Google announces Canadian startup cohort

TORONTO – Google has launched the 2026 Google for Startups Accelerator: Canada program, with the announcement of support for 14 AI-driven startups from coast-to-coast. With national representation, the selected startups are joining the accelerator from Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, and for the first time – from Sudbury.

“The 14 new companies are addressing challenges across a wide range of industries, including healthcare and life sciences, social assistance, real estate, construction, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, professional and technical services, as well as e-commerce,” said Iran Karimian (pictured), head of Accelerator & Startup Ecosystem, Canada.

During this 10-week program, founders will collaborate with Google experts to sharpen their business models, scale their AI capabilities, and network with potential investors and partners. The cohort will also receive early access to Google AI products, world class mentorship and are eligible for Google Cloud Credits and free Cloud TPUs to accelerate their machine learning research.

“We want to learn best practices around healthcare data architecture for high-volume environments, latency optimization for real-time therapeutic content generation, and responsible AI frameworks specific to pediatric populations. Google has already solved these problems for some of the largest health systems in the world, and that’s exactly the playbook we want to learn from,” said Brendan Herjavec, CIO, Playspace.

The continued investment in Canadian startups through the Google programs is driving real economic growth. Since the company launched the program in Canada in 2020, it’s proud to have supported 145 Canadian startups from coast-to-coast, across all of its accelerator programs.

Since graduating, these startups have gone on to collectively raise more than $580 million CAD and contributed to the creation of 1,400 new jobs. (Source: Accelerator Impact Report)

The latest cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator: Canada includes:

• Amical (Québec City, QC) offers an AI companion for people with cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s, integrated into an easy-to-use phone.
• Banting AI (Toronto, ON) is an AI copilot that turns clinical trial protocols into structured data to reduce startup time, cost, and operational burden at research sites.
• EyeCareX (Vancouver, BC) is building the AI-powered future of eye care by automating eye exams to improve access and clinic efficiency.
• MyHealthspan (Victoria, BC) is an AI preventive health operating system for employers, combining 100+ tests with coaching to reduce risk and improve health span.
• PlaySpace (Toronto, ON) is a digital therapy platform providing clinicians with interactive tools, games, and content to deliver engaging pediatric care.
• Waive Medical (Sudbury, ON) is dedicated to solving the multiscreen problem in healthcare by automating routine administrative actions.

“We are at a critical juncture as a startup as we continue to scale and grow to hundreds of clinics using our system. To reach the next stage in our journey, we recognize that we need mentorship and support from some of the top product and technical minds – the Google for Startups Accelerator seems perfectly aligned with that,” said Shreyansh Anand, co-founder & CEO, Waive Medical.