According to an Inovia Capital analysis of PitchBook data reported by The Logic, Canadian companies raised about $5.6 billion in venture deals in 2025, and AI-native firms took 40% of Canadian venture dollars, up 14 percentage points. The two largest deals both went to Toronto companies: Waabi's $750 million Series C and Cohere's $600 million raise.
Below those megadeals, younger Toronto companies are hiring quickly in security, commerce, construction, finance, and industrial software. They can be compared with Landbase's wider ranking of AI startups adding headcount fastest.
This list ranks venture-backed AI startups headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area by 12-month headcount growth measured in Landbase data, then verifies each company's funding and operating evidence against public sources.
How the companies were selected
The starting pool was AI-native startups with a headquarters address in the Greater Toronto Area, founded in 2019 or later, with at least 30 employees. Companies in Waterloo, Kitchener, and other parts of Ontario outside the GTA were excluded.
Every company on the list had to meet four criteria:
- Headquartered in Toronto, confirmed by company or press descriptions
- AI-native, with a primary product built on AI models or AI agents
- Venture-backed, with at least one disclosed institutional round
- Positive 12-month headcount growth in Landbase data, used as the ranking order
Headcount growth is calculated from professional-profile data and can differ from company-reported figures, particularly for companies with contractors or distributed teams. Funding, valuation, and revenue figures below come from company announcements and press coverage rather than headcount data. Funding alone does not establish growth, so it is treated as one of several company buying signals.
1) Mycroft
CEO: Mike Kim
Latest round: $3.5 million seed, announced September 2025
12-month headcount growth: +113%
Category: AI security and compliance
What Mycroft builds
Mycroft sells an agentic AI platform that acts as a security and compliance officer for B2B software companies. It covers cloud and application security, device management, remediation, and audit preparation for frameworks such as SOC 2 and FedRAMP.
Latest growth evidence
Mycroft was founded in 2024 by former PartnerStack leaders. When it emerged from stealth in September 2025, the company reported more than 50 clients within about six months of launch, including Superwhisper, Unified.to, Willful, and Wisedocs.
Recent funding
Luge Capital led the $3.5 million all-equity seed round, which closed in June 2025, with Brightspark Ventures and Graphite Ventures joining. It followed a $1.2 million pre-seed in September 2024, for total funding of about $4.7 million.
Why it matters
Mycroft targets startups that need enterprise-grade compliance before they can afford a full security team.
2) Consio
CEO: Philippe Roireau
Latest round: $3.3 million seed, September 2025
12-month headcount growth: +65%
Category: AI voice agents for ecommerce
What Consio builds
Consio is an AI phone platform for Shopify merchants. It combines a 24/7 AI voice agent, AI text messaging, and a commerce-aware dialer connected to the merchant's Shopify store, so each call starts with order and customer context.
Latest growth evidence
In its funding announcement, Consio said it had increased revenue 10 times in under six months. The company also said brands on the platform were generating millions of dollars in incremental sales from phone channels.
Recent funding
RTP Global led the $3.3 million seed round, with participation from Jason Lemkin's SaaStr Fund and Mu Ventures.
Why it matters
Consio treats the phone as a sales channel rather than a support cost.
3) Waabi
CEO: Raquel Urtasun
Latest round: $750 million Series C, January 2026
12-month headcount growth: +63%
Category: Physical AI and autonomous trucking
What Waabi builds
Waabi develops the Waabi Driver, an AI system for autonomous vehicles trained largely in simulation. It started with trucks and is expanding into robotaxis.
Latest growth evidence
Waabi's trucks have run Dallas to Houston deliveries with safety drivers since 2023 through Uber Freight,. In January 2026, the company announced a $750 million Series C alongside a plan to deploy robotaxis exclusively on Uber's platform, with a long-term goal of 25,000 vehicles. BetaKit noted that Waabi missed its earlier target of commercial driverless trucking in Texas by 2025.
Recent funding
Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners co-led the Series C, worth about C$1.02 billion, with Uber, NVIDIA, Volvo, and Radical Ventures participating. Uber committed up to $250 million more tied to milestones. Total funding is about $1.28 billion.
Why it matters
BetaKit described the Series C as likely the largest round in Canadian tech history.
4) Calico
Leadership: Kathleen Chan, founder and CEO at the time of its seed announcement
Latest round: C$2.6 million seed, announced March 2022
12-month headcount growth: +50%
Category: AI sourcing for fashion brands
What Calico builds
Calico is an AI-driven sourcing and production platform for apparel and fashion brands. It connects brands with vetted factories and manages quotes, lead times, and supplier communication.
Latest growth evidence
Calico was founded in Toronto in October 2020. It launched publicly with a seed round led by Serena Ventures, Serena Williams's venture fund. The company has not disclosed revenue or customer counts, so headcount growth is its main recent growth signal.
