Did you know that Mississauga is home to nearly 1,000 IT companies? Not many do. Perfectly situated between Toronto and Waterloo in Canada’s Innovation Corridor, Mississauga has attracted some of the largest IT companies in the world, and is a top-choice destination for innovative tech companies seeking world-class talent.
“We are situated at the heart of things, in the middle of the bustling Toronto-Waterloo Corridor,” said Bonnie Brown, Director Economic Development, City of Mississauga, noting that the city is predicted to grow its population by 25 per cent over the next 30 years. “As part of the Corridor, companies who come here have access to 7.7 million residents, a labour force of 4.3 million, and 400,000 students. It’s an exceptionally large and diverse population for companies large and small to draw upon.”
A Great Place to Work
There are many reasons why business leaders decide to establish a presence in Mississauga. Here are just a few quick facts about the city:
- Dynamic – It is part of the second-largest information and communications technology (ICT) cluster in North America – over 15,000 IT companies specializing in Software Development, IT Enterprise, AI, Big Data, Cybersecurity, employing more than 300,000 skilled and talented workers.
- Educated – There are more post-secondary degrees per 100,000 people in Mississauga than in most major US centers. But surprisingly, average salaries are lower in the Toronto-to-Waterloo Corridor than in most US cities.
- Business-friendly – Mississauga has lower commercial and industrial taxes than other major municipalities in the region.
- Innovative – IDEA Mississauga, Mississauga’s Innovation District, is at the core of Canada’s innovation and technology activity, and continues to attract the brightest minds and leading-edge companies. From start-ups to scale-ups to international firms, Mississauga has the supports, resources and community to cultivate growth, success, and global impacts within the industry.
For the second straight year, Mississauga took Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Magazine’s Mid-Sized Americas City of the Future award for 2021-22. The city placed second for both Economic Potential and Business Friendliness, and third for Connectivity. The city saw more foreign investment in 2020 than in 2019, and continues to draw interest – firm evidence of a city that is thriving even through global disruptions.
A Great Place to Live
Naturally companies looking at Mississauga will go beyond hard numbers. Livability is perhaps equally important. “This is where Mississauga really distances itself from the pack,” said Brown. “Our downtown is vibrant and lively, and whether there’s a concert or a cultural festival or other event going on, there’s always a buzz in the air. And for nature lovers there are more than 500 parks and 65 scenic trails to enjoy and explore.”
A Rich Ecosystem
Among the organizations thriving in Mississauga:
- SOTI, a software development company, offers their SOTI ONE platform, which gives organizations control and visibility into all their mobile devices in the field. What started in Mississauga has grown to have multiple operations across the globe.
- Guidewire Software calls Mississauga a “hidden gem of a city bristling with talent,” and calls the city an “ideal location for us,” with 160 people representing a multitude of teams from Product Development to Cloud Operations.
- BoomerangFX, a software as a service (SaaS) company that develops practice management solutions for non-insured private health-care segments, launched its first location in Mississauga during the global pandemic and has since been growing by leaps and bounds.
- Cognizant opened its first regional technology and service delivery centre in Mississauga in 2018. Today it occupies nearly double the office space and predicts it will employ around 1,000 people over the next few years.
- HCL Technologies recently opened a global delivery centre in Mississauga – one of the largest centers for HCL in Canada, housing co-innovation labs for customers to ideate, collaborate, develop and deliver futuristic solutions through next generation technologies in their business transformation journeys.
- Infosys announced plans recently to create 500 new jobs in Mississauga over the next few years. All told, the organization plans to double its Canadian workforce to 4,000 employees by 2023.
“This is but a small sample of the future-facing organizations maintaining a presence in Mississauga,” said Brown. “Naturally the global crisis presented us with some interesting challenges, some of which we’re continuing to work through, however the ICT sector in Mississauga has kept growing both in number of businesses and in employment, and we continue to attract some of the brightest minds from around the world.”
Discover Mississauga
From a corporate perspective, there are many reasons for an organization to base itself, or open a branch office, in Mississauga. Here are some of those reasons