Verily Plans Expansion to Canada

Verily develops tools and devices designed to collect, organize, and leverage health data and prevent and manage disease. The company partners with a variety of medical stakeholders including life sciences organizations, medical device firms, and governments with the goal of developing new medicines, improving patient outcomes, and building next-generation medical devices.

The sister company of Google, which started as a division of Google X before spinning off as an independent subsidiary in 2015, has secured major rounds of financing in the past three years. After raising US$1 billion in early 2019, Verily raised another US$700 million, in December of 2020. The company seeks to become a trusted partner in product and solution development in the healthcare and life sciences sectors in Canada, the United States, and internationally.

Verily reportedly plans on hiring 30 to 40 people to work in engineering, user experience, research and design, data science, and product management roles. The company was drawn to the Kitchener-Waterloo area in large part because of the city’s tech talent pool, which stems from the presence of the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the well-established tech ecosystem.

According to Hockeystick, Kitchener-Waterloo’s startups raised nearly $670 million in 2020, more than doubling the region’s 2019 total. Verily’s Canadian hub will be led by Ilia Tulchinksy, who is well-versed in the area’s tech sector having previously served as an engineering director for Google, based in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Author: Max Borins, 2021 Summer Student-at-law