US Tech Firm Sets Foot in Canada

By Veronica Grecu

San Francisco-based cloud software provider Okta is expanding its operations northward by opening a brand new office in Canada.

Okta’s offices at 171 John Street, Toronto

Motivated by a rapidly growing technology community in Toronto, Okta has chosen the 171 John St. building as its new Canadian home. Also known as the Quality Knitting Building, the 36,500-square-foot office structure was once a textile factory and features the traditional brick and beam architecture that is still seen in Toronto’s historic downtown.

Okta’s new Canadian office is located in close proximity to many tech companies and strategic customers such as Benevity, Canadian Energy, FreshBooks, Shopify and Teknion.

New Home in a High-Tech City

By opening a Toronto office, Okta will have immediate access to the city’s pool of tech and engineering talent that includes nearly 400,000 students. Additionally, the province of Ontario represents the second largest population of high-tech workers in Canada, whose technology sector is responsible for $117 billion of the country’s economic output.

“It’s great to see Okta investing locally to harness the talent and innovation in Canada,” said John Comacchio, CIO & senior vice president at Teknion. “We invested in Okta years ago because of the company’s long-term vision and its emphasis on customer success. We continue to see value in the Okta Identity Cloud, and believe opening an office in Toronto—which is not only where Teknion is headquartered, but a city known for its high-quality engineering talent—will further the company’s innovation.”

Image via Okta