Calgary’s startup ecosystem is entering 2026 with growing confidence—and growing ambition. Once defined largely by energy, the city is now producing globally relevant companies across AI, fintech, health, food, defence, agtech, and regulatory technology.
The 10 startups featured here reflect that evolution: founders solving hard, real-world problems with export-ready technology, often from deeply local insight.
From accelerating infrastructure approvals and rethinking regulatory compliance to reducing food waste, protecting crops, strengthening defence capabilities, and improving access to healthcare and business ownership, these companies are building for scale.
Collectively, they offer a snapshot of a city moving beyond promise and into performance—making them Calgary startups to watch closely in 2026.
Cashew
Cashew is a women-led AI-powered market research startup co-founded by Addy Graves and Rose Wong. It’s reimagining how brands gather consumer insights by automating end-to-end research into an accessible, fast, and affordable platform, leveling the playing field for smaller and mid-size companies.
Cashew’s technology delivers professional-grade insights in days, challenging legacy research processes and empowering confident decision-making. The company has secured notable funding, won top investment at DMZ’s Women Innovation Summit, and earned Best Enterprise Company at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, underscoring its innovation and impact in the tech ecosystem.
Cellar Insights
Cellar Insights is an agtech startup using AI-powered remote monitoring to help potato growers detect spoilage risks before visible rot appears. Founded in 2023 by sixth-generation New Brunswick potato grower Ross Culberson, the company combines gas-sensing hardware with predictive analytics to monitor storage conditions in real time. The platform helps protect crop quality, extend storage seasons, and reduce losses.
Backed by Tall Grass Ventures and Accelerate Fund IV, Cellar Insights is positioned to scale as Alberta produced 27.1% of Canada’s potatoes in 2025.
Knead Tech
Knead Tech is a food-rescue software startup combating food waste and insecurity by matching surplus food with organizations that need it. Its platform streamlines logistics, improves impact tracking, and supports efficient redistribution. The company raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding from investors including ScaleGood, UCEED Social Impact Fund, and BDC Thrive Lab.
In 2025, Knead took top honours in the AgTech & Food category at the SXSW Pitch competition in Austin, Texas, standing out among 45 global startups for its innovative approach to tackling food waste and food insecurity.
Mikata
Mikata is a digital health company using AI to simplify clinical workflows and reduce administrative burden in healthcare. Co-founded by Kyle Nishiyama and Meaghan Nolan, Mikata develops tools such as Mika AI Scribe, an EMR-integrated assistant that automates charting, appointment management, patient communication, and billing tasks.
Designed to reduce clinician burnout and improve efficiency, Mikata’s platform supports clinics across Canada. By combining responsible AI with human-centred design, the company is helping healthcare providers spend less time on paperwork and more time delivering patient care as it scales into 2026.
North Vector Dynamics
North Vector Dynamics, founded in May 2025 by Craig Johansen and Paul Ziadé, is a defence tech startup building Canadian solutions for evolving aerial threats. Emerging from stealth to tackle hostile drones and hypersonic challenges, NVD develops AI-enhanced systems like the SPEAR precision missile and advanced hypersonic aeropropulsion technologies under a multi-million-dollar Canadian defence contract.
Backed by VC firm ONE9, the company aims to provide scalable counter-UAS and air-defence capabilities to Canada and its allies.
WCD is proud to sponsor Calgary.tech’s Startups to Watch in 2026.
Calgary’s startup community thrives on bold ideas and practical execution. WCD supports the work that turns ambition into impact. We help organizations rethink how their back office runs, so teams can spend less time managing complexity and more time building what’s next.
Possibility Neurotechnologies
Possibility Neurotechnologies is a neurotech startup using brain-computer interface (BCI) tech to empower people with severe physical disabilities to control devices and communicate using only their thoughts. Its flagship Think2Switch™ software turns off-the-shelf EEG headsets into intuitive, thought-powered controls for everyday electronics, enhancing independence and inclusion.
The company was featured as a Top 10 startup at Calgary Innovation Week and won the Alex Raczenko Pitch Award for its accessibility-focused innovation. Cofounded by neuroscientists Dion Kelly, Erica Floreani, and Adam Kirton, it’s building platforms to integrate assistive tech and improve quality of life for users and families.
Taste the City
Taste the City is a foodtech startup offering digitally guided, prepaid self-guided culinary tasting tours that lead diners to multiple local restaurants in a single evening via text prompts. Co-founded in 2023 by Joanna Pariseau and Melissa Ninaber, the platform blends technology, storytelling, and hospitality to make discovering a city’s food scene easy and social—while driving traffic to independent restaurants.
Taste the City has been featured at Calgary Innovation Week’s Launch Party and included in Calgary’s tech export delegation, as the founders look to scale the concept nationally and beyond heading into 2026.
Ultimarii
Ultimarii is an AI startup transforming how major infrastructure projects get approved in Canada by speeding up regulatory and permitting workflows with advanced intelligence tools. Co-founded by Josh Malate and former Alberta minister Doug Schweitzer, the company has raised over $5 million and serves enterprise clients across energy, utilities and legal sectors.
Ultimarii’s platform analyzes complex filings, surfaces key risks and helps stakeholders navigate red tape, cutting months of delays. Rooted in Calgary’s ecosystem, it aims to drive nation-building through technology that accelerates project delivery while maintaining regulatory rigour.
Verano.AI
Verano.AI is a RegTech startup using proprietary agentic AI to automate complex regulatory compliance workflows, cutting processes from weeks to hours and helping regulated firms stay ahead of evolving rules. Co-founded by Clay Swerdelian and Hugo Kiqumoto, the team combines deep compliance and AI expertise to transform risk and reporting for sectors like finance and energy.
Verano has earned spots on the RegTech100 list and A100’s “One to Watch,” partnering with major firms and expanding its platform globally.
Village Wellth
Village Wellth is a fintech startup modernizing how entrepreneurs buy and sell small businesses. Founded in 2020 by Elizabeth Macrae, Joshua Dias, Gisele Savoie, and Robert Irwin, the company offers an all-in-one acquisition platform that connects verified buyers with business listings, education, tools, and advisory support.
By reducing friction and increasing transparency in the traditionally opaque business-brokerage market, Village Wellth aims to make business ownership more accessible. The startup has been highlighted as one to watch within Calgary’s growing fintech ecosystem.
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