Hello Vancouver, goodbye Collision

As we look forward to Web Summit Vancouver in 2025, discover the impressive numbers from the final Collision event, which took place in Toronto.

37,832 attendees from 117 countries

Collision reached a new record in 2024, gathering 37,832 attendees from 117 countries. This was the last Collision event, and its final year in Toronto, before it transitions to Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025.

Record-breaking year for women founders 

More than 45 percent of startups (734) that attended Collision 2024 were women-founded, the highest proportion of women founders ever at a Collision event, up from 30 percent in 2023. 42 percent of all attendees, as well as 35 percent of speakers across Collision’s 18 tracks, were women. 

Collision’s women in tech program, which started in 2016, has empowered women across the globe through networking opportunities, mentorship programs, and more. At this year’s event, there was a dedicated women in tech meet-up area to facilitate networking and making connections.

Startups and partners 

1,623 startups from 57 countries exhibited over three days of Collision, the highest number of startups at any Collision event.

Almost 200 startups attended through our Impact program – which brought together the most promising climate tech, health tech and deep tech startups within the space – and 370 startups at the event were Black- or Indigenous-founded. Participating startups took part in 57 Mentor Hours sessions and nine startup masterclasses during the event. 

Some of the world’s most well-known companies – including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Snowflake and Dell – exhibited on the Collision event floor, as well as trade delegations from countries around the world, including Italy, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Latvia, Japan, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Uruguay and Austria.

“It’s incredible to go out on such a high for our final Collision event. We have more startups than ever before in Toronto this year, connecting and exchanging ideas about the technology and trends shaping the world. I’m incredibly proud of the growth we’ve seen and the growth in representation”, said Paddy Cosgrave, founder and CEO of Web Summit.

“Startup participation has grown 50 percent over the six years we’ve been in Toronto, and this year, we’ve broken an incredible record, as 45 percent of our startups are women-founded,” added Paddy.

The Web Summit CEO went on to sat that “at a time when technology is interwoven into every aspect of our lives and is advancing more rapidly than ever before, and with an uncertain future ahead, gathering diverse groups of people to exchange ideas and perspectives, learn from one another, and help forge a path forward where everyone in society is enhanced, not harmed, by innovation, is essential”.

Investors, speakers and media

Collision hosted 570 speakers this year, including Aidan Gomez, founder and CEO of Cohere; Geoffrey Hinton, the Godfather of AI; and Maria Sharapova, entrepreneur and tennis legend. Elsewhere, 1,003 journalists from media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and Al Jazeera, as well as 739 investors from some of the world’s biggest funds, were in attendance. 

Top investors at the event included Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures; Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures; and Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, all of whom featured on the Forbes Midas List. 1,762 investor to startup meeting requests were made for Collision 2024.

Community partnerships and our Indigenous attendee program 

42 community partners took part in Collision 2024, and the number of local and national grassroots organizations and groups participating in the program grew exponentially from 2019, when just two groups attended. Community partners at this year’s event included Black Founders Network, Colorintech, Scale Without Borders and The Tech Effect.

Collision’s Indigenous attendee program also returned for a third year to amplify the voices of Indigenous communities in Canada, and to contribute towards building a more just and fair tech ecosystem. Since the program’s beginnings in 2022, Collision has distributed hundreds of free tickets to Indigenous leaders, founders, investors and operators in the tech space. 

Join us for Web Summit Vancouver, taking place from May 27-30, 2025. Sign up for 50% off your ticket.