OneEleven, the startup incubator located in downtown Toronto, has closed permanently due to the COVID-19 lockdown impacting its client companies and its own business model.

The national startup publication Betakit reported Wednesday that the 125,000-square-foot office space had closed for good. OneEleven received no government funding, so it suffered along with its clients when some startups had to lay employees off and face closure.

While Entrevestor generally focuses on happenings in the Atlantic Canadian startup community, we’re featuring this Betakit report as it demonstrates the brutal effects of the current recession on the Canadian startup community.

The report said OneEleven sent a statement to its community saying its business model demanded that it assume some of its clients’ risks. That included the “risk of graduations or closures or layoffs among our companies and what that would mean to our bottom line.”

Launched in 2013, OneEleven was home to more than 50 startups. Along with providing office space of varying sizes, OneEleven also offered programming for member and non-member companies.

As recently as last year, OneEleven had hoped to establish an international network of startup incubators. It opened facilities in Ottawa and London, England, though both were shut down last year.

One member of the East Coast community who knew OneEleven well is Startup Zone CEO Patrick Farrar, who previously worked at Venture for Canada in Toronto, and would frequently visit companies in the facility. 

"It was always an exciting time going to OneEleven," Farrar said Thursday. "I would often take visiting entrepreneurs or anyone who wasn't familiar with OneEleven to see what Toronto was stirring up in innovation. It was inspiring to see all the different founders and teams working together, developing the next generation of tech."

Farrar added he hopes some components of OneEleven will continue, such as the provision of affordable working spaces for founders. 

He said he'll be "curious to see what's next for community connections and programming within the space. Hopefully other ecosystem partners, both local and national (like us), can come together to support where needed."