Business incubator

Canada Start-up Visa: How does a Business incubator function?

Business incubators are entities that offer support to applicants for permanent residence under the Start-Up Visa program to qualify for immigration and start their businesses. They essentially nurture start-ups and help them navigate the host of challenges to get the financial, human, and physical resources they need to survive and thrive over months or sometimes years. Business incubators play a vital role in Canada’s economic development.

These incubators guide the entrepreneurs right from the inception of the business when it’s just an idea, and provide office space, administrative support, mentorship and training, and access to investors and capital. Business incubators are themselves run as non-profit organizations or businesses these entities help entrepreneurs with:

• Developing relationships with financial partners, business consultants, management-level execs;
• Finding office space and business hardware and software, and;
• Accessing research through relationships with universities and governmental agencies.

Under the Start-Up Visa program, upcoming entrepreneurs hoping to gain permanent residence in Canada require the support of a venture capital fund, an angel investor group, or a business incubator. These organizations choose which business proposals to review and each has its intake process for proposals and criteria used to assess them. If one of these organizations gives a green light to the Start-Up Visa program applicant’s proposal, it will provide a letter of support, allowing the prospective immigrant to continue with the process. Several Business incubators have been approved by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to support immigrants through the Start-Up Visa program.

For more information regarding Business incubators and how to get connected with them, contact us at Vashist Immigration, our team of RCIC licensed consultants in Canada will help you with the information and other immigration-related updates.