In a year marked by economic turbulence around the world, Calgary moved with clarity and conviction. The Blue Sky City sharpened its long-term strategy, delivered meaningful results across key sectors and strengthened its reputation as one of North America’s most resilient and future-focused economies.
From tech talent growth to global business expansion to creative industries hitting new heights, 2025 was a year defined by progress — and by a community leaning into opportunity with purpose.
Calgary’s Innovation Strategy sets the direction
This was the year Calgary aligned around a bold vision for its future economy.
Calgary’s Innovation Strategy — developed with partners across industry, academia and community — outlined a clear path to long-term resilience, competitiveness and shared prosperity. It reinforced what’s at the heart of Uplook: An Action Plan for Our Economy — a commitment to the growth that will define Calgary’s next chapter.
Throughout the year, CED worked closely with the ecosystem to translate this vision into action.
Key developments included:
- A more unified approach to sector development and skills planning;
- Stronger alignment between business, post-secondaries and government; and
- Visible momentum behind Calgary’s rise as a national hub for innovation-led growth.
The message from industry was consistent: Calgary is ready to scale what's built here.
Tech talent, startup momentum and the rise of Calgary’s digital economy
Calgary’s reputation as a tech city didn’t just hold in 2025 — it accelerated.
The city ranked number one in North America for tech job growth for the second straight year. With 61 per cent growth in tech jobs since 2021, there’s been a surge in the bench strength of our talent pipeline and its ability to attract companies looking for skilled workers.
That momentum translated into investment. With $341 million invested through 43 deals, Calgary claimed the top spot in Western Canada for venture capital investment at the end of the third quarter, signaling that global and national investors increasingly view the city as a high-potential technology market.
Several standout stories underscored this trajectory:
- Ontopical became Sovra’s AI Centre of Excellence, anchoring AI expertise in Calgary;
- Serenity Power relocated to Calgary to scale its clean energy technology; and
- Calgary continued to perform strongly in global startup rankings, highlighting its resilience and growth-stage depth.
This year, Startup Genome named the city among the Top 30 startup ecosystems in North America and acknowledged the Blue Sky City’s 13 per cent growth in ecosystem value between the 2023 and 2025 reports — in contrast to a 14 per cent average decline globally.
Together, these milestones reinforced a city becoming a magnet for innovators — and building the infrastructure to support them.
A breakout year for Calgary’s creative economy
Creativity became one of Calgary’s most visible economic strengths in 2025.
The city climbed to fifth best city for filmmakers in North America, reflecting strong industry foundations, unique locations, world-class crews and a steady slate of productions choosing Calgary as a backdrop.
CED welcomed Adnaan Wasey as Calgary’s new Film Commissioner, bringing award-winning media leadership and fresh industry relationships to the role — a meaningful step in elevating Calgary’s presence on the global stage.
The year delivered several headline achievements:
- Die My Love filmed in Calgary, debuted on the big screen;
- Screen Access Alberta launched, supporting pathways into screen-based careers; and
- Calgary Games Kiln equipped local game creators to bring their products to market.
From film sets to gaming studios, Calgary’s creative industries reinforced their role as both cultural and economic drivers.
Trade, global reach and business resilience
Calgary companies continued to find international success in 2025, even amid shifting global markets. Through our Trade Accelerator Program, local businesses secured more than $50 million in international deals through 2025, demonstrating strong global demand for Calgary-made products and innovation.
A major development this year was a $2.8 million investment from the Government of Alberta to expand Calgary Economic Development’s Trade Accelerator Program (TAP). The support will enable TAP to reach up to 650 additional companies over the next five years, giving more Alberta firms access to export strategies, mentorship and market intelligence.
To build on that success, CED introduced Level Up, a new advanced stream launching in 2026 to help TAP graduates deepen their global reach through sector-specific programming, new online tools and continued trade training.
Whether in clean energy, wellness products or digital technologies, Calgary companies are proving they can succeed on the world stage — and CED’s expanded export support is helping them get there.
Calgary’s economic pulse: Confidence, collaboration and a city investing in itself
Across the year, CED’s Economic Snapshot offered a real-time look at the health of Calgary’s economy — consistently showing strong labour markets, business formation and population growth.
Calgary’s ongoing investment in infrastructure, innovation capacity and community amenities demonstrated a city confidently building for the future. These themes carried through major gatherings, including hosting our signature events, Report to the Community and 2026 Economic Outlook, as well as a global congress of energy leaders at the World Energy Cities Partnership AGM.
Calgary’s innovation ecosystem and business community were further strengthened in 2025 by investments from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF) into initiatives and organizations like Lufthansa Technik, Calgary as Canada’s XPRIZE Hub, ETC Foundation, the Xpand Commercialization Hub and AgSphere.
OCIF’s new funding stream — OCIF Express — also ramped up this year, providing local companies faster access to funding to drive innovation, job creation and economic resilience.
The bottom line: Calgary built momentum that matters
2025 wasn’t just a year of strong rankings or standout announcements — it was a year of cohesion, purpose and execution.
Calgary strengthened its innovation ecosystem, grew its talent base, elevated its creative industries and helped local businesses expand globally. It invested in the right foundations for long-term growth and demonstrated what’s possible when a city leans into optimism and action.
The Blue Sky City is building its future — and 2025 was a defining step forward.