Futurpreneur applications surge as more youth explore entrepreneurship

Canadian non-profit Futurpreneur is seeing an uptick in program applications as more Canadians appear interested in entrepreneurship. 

The organization provides startup financing and business development support to Canada’s young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 39. It has seen a significant year-over-year spike in applications its programs, including a 50-percent increase nationwide and a 65-percent increase in Alberta, during the last fiscal quarter. 

Futurepreneur CEO Karen Greve Young believes that growth—which itself comes on the heels of a 15-percent increase the year prior—is due to more young Canadians choosing entrepreneurship amid an uncertain job market. 

“Entrepreneurship doesn’t necessarily drive job security,” Greve Young said. “At the same time, if you’re looking at the job market and your prospects in the future …. and you’re seeing more and more questions and concerns around traditional employment, then taking things into your own hands seems more appealing—and I think that’s more true for younger people.” 

“We haven’t gone outside our border yet, but we sure are tempted.”

Joanna Pariseau,
Taste the City

A labour force survey from June, conducted by Statistics Canada, shows that youth unemployment remains high in Canada and Alberta, at just over 12 percent (it hovers at just above five-and-a-half percent for people aged 25 to 54, many of whom still count as “youth” under Futurpreneur’s criteria). In Alberta, the unemployment rate was seven percent overall, but roughly double that, at almost 16 percent, for those aged 15 to 24.  

Futurepreneur’s increase in applications also coincides with the launch of a mobile-friendly application portal, which Greve Young said has made the incubator more accessible to younger generations.

“I think some of what we’re seeing is probably a systemic increase in entrepreneurial activity in Canada, and some of what we’re seeing is an increase in entrepreneurs coming to us,” Greve Young said. 

Joanna Pariseau, whose Calgary-born food-tech company Taste the City went through Futurepreneur’s program in 2024, agrees with Greve Young that there’s a trend of young Canadians looking at entrepreneurship. But she also feels the increase could be the result of a common refrain in the Canadian startup scene: early-stage businesses struggling to access the capital needed to launch. 

“Sourcing capital in this country is challenging, especially so if you’re a business-to-consumer product,” Pariseau said. She added that statistics show businesses are much more likely to raise capital in the US than in Canada, making it tempting for Canadian founders to look south.

“We haven’t gone outside our border yet, but we sure are tempted,” she said.

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Taste the City allows users to access digitally guided walking food tours through its app. Pariseau said the business received $60,000 in financing from Futurpreneur and its partner BDC, which matches Futurpreneur’s contributions two-to-one. 

After receiving initial funding from an angel investor and through winning a pitch competition, Pariseau said she struggled to access further early-stage funding to scale the company to its next level prior to signing up with Futurpreneur. She contacted Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), an innovation funding program operated by the National Research Council, but didn’t qualify. On IRAP’s advice, she applied to Futurpreneur and was successful. 

Pariseau said she doesn’t know if Taste the City, which has now grown to have a presence in cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto, would have been able to scale without Futurpreneur’s program, citing the organization’s sector-agnostic approach.

“It speaks especially to those napkin kind of ideas, where [entrepreneurs] need a micro amount. There’s not a lot of opportunities for funding for that beyond Futurpreneur in this country,” she said.

BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Annie Spratt.