Recent funding
The C$2.6 million (about $2 million) all-equity seed round included Maple VC, Inovia Capital, and several early Shopify employees, for total funding of about C$2.8 million at the time. A job listing references a later Series A, but no amount or announcement has been published.
Why it matters
Calico applies AI to a supply chain workflow that still runs largely on email, spreadsheets, and intermediaries.
5) Cohere
CEO: Aidan Gomez
Latest round: Series E led by Schwarz Digits with a reported $600 million commitment, April 2026
12-month headcount growth: +50%
Category: Enterprise foundation models
What Cohere builds
Cohere builds large language models and enterprise AI products focused on security, private deployment, and retrieval, selling to businesses and governments that run AI in their own environments.
Latest growth evidence
Cohere was valued at about $7 billion in September 2025. In September 2026, The Globe and Mail and The Logic reported that Cohere was in advanced talks to raise $2 billion to $3 billion at a $20 billion valuation. The round had not closed at the time of writing.
Recent funding
According to The Logic, Schwarz Digits committed $600 million to Cohere's Series E as part of an April 2026 deal in which Cohere merged with German model developer Aleph Alpha. PitchBook data puts Cohere's total funding at about $1.6 billion.
Why it matters
Cohere is Canada's largest AI model developer, and other Toronto startups build on its models.
6) Borderless AI
CEO: Willson Cross
Latest round: $27 million seed, March 2024
12-month headcount growth: +47%
Category: AI HR and global employment
What Borderless AI builds
Borderless AI is a global HR platform for companies with international teams. Its AI agent, Alberni, creates employment contracts, sets up payroll, and answers employment law and tax questions in 170 languages.
Latest growth evidence
Borderless AI was founded in 2022 by Cross and Sean Aggarwal, the former chair of Lyft's board. The company launched from stealth with $27 million and named early customers including Raya, MG2, and Affiniti. Alberni runs on Cohere's language model.
Recent funding
Susquehanna and Aglaé Ventures, the investment firm of Bernard Arnault, led the seed round. The company did not disclose a valuation, and no later round has been announced.
Why it matters
Borderless AI competes in the employer-of-record market by automating paperwork that usually requires local specialists.
7) Provision
CEO: Luigi La Corte
Latest round: $7 million seed, reported October 2025
12-month headcount growth: +39%
Category: AI for construction pre-construction
What Provision builds
Provision is an AI platform for general contractors' pre-construction teams. Estimators use it to review scopes, flag contract risks, and query project documents.
Latest growth evidence
Provision, founded in 2022 by La Corte and CTO Brendan Ardagh, reported more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue after growing nearly 10 times the previous year. It said it had reviewed $100 billion in projects and counts Acciona, Bird Construction, Colas, EllisDon, and PCL Construction as clients.
Recent funding
Cercano Management led the $7 million (about C$9.8 million) seed round, which closed in August 2025, with existing investors Y Combinator and One Way Ventures. Total funding is about $8.7 million.
Why it matters
Provision sells to large general contractors, which face heavy document review on every bid.
8) Una
CEO: Michael Morrison
Latest round: Seed extension led by Staircase Ventures, February 2026
12-month headcount growth: +37%
Category: AI financial planning and analysis
What Una builds
Una builds AI-native performance planning software for finance teams. It replaces static FP&A spreadsheets with plans that update as conditions change.
Latest growth evidence
In February 2026, Una closed its seed financing and appointed Michael Morrison as CEO. Morrison previously led Fluence Technologies through its 2024 sale to Anaplan. It did not disclose customer or revenue figures.
Recent funding
The February 2026 close brought Una's total funding to $13 million. It followed a $4.4 million seed round in May 2025 led by Staircase Ventures and Emerald Development Managers.
Why it matters
Una is one of several AI-native entrants targeting the corporate performance management market.
9) Enso Connect
Co-founder: Francois Gouelo, CEO at the time of its seed round
Latest round: Seed of just under C$2 million, November 2021
12-month headcount growth: +28%
Category: AI guest experience for hospitality
What Enso Connect builds
Enso Connect is an AI guest experience platform for vacation rental operators and boutique hotels. Its EnsoAI agent resolves guest messages across Airbnb, Booking.com, WhatsApp, SMS, and email, either drafting replies for staff approval or running guest journeys automatically.
Latest growth evidence
At its 2021 seed round, Enso Connect reported more than 12,000 listings across 18 countries. Its website now reports more than 60,000 active properties in more than 70 countries.
Recent funding
Mantella Venture Partners led the seed round, with participation from Mistral Venture Partners and strategic investor Michael Hyatt. No later round has been publicly announced.
