink how we fund the protection of nature and the stability of food supply chains, we risk everything. 

Then came Upasana Sharma, speaking with passion and clarity about her work with TiE Toronto, an incubator supporting immigrant entrepreneurs. Sharma emphasized that diversity isn’t a corporate checkbox or a lofty ideal—it’s a necessity for the future of any healthy society.

Thanks to Miryam Lazarte and the team at Global Startups Accelerator for a powerful event—topped off with cocktails at the top of the CN Tower!

What Is Toronto Tech Week?

After the Collision Tech Conference announced 2024 would be its final year in Toronto, a new nonprofit was created to launch Toronto Tech Week (TTW), running June 23–27, 2025.

Founded by Golden Ventures, Daybreak Studio, and BetaKit, with financial support from presenting sponsors City of Toronto, Shopify, and Google Cloud, and backed by over 40 community partners—including DMZ, Cohere, Elevate, Wealthsimple, Two Small Fish, and the University of Toronto—TTW is now an annual celebration of the city’s tech ecosystem.

Built as an open platform to showcase and support Toronto’s vibrant tech community, TTW welcomed over 10,000 founders, startups, investors, partners, students, and tech enthusiasts.
With a comprehensive calendar, here are three additional events that stood out.

A packed house at the iconic El Mocambo on June 25th marked one of the liveliest nights of Toronto Tech Week

The evening kicked off in the Starlight Room with an excellent performance by RajNation, whose high-energy rap about the founder journey—featuring lyrics like “get that dry powder” and “you can’t get enough of my pitch, then you ghost me”—struck a chord with the crowd. Catering by Top Chef Canada’s Mark McEwan (Fabbrica, Bymark) was top-notch, and the open bar kept spirits high.

Then it was upstairs to the Under the Palms Room, where legendary acts like Blondie, The Rolling Stones, and U2 once performed. This time, it was all about CodeLaunch—a high-octane startup showdown.

Six startups—On Time Bride, Golden Connections, Kavodax, Electric Sheep Studios, StockLens, and Ratotecki—had spent two intense 12-hour coding sessions with Improving to build functional prototypes. The result? A high-stakes hackathon-meets-pitch competition, where three head-to-head battles took place.

With an audience of over 300, each attendee received $50,000 in virtual CodeLaunch dollars to vote for their favorite team in each round. An additional $50,000 was utilized to select a winner from the all-female founder finalists.

Congratulations to Kavodax, who swept both the audience choice and judges’ awards, earning a massive medal and a championship-style belt. Kavodax will now advance to compete in the CodeLaunch World Championship, held November 11–12 in Dallas, where they’ll vie for a $50,000 cash prize and infrastructure support from Improving.

Billed as “the wildest night at Toronto Tech Week,” the event delivered on every promise.

CodeLaunch was founded by Jason W. Taylor in 2012 to help early-stage startups develop digital products without giving up equity or paying a dime. Though Taylor has since sold the company to Improving, a digital services firm guided by Conscious Capitalism, he continues to lead CodeLaunch post-earnout. Why? Because he loves it.

Tech for All: Embracing Neurodiversity

On June 26th, TTW hosted a compelling session:
"High-Performance, Low Barrier: Making Creative Tech Accessible for All."

Led by John Canning, Director of Developer Relations at AMD, and Philipp Wolf, CEO and Co-Founder of swyvl, the discussion focused on how creative technology can become more inclusive.

Swyvl—a Toronto-based software company—is pioneering tools to support neurodiversity across schools, workplaces, and beyond, helping neurodivergent individuals realize their full potential in supportive environments.

TTW Wraps with a Launch—and a Future

Toronto Tech Week closed on June 27th with “Crown Jewels: A Launch Party,” hosted by Startup Ecosystem Canada, a national network committed to supporting Canada’s next generation of world-changing companies.

Crown Jewels, a new venture hub, was unveiled with the mission of backing Canadian founders tackling tough problems with broad market potential.
Applications are now open for early-stage startups to receive a share of $200,000 in cash and services.

Toronto Tech Week didn’t just celebrate tech—it confirmed Toronto is where the future gets built.