Vartika Manasvi

Worth knowing

She has founded two companies and sold both, one of them a Calgary-built platform that helped Canadian employers hire technical talent from global markets without the usual bias in screening. 20+ years spanning entrepreneurship, investing, and innovation adoption. Built and scaled ventures with two exits, advised 100+ founders, led portfolio strategy for 1,200 startups at MaRS, and supported $50M in venture funding and corporate partnerships globally.

Story

Vartika Manasvi works at the intersection of technological innovation, business strategy, and commercial growth. Through her work with the Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), she supports innovative Canadian companies in translating technical capabilities into market-ready solutions and building the foundations for sustainable growth. Her work involves assessing technology-driven business opportunities, shaping R&D project objectives, and helping companies align technical execution with measurable commercial outcomes. She works closely with founders and leadership teams to identify execution risks, establish meaningful milestones, and prioritize the activities that can accelerate commercialization, market adoption, and business growth. Vartika takes a systems-thinking approach to innovation advisory, looking beyond individual projects to understand the underlying drivers of repeatability, product-market fit, and scalability. She is particularly interested in emerging deep-tech companies, advanced materials, quantum and industrial technologies where the right combination of technical development, customer adoption, and strategic execution can unlock significant commercial potential. Her advisory philosophy is grounded in a fundamental principle: the value of innovation lies not only in what a company develops, but in its ability to turn that innovation into repeatable market success. She focuses on identifying the critical leverage points that help companies move from early traction to sustainable scale, while ensuring that R&D investments remain connected to clear business objectives.

Canadian story

Arrived from India on an Alberta-backed startup visa in 2018; built in San Francisco & Calgary, now in Waterloo with NRC-IRAP as a Industrial Tech Advisor.

Highlights

• Founder & Exit: Founded two technology startups, including StackRaft, a global talent platform for software engineers; both ventures reached successful exits.
• Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship: Built and sold her first company, a hyperlocal social platform, in 2017.
• Leadership: Led startup relations at NASSCOM 10,000 Startups, helping build connections across India's technology startup ecosystem. And supported the NVIDIAs Inception program.
• Innovation & Advisory: Held startup leadership and advisory roles with MaRS Discovery District, Communitech, DMZ, and other innovation organizations.
• Global Milestone: Recognized as the first woman entrepreneur from South Asia to receive Canada's Start-up Visa, enabling her to build her next venture in Canada.
• Writer & Speaker: Published commentary on entrepreneurship, hiring, technology, and startup ecosystems through YourStory and other platforms.