$15 Million for more Growth :) $$$Waterloos Sandvine gets $15M for R&D from province Cash injection is not the first to Sandvine which makes software and equipment for Internet networks. Share on Facebook Reddit this! A portion of Sandvine's leaf logo. The company's customers include U.S.-based Comcast and Japan's NTT Communications. A portion of Sandvine's leaf logo. The company's customers include U.S.-based Comcast and Japan's NTT Communications. By: Robert Benzie Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Published on Wed Mar 16 2016 A Waterloo tech firm is getting another hefty grant from Queens Park to keep jobs in Ontario. Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Wednesday that Sandvine will be given up to $15 million to support research and development. Wynne said funding for the provider of hardware and software to manage Internet networks would create 75 new jobs and retain 267 existing positions. The Waterloo region is home to more than 1,000 tech companies and they generate $20 billion in revenue every year, the premier said, boasting the area has the second highest concentration of start-ups per capita in North America, after California. But we have to remember how this happened - 15 years ago, this regions economy was in decline. Low-skilled jobs were disappearing and in the depths of the dot-com stock market crash, Sandvine was just starting out, she said. Our government was looking ahead, too, and we saw that to secure those high-paying jobs of the future and support the visionaries at companies like Sandvine, we needed to invest in our people, we needed to invest in our post-secondary institutions and in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Almost six years ago, the provincial government gave the company up to $25.5 million that was touted at the time as creating up to 75 new positions, and retaining 195 high-value jobs. The premier insisted giving public money to private companies is not the government picking winners and losers, but rather helping when they are at a crucial decision point and need a bit of extra support. Businesses can look to jurisdictions in many other parts of the world for that kind of support, she said. Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid emphasized that Ontario is in an international race to attract and keep businesses. Look, were competing in a fiercely competitive global economy, said Duguid. The days when you could just sort of spread out through a tax credit to everybody a little bit of help to help businesses rise -- and not be investing in your fast runners -- are gone, he said. Sandvine vice president of finance Dave Miller pointed out the funding will be milestone-based meaning the company must create the jobs promised. I can confirm we have already started hiring in advance of this funding. This has taken us a year, over a year to put in place so some of the hiring cant wait, said Miller. There is claw-backs if we dont hit the job target timeline, he added. The firm has more than 250 customers in some 90 countries, including telecom giants like Japans NTT Communications, Spains Telefnica, and U.S.-based Comcast.