Why it matters
Guest messaging is one of the highest-volume tasks for short-term rental operators, which makes it a natural early market for AI agents in hospitality.
10) Basetwo
CEO: Thouheed Abdul Gaffoor
Latest round: $11.5 million Series A, announced January 2025
12-month headcount growth: +25%
Category: Industrial AI for manufacturing
What Basetwo builds
Basetwo builds an AI copilot for manufacturing engineers in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries. Engineers use it to model and optimize production processes, with a path toward autonomous process control.
Latest growth evidence
Basetwo said its copilot is deployed with large pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers in North America, Europe, the UAE, and Japan. At the time of its Series A, the company said it had about 20 employees and aimed to triple revenue within a year.
Recent funding
AXA Venture Partners led the $11.5 million (C$16.5 million) all-equity Series A, with Glasswing Ventures and Deloitte Ventures participating. It followed a 2022 seed led by Glasswing and Argon Ventures, for total funding of about $17.5 million.
Why it matters
Basetwo applies AI to regulated process manufacturing, where small gains in yield or batch time carry large cost effects.
What the Toronto AI startup market shows
Several patterns stand out.
First, Toronto's fastest hiring is in applied, vertical AI. Apart from Cohere and Waabi, the list sells into security compliance, ecommerce, fashion, HR, construction, finance, hospitality, and chemical manufacturing. Most target a specific professional buyer, such as estimators, FP&A teams, or process engineers.
Second, funding is highly concentrated. Waabi's Series C and Cohere's Series E commitment are each larger than the latest rounds of the other eight companies combined, which range from under C$2 million to $27 million. Most of the list is seed stage.
Third, the local ecosystem is reinforcing itself. Borderless AI builds on Cohere's models, Radical Ventures invested in Waabi, and Canadian investors such as Luge Capital, Brightspark, Inovia, and Mantella appear across several rounds, alongside foreign leads such as Khosla Ventures, RTP Global, and AXA Venture Partners.
For GTM teams, these companies are hiring quickly and adding enterprise customers. That combination is more useful when paired with hiring, leadership, technology, and data enrichment signals than when funding is viewed on its own. Teams researching specific categories can compare this list with Landbase's ranking of AI security startups hiring fastest and its list of AI construction startups hiring fastest, as well as the companion list of New York AI startups hiring fastest. The full city-by-city comparison is in Landbase's ranking of AI startups hiring fastest by city.
How Landbase supports Toronto AI startup account research
The ranking in this article was built with Landbase. A natural-language search identified venture-backed AI startups headquartered in the Greater Toronto Area, an enrichment step added founding year, headquarters city, and 12-month headcount change, and the results were filtered and sorted into a structured dataset.
Landbase's web and CLI interfaces access the same account, datasets, and saved work.
For more complex requirements, the Advanced Dataset Creator supports filters, calculations, and custom output fields.
Landbase's data infrastructure includes more than 800 million contacts and more than 40 million companies across more than 1,500 fields, with enrichment from more than 20 providers.
A Toronto workflow could, for example, identify AI startups headquartered in the GTA that raised a seed or Series A round in the past 18 months, grew headcount by more than 30%, sell to industrial or construction buyers, and recently hired a first sales leader in the United States.
The Landbase CLI setup supports these workflows from a standard terminal and from AI coding environments including Claude Code and Codex.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which AI startups in Toronto are growing fastest?
In Landbase's 12-month headcount data, the fastest-growing venture-backed AI startups headquartered in Toronto were Mycroft, Consio, Waabi, Calico, Cohere, Borderless AI, Provision, Una, Enso Connect, and Basetwo. Each grew headcount by at least 25%.
Which Toronto AI startup grew headcount fastest?
Mycroft recorded the highest 12-month headcount growth among companies that met this list's criteria, at more than 110%. Consio and Waabi followed, each above 60%.
Why is Toronto attracting AI startups and AI hiring?
AI-native firms took about 40% of Canadian venture dollars in 2025, according to Inovia Capital's analysis of PitchBook data, and the two largest Canadian deals went to Toronto's Waabi and Cohere. Toronto pairs that capital with a local model developer in Cohere and active AI investors such as Radical Ventures.
Does headcount growth mean a Toronto AI startup is growing quickly?
Not on its own. Headcount data can differ from company figures, and small teams can produce large percentages. This list therefore pairs headcount growth with disclosed funding, revenue, customer, and valuation evidence wherever it is available.
How can GTM teams find fast-growing AI startups in Toronto?
Teams can start with a geography and category definition, then filter by headcount growth, funding stage, target buyer, and hiring activity. Landbase can combine these criteria into reusable datasets and return company and contact information through web and CLI workflows.
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