BIPOC and women in Atlantic Canada need more support, representation in startups, report finds

Although startup businesses are increasing in the Atlantic region, BIPOC and women founders need more support and representation, says a recent report.

The 2020 Atlantic Startup Report by Entrevestor, originally released in June of this year, says while business owners have a lot to celebrate for making it through the pandemic, more needs to be done to target and support specific groups of people.

"In the last year or so, we've started to take a measure of how we're doing and we're not doing very well," said Peter Moreira, owner of Entrevestor, at the Oct. 8 online report conference. 

The report states that out of 554 startups in the region, 0.7 per cent of the companies had Black founders or CEOs who were born and raised in Canada, and 1.6 per cent had Indigenous founders or CEOs. 

The report states people identifying as Black account for about 1.4 percent of the Atlantic Canadian population, and Indigenous people for about 5.5 percent, signifying a largely underrepresented group.

Moreira pointed toward the creation of hubs like Tribe Network, a hub for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour pursuing entrepreneurship, as well as investor groups like Sandpiper Ventures, a seed stage, angel-backed women's fund and investor group, as a sign that things are getting better.

But more needs to be done.