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Category Archives: NCFA Blog
Holt Accelerator Joins NCFA as an Industry Partner
NCFA Canada | Craig Asano | Sep 9, 2019
TORONTO and MONTREAL, September 9, 2019 The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) is pleased to announce that Holt Accelerator has joined NCFA as an industry partner.
NCFA's industry partners are builders, investors and innovators who have provided a significant level of service and/or contribution towards the sustainability and growth of NCFA and related fintech sectors globally. We encourage the fintech ecosystem to support and collaborate with NCFA's global network of industry partners by engaging directly with their ventures of mutual interest.
The name, Holt, is in honour of Sir Herbert Holt, who immigrated to Canada at the age of 18 in the late 1800's. He went on to become the longest serving president of the Royal Bank of Canada, Chairman of the Light, Heat and Power Company (formerly Hydro Quebec), and had controlling stakes or influence in another 300 companies internationally. His great, great grandson, Brendan Holt Dunn, wanted to give back to the Canadian ecosystem with the creation of the Holt Accelerator. Jan Christopher Arp would join as cofounder, and craft / implement the vision of building a fintech platform that accelerates the adoption of fintech solutions our society desperately needs.
"Our family has a history of investing, growing, supporting, and building financial companies for the past five generations. With the rising need to support the customer journey through fintech adoption, we have decided to launch Holt Accelerator that focuses on integrating FinTech businesses with Canada’s best innovation partners, while expanding their international network.” – Brendan Holt Dunn, Managing Partner, Holt Accelerator
"Since launching in 2017 the Holt Accelerator has been relentlessly pursuing the growth and development of leading Fintechs in Canada and around the globe. This partnership is a testament to the valuable bridges being built coast-to-coast, and our collective commitment to support and strengthen the innovation finance ecosystem in the country and around the globe.” – Craig Asano, Founding CEO, NCFA
The best place to connect and get more information is at holtaccelerator.ai.
NCFA Interview with Jan Christopher Arp, Managing Partner, Holt Accelerator
What type of companies and investors does Holt work with, and how does Holt add value and accelerate its portfolio?
Holt Accelerator seeks fintech companies that solve our 250+ Advisors biggest problems. Specifically, it's about finding the world's best fintechs at home and abroad and matching them with problem owners of financial institutions, as well as providing resources and connections to make a deal. Resources and connections include funding (or access to investors), product development (i.e. through partners or Advisors), or engagement with other relevant stakeholders. The result, companies in our portfolio have closed six-figure customer deals with financial institutions, raised multi-million seed rounds, or international portfolio companies have established Canadian subsidiary offices.
What fintech models do you get most excited about today and where do you see exponential growth happening in 1-3 years out?
Many areas excite us, but to name a few:
- Improved customer profiling for either augmented due diligence, streamlined on-boarding, AML / KYC requirements, and/or increasing sales, as well as improved protection of the associated profile data,
- Improving financial inclusion through lending, such as "niche" lending products or alternative credit scoring,
- Democratizing access to existing and emerging asset classes for the masses,
- Building infrastructure for blockchain during the "crypto winter", with special consideration for securitize token offerings (STOs).
Can you give us a run-down of the current cohort? What’s on the horizon and how best can investors and interested parties meet these amazing Holt-backed fintech founders?
After processing close to 600 applications from 74 countries, we've chosen the top 1% that are best suited to solve Canada's greatest challenges. If you are interested in becoming an Advisor, then take a look at our current cohort below, and let us know which company speaks to you. We will be in Vancouver, Toronto, Waterloo and Montreal, providing a chance to meet them in person, or reach us and we'll make the connection. Our current cohort includes:
- Conatix – a cybersecurity firm preventing fraud and data theft from the inside. Conatix helps banks detect suspicious employee activity, improper behavior, policy violations and other threats on IT networks with thousands of employees, in real time.
- ConfirmU - helping individuals with little or no credit history gain access to financial products by combining financial data and psycholinguistics into an alternative credit scoring system.
- HodlBot - a Canadian based customizable cryptocurrency trading bot that enables users to index the market, create and automatically rebalance their cryptocurrency portfolios.
- LexAlign - LexAlign PBC automates the "missing piece" for fraud and AML risk management: the ongoing monitoring, gap analysis and support of customer processes at scale, including for remote deposit capture (RDC), ACH and wires.
- Maat.ai - modernizing finance by creating new and compliant digital document management solutions. Their digital ID and wallet make secure interactions easy. This Mexican Fintech is enabling people and organizations to exchange digital documents safely, easily and efficiently, improving the experience for all parties.
- Manzil - many of the world's 1 billion Muslims cannot pay or receive interest on financial transactions, hindering their ability to purchase a home. Manzil offers them a murabaha mortgage, balancing modern business practices and religious obligations.
