Kareem Abdur-Rashid travels to Toronto twice a week. Building his company there was never on the table.
“We didn’t even consider building a lab in Toronto. It’s way too expensive for the space that we needed,” he said.
“You have an opportunity to make your mark here.”
Kareem Abdur-Rashid, Kare Chemical
Along with his father, Abdur-Rashid founded Kare Chemical Technologies in Mississauga.
There, it operates a 6,000-square-foot lab that develops medicine from natural compounds found in citrus peels to create new treatments for pain, obesity, and brain-related disorders.
“Our first lab was right beside the airport, so investors and clients flying in could access hotels and restaurants close by,” he said.
Abdur-Rashid discussed that choice at the “Scaling in Sauga” panel of the Startup Canada Tour on Oct. 21, where founders talked about the benefits of building outside of Toronto.
The event was attended by 1,400 in-person and virtual attendees, making it the highest attended tour stop in Startup Canada Tour series’ history.
Speakers included Clearco co-founder and Dragons’ Den investor Michele Romanow, Audiobooks.com co-founder Sanjay Singhal, and Cheekbone Beauty CEO Jenn Harper.
But the Mississauga-focused discussion highlighted various benefits for founders looking outside of Canada’s biggest city, as Toronto continues to experience high costs, and fierce congestion.
Nabanita Nawar, co-founder and CEO of HDAX Therapeutics, a biotech company developing targeted therapies for neurological and cardiometabolic diseases, takes advantage of the University of Toronto’s SpinUp Lab.
SpinUp provides wet lab co-working space, equipment, and infrastructure at subsidized rates in the University of Toronto Mississauga’s New Science Building.
“SpinUp is a fraction of the cost of other options in Toronto, so we’ve been able to keep our overhead costs low,” Nawar said. “And it’s not just the costs. The lab now hosts probably two dozen companies. We work together in that space, and it creates this connectivity that’s so important. They also bring in community partners to educate people on resources like IPON, Mitacs, and SR&ED.”
Like Abdur-Rashid, Nawar regularly travels between Toronto and Mississauga, and says the tradeoff is worth it.
“For a fraction of the cost, we can access affordable lab space and good talent, and still make little trips to the downtown core if we need to,” she said.
For Nissreen Chams, starting her cybersecurity company, Stratejm, in Mississauga 15 years ago was an intentional move.
“Mississauga is a very diverse economy. You have retail, pharma, and interesting universities and colleges that are backing great talent,” she said. “The city is a nice middle ground between a big city like Toronto, with all the big-name headquarters, and a smaller city like London. You don’t get too much congestion, but you get that business appetite.”
Chams credits IDEA Mississauga powered by Invest Mississauga for helping put Stratejm on the map early on. In 2019, IDEA Mississauga and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT) hosted an open-house event for Collision Conference attendees, inviting entrepreneurs, investors, and trade commissioners from around the world to visit local businesses, including Stratejm.
“We invited attendees from Collision to visit two top tech companies in Mississauga, and ended with a tour at U of T Mississauga,” said Donna Heslin, Manager of Small Business, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at IDEA Mississauga. “It was a mix of people who didn’t know where Mississauga was and what we were doing.”
Chams said the event gave Stratejm legitimacy and visibility, and she still receives business opportunities today from global companies because of the connections she made during that visit. Following Stratejm’s 2024 acquisition by Bell Canada, she stayed on as Assistant Vice-President of Business Development at Bell Cyber.
All three founders agreed that there’s still work to be done. They’d like to see Mississauga develop a stronger ecosystem of investors willing to take risks on early-stage companies and a dedicated centre of excellence to cultivate talent from the region’s post-secondary schools.
With organizations like SpinUp only opening in 2023, Mississauga’s startup ecosystem is still young, and, according to Abdur-Rashid, that’s part of its appeal.
“You have an opportunity to make your mark here,” he said.
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Mississauga has all the ingredients to support growth for entrepreneurs. Learn more about the IDEA Step-Up Program, which helps innovative and inclusive companies grow and overcome barriers. Applications are open until November 30.