On a snowy winter night at a dinner in Toronto, the founder of a Polish agri-food startup sat elbow-to-elbow with the former CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
“Canada has an incredible opportunity to benefit from the kind of innovation coming out of Europe right now.”
Vikram Khurana, TBDC.
At another table, a partner from Groundbreak Ventures made conversation with the founder of a Latvian company that builds structural monitoring sensors that deliver real-time insights for critical infrastructure.
The dinner was the highlight of the Horizon Sprint Week, a unique initiative supporting European scale-ups as they expand into Canada.
Offered through the Toronto Business Development Centre, Horizon Sprint Week is densely packed with masterclasses, networking, and one-on-one meetings, as well as a networking dinner where founders were intentionally seated with investors and industry leaders from Toronto’s startup ecosystem.
“We are a technology company from Latvia that is very interested in participating in the building of public infrastructure in Ontario. Harsh environments require remote monitoring, and Adventum has the most innovative solutions to address this,” said Nikita Gorbatko, Co-founder of Latvia’s Adventum Tech.
After five years of developing their infrastructure monitoring technology, the company was ready to scale its sales and marketing efforts, and the opportunity to join the Horizon program came at an inflection phase.
“With the TBDC program, we clearly identified the core customers, like regulatory agencies and construction companies that build bridges, railway, pipelines and highways,” said Gorbatko. “It’s a very versatile group of customers, and for all of them to welcome a Latvian company won’t be easy. But TBDC set us up with meetings with key decision makers, and so far we have been received very warmly.”
Since 1990, TBDC has acted as a bridge between global entrepreneurs and Ontario’s investors, industry associations, and government. Today, the organization represents more than 20 sectors, has supported over 9,500 founders, and delivers eight programs designed to build startups with the potential to scale rapidly.
One of those programs is Horizon, which connects TBDC’s extensive network with Europe’s emerging wave of global-ready startups.
“TBDC’s mission is to help companies launch, scale, and grow,” said Cia Prior, Director of Marketing at TBDC. “Working with European companies that are at a later stage, ready to launch, scale, and grow, means we get to leverage our network in a great way. We can pull the resources and contracts we’ve built over TBDC’s 35-year history and show new market entrants what we have to offer.”
This fall, TBDC welcomed Horizon’s largest cohort yet, 23 companies from 10 European countries. Ranging from pre-seed to Series A, this group of participants has collectively raised more than $120 million.
Once on the ground, programming starts almost immediately, with hundreds of intros, meetings, and clinics packed into just five intensive days. Founders take advantage of every minute, all while continuing to run their businesses across different time zones.
For Bart Roszkowski, Co-CEO of Poland-based Proteine Resources, whose team upcycles mushroom byproducts into protein for pet food, the meetings alone were worth the flight.
“I was connected to six mushroom producers just by being in the program,” said Roszkowski. “I would have had to cold call, you know, but it builds a lot more trust at the beginning when you are introduced by an official program like TBDC. I met people from the pet food industry as well. This is really important because we are connecting mushroom growers with the pet food industry by providing them with ingredients. We have to talk with both at the same time.”
“Canada has an incredible opportunity to benefit from the kind of innovation coming out of Europe right now,” said Vikram Khurana, Chair of TBDC. “By bringing these scale-ups here early, we’re not only strengthening our tech ecosystem but also deepening trade and collaboration with one of our most important economic partners. This collaboration also serves to strengthen Canada’s participation with the EU in the EU Horizon Program.”
Throughout the week, founders joined roundtables, workshops, and feedback sessions on North American sales cycles, regulatory expectations, and customer behaviour. Advisors and mentors worked closely with each company to stress-test positioning and refine go-to-market strategies.
Twin Science and Robotics entered Horizon already operating across multiple regions, but North America represented a new and large opportunity. Co-founder and CEO Asude Altintas joined Horizon for the customer access.
Already serving schools across Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, and the U.K. with its digital and physical STEM education tools, Twin Science now has plans to enter North America with a footprint in Canada.
“Most accelerators have the same kind of programs. But what differentiates Horizon from others is the curated meetings with real customers. Because you can only learn from your customers,” said Altintas.
And when the week ends, Horizon doesn’t.
Three to six months of guidance is provided to help founders turn their North American go-to-market plans into action, helping companies not just enter the market, but grow, scale, and shape what comes next.
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Image courtesy Toronto Business Development Centre.