- MarketsFlow - tackling the performance gap in do-it-yourself digital wealth management, MarketsFlow offers a portfolio optimization platform delivering high returns for online investors. This British firm consistently outperforms other robo-advisors available today.
- WealthBlock.AI - US based WealthBlock.AI invites investors to view financial documents via a secure link and tracks the interaction between these investors and the entrepreneurs, to gauge interest and streamline follow ups.
What are the biggest opportunities and challenges with Fintech in Canada and how can industry, government and key stakeholders best lead the way for a sustainable and successful future?
Canada's biggest threat (and biggest opportunity) is our current inability to sync our world-class cities and provinces from coast-to-coast. The result, slow to advance on pressing matters, such as implementing our own Open Banking Framework (i.e. we are at minimum 5 years behind leaders, and the gap is growing), or defining a strategic direction for our Nation.
“Holt Accelerator will be hosting Deal Day's in various cities across Canada over the next several weeks, and we hope fintech leaders do their part to attend this nation-wide effort to unite us. If you can't engage now, then we encourage you to engage with other events / players, like our partners at NFCA, who have been doing some great work in the space for some time now.” Jan Christopher Arp, Managing Partner, Holt Accelerator
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About NCFA
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
About Holt Accelerator
The Holt family legacy is rooted in tradition and entrepreneurship. Our history of investing, growing, supporting, and building financial companies for the past five generations, has led us to create the Fintech accelerator, powered by an AI solutions provider. For more information, please visit https://www.holtaccelerator.ai/
CONTACTS:
Craig Asano
Founder and CEO
NCFA Canada
casano@ncfacanada.org
Jan Christopher Arp
Managing Partner
Holt Accelerator
jan@holtaccelerator.ai
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Paul Schulte, Founder and Managing Editor, Schulte Research, Joins the National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada’s Advisory Board
About NCFA Canada | C. Asano | August 23, 2019
Paul Schulte, NCFA Advisor, Banking and Financial Services
TORONTO, Aug 23, 2019 – The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) today announced that Paul Schulte, Founder and Managing Editor of Schulte Research in Singapore, has joined the Association`s international Advisory Board to advise in the areas of Banking and Financial Services (profile).
Paul's roles in banking & financial services in the past 30 years include equity & fixed income research (buy & sell sides) in emerging markets. In recent years, technology has evolved rapidly to challenge all facets of financial services his core belief is: Liquidity & credit are everything; get bank liquidity & solvency right and the rest follows.
Aside from being the founder & editor of Schulte Research, he has taught for 18 years IN MBA programs: Tufts, HK UST, HKU, LMU Hilton School in LA & SUSS in Singapore. He has also worked for the Number 1 investment bank from Switzerland, US, UK, Japan, PRC & Holland starting in 1990. Paul has been a source for the WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg, Nikkei, FT, Economist, Barron’s & Forbes. His clients include some of the largest sovereign, pension, mutual and hedge funds globally. He served as an advisor to IOSCO, ASIC, HKMA, Malaysian SFC, PRC PBOC & CBRC, Thai SEC & Indonesian OJK and Bank Indonesia.
See: News on China cryptocurrency and more reforms
Paul has authored numerous books such as “The Next Revolution in our Credit-Driven Economy: The Advent of Financial Technology” integrates market theory & practice to help investors identify fintech opportunities & help regulators create a sustainable environment. In conjunction with SUSS, he co-authored "Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, And Inclusion” (AI, the IOT & Insurtech in China).
Check out Paul Schulte's new book: AI & Quantum Computing for Finance & Insurance: PRC VS US. https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11371
“At the moment, we're witnessing financial technology stocks eating away at the liquidity foundations of banks -- Alibaba, Tencent, Google, Grab, Kabbage, GS? They are the future.” – Paul Schulte, Managing Editor, Schulte Research
“The growth and influence of global fintech markets (and players) such as Asia is remarkable. Paul’s experience and ability to see deep into the confluences of financial powers in all things banking and financial services in emerging markets and his core understanding of innovative technologies is a huge asset. We are thrilled to have him join NCFA’s advisory board and look forward to his contributions as we venture overseas.” – Craig Asano, Founder & CEO, NCFA
Source: NCFA
# # #
About NCFA
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
About Schulte Research
The focus of Schulte Research is technological change in banks & insurance and the way this affects prices. Our clients include some of the largest sovereign, pension, mutual and hedge funds globally. In 2014, Mr. Schulte wrote “The Next Revolution in our Credit-Driven Economy: The Advent of Financial Technology”. He was credited for seeing the disruption to banks early. He is an advisor on Fintech to six bank boards, two insurance boards and five regulators. He is also a frequent keynote speaker. For more information, please visit http://www.schulte-research.com/
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Craig Asano
Founder and CEO
NCFA Canada
416 618 0254
casano@ncfacanada.org
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Nov 12, 2026 Buying a Canadian money services business starts with identifying what the buyer will acquire: a legal entity, a registration history, contracts, records and possibly an active operation. The value of that package depends on whether it supports the services the new owner intends to provide. A FINTRAC registration entry is an important starting point. It does not establish the company’s financial condition, the quality of its compliance programme or the availability of banking relationships after an acquisition. A payment business may also need a separate assessment under the Retail Payment Activities Act, or RPAA. For investors evaluating a Canadian MSB company for sale, due diligence should connect registration status, actual activities, transaction structure and financial evidence before the parties agree a completion timetable. Verify the Canadian MSB registration and legal entity Begin with the target’s exact legal name, incorporation details, registration number and current status. Match the entity in the corporate documents to the entity in FINTRAC’s Money Services Business Registry. FINTRAC explicitly states that registration does not mean it endorses or licenses a business. It also states that it does not issue licences or certificates of registration. A sales presentation using the phrase “FINTRAC licence” should ...
November 12, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Wealthtech Investing And Trading Strategy still runs a software business, but Bitcoin now dominates its assets and capital raising. MSCI no longer treats that balance as an index eligible operating company. November 11, 2026, MSCI confirmed Strategy’s removal from the MSCI USA and MSCI World indexes after the November 30 close under its new methodology for non operating companies. MSCI is one of the world’s largest index providers, and its benchmarks are followed by funds investing across global equity markets. Japan’s Metaplanet is also being removed from an MSCI index. MSCI has decided that Strategy no longer qualifies for its equity indexes because Bitcoin now dominates its assets and much of its capital raising. Strategy still sells software and reports operating revenue, but MSCI is drawing a line between a business that holds investment assets and one where those assets have become the main financial story. Why Is MSCI Removing Strategy From Its Indexes? MSCI first looked at a rule aimed specifically at digital asset treasury companies. It later dropped that proposal and change it's methodology to cover companies whose finances ...
Nov 12, 2026 Crypto market cap is calculated by multiplying an asset's reference price by its circulating supply. A token priced at $2 with 50 million units circulating has a market cap of $100 million. The calculation estimates the value of that supply at the reference price; it does not total the money investors deposited. To understand a change in the ranking, examine both inputs and the provider's definitions. A larger number can result from price changes, supply changes, or revised reporting. Establish what the two inputs represent The arithmetic is simple, but neither input is self-explanatory. “Price” may be a reference assembled from selected trading pairs and venues, rather than the last transaction on the exchange you use. A provider may exclude observations or convert quote currencies. Two services can publish different estimates because their source selection and methods differ. Circulating supply is an estimate of units treated as available in the market under a provider's rules. It may differ from the number minted, the total recorded by a contract, or the maximum permitted under a protocol's current design. Locked balances, treasury allocations, burns, and scheduled releases require interpretation. A transparent methodology matters because identical arithmetic can still use ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Risk Compliance And Regtech Financial firms are putting AI agents into production well before giving them broad financial authority. That creates time to set identity, permissions and transaction controls before autonomous execution becomes common. On November 11, 2026, Bank of England Financial Policy Committee external member Jonathan Hall used his final FPC speech to examine what happens when AI agents get more authority inside financial firms. A Bank of England and FCA survey of 196 firms found that 80% already deploy AI agents and another 14% plan to within 12 months. Only 2% reported agents with broad autonomy, and none of those were in trading and payments. Finance is adopting agents quickly, but firms are still keeping people and hard limits around the decisions that can change money, positions or customer outcomes. AI Agents Are In Finance But They Are Not Trading Alone The 2026 Bank of England and FCA survey separates four levels of authority: Decision support lets an agent recommend an action while a person decides and executes it. Constrained execution lets the agent act inside preset rules. Conditional autonomy ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Entrepreneurs Startups Small Businesses, Equity Crowdfunding And Alternative Funding A small group of large rounds is carrying Canadian venture totals while deal count and growth stage financing remain well below recent norms. On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association published its Q3 2026 venture capital report. Canadian companies raised $4.3 billion across 397 deals through September, only 1% less capital than a year earlier. But 23 rounds of $50 million or more represented just 6% of disclosed deals and absorbed 58% of all venture capital invested. Deal count has also fallen every year since 2021. The national total is holding up far better than the number of companies getting financed. Six Big Rounds Carried 59% Of Q3 Venture Capital Q3 produced $1.35 billion across 129 deals. Capital was 1% higher than Q2, but deal count fell 15%. Six rounds above $50 million accounted for $793 million, or 59% of the quarter’s capital. That's a decent quarter for the companies that closed those rounds, but a weak quarter for everyone else. Mega rounds above $50 million totalled $2.5 billion across 23 transactions ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Competition And Market Structure, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Regulation And Policy Canada is cutting bank fees and switching barriers after years of weak competition, high concentration and poor productivity. On November 7, 2026, the federal government proposed something Canadian investors have complained about for years. Banks would no longer be allowed to charge most investment account transfer fees, which typically cost about $150 per account. Ottawa also wants clearer transfer information and tighter timelines for moving investments to another financial institution. The fee matters because leaving can already be slow and frustrating. Receiving firms often reimburse the outgoing charge to win the account. That means a fee collected by the institution losing the customer can become part of the acquisition cost for the institution trying to win that customer. Canada's six largest banks hold roughly 93% of banking assets. The Competition Bureau was warning about barriers facing fintech competitors in 2017. Ottawa began reviewing open banking in 2018. A federal advisory committee later recommended an operating system by January 2023 and warned that government should not delay. January 2023 came and went. Real Time Rail also slipped years beyond its first expected ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Regulation And Policy Funds, Collateral And Settlement Lead Canada’s Near Term Tokenization Opportunity On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Securities Administrators published its Project Tokenization Phase 1 findings, setting out where Canadian market participants see the strongest commercial opportunities for tokenization and what regulators plan to test next. The report draws on 233 organizations, 21 bilateral meetings and 80 survey responses, along with workshops attended by 281 people in Calgary and 491 in Toronto. Participants put investment funds, private assets, collateral, treasury and settlement infrastructure ahead of public stocks as the strongest near term opportunities. The report also cuts through one of tokenization’s biggest sales pitches. Blockchain can change how an asset is recorded, transferred or settled, but it doesn't automatically create liquidity, investor demand, broader eligibility or stronger ownership rights. Those outcomes still depend on the product, market, legal structure and infrastructure around it. The CSA now plans to take specific projects into Phase 2 through a 120 day public call for proposals. Firms may be able to use existing regulatory processes, tailored regulatory treatment or bounded testing in a ...
Nov 11, 2026 A positive work environment is key for any team that wants to succeed. Team morale is crucial for productivity, motivation, and job satisfaction. Engaging in activities that lift spirits and strengthen connections can lead to great results. Creating a positive team environment requires creativity, engagement, and some fun. Each activity can strengthen connections, boost motivation, and improve workplace dynamics. When teams focus on strategies to boost morale, they work toward shared success. These activities can lead to lasting memories and help build a stronger team culture. Here are some fun strategies to help improve your team's morale and make the workplace livelier. Fun at the Arcade Visiting an arcade spot is a great way to enjoy time together and build teamwork. Imagine your team facing challenges with various games. Whether it's racing or playing team games, the arcade encourages friendly competition and bonding. These fun experiences can help reduce stress and improve relationships among coworkers. Arcades offer many options to suit diverse interests and skill levels. The lively atmosphere invites everyone to relax and take a break from their daily tasks. Shared laughter and enjoyment can lead to better communication and teamwork when you return to the ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Fundraising, Investing, Trading, Leadership, Competition, Human Capital, Health A Brokerage Race Beyond $0 Commissions On November 10, 2026, Webull Canada added Nasdaq Basic Canada, giving clients free real time Level 1 quote and trade data across Canadian listed equities. The feed provides best bid, best offer and last sale information for stocks listed on the TSX, TSX Venture, CSE and Cboe Canada. Nasdaq says its consolidated feed can reduce Level 1 market data costs by more than 60% compared with traditional Canadian data packages. Webull isn't first to give Canadian investors free real time information. The more interesting story is how quickly another paid feature is becoming part of the basic brokerage account. Wealthsimple helped normalize $0 trading in 2019, Questrade followed in 2025 and Webull dropped its own commissions in April 2026. With the headline trading fee largely gone, brokers now need other reasons for investors to move money and keep it on the platform. Who Led Canada’s Race To $0 Trading And Free Market Data Wealthsimple Trade launched nationally on March 13, 2019 with $0 commissions on Canadian and U.S. stocks and ETFs. Questrade removed commissions on listed stocks and ETFs ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding A Toronto Fintech Riskfuel Analytics Brings AI Pricing Into BBVA’s Global Markets Workflow On November 10, 2026, BBVA deployed Riskfuel Analytics' neural pricing technology inside the pre-trade structuring workflow for autocallable products on its ePricer platform. Riskfuel is a Toronto fintech founded in 2019 that builds AI models for derivatives pricing. BBVA is a global bank with a large corporate and investment banking business. The deployment puts Canadian built AI directly into the calculations used to design complex structured products at a major global bank. Riskfuel's model is trained on BBVA's own pricing engine and uses more than 4,000 market and product inputs. The company says the surrogate was tested against more than 100,000 trades and can evaluate thousands of candidate structures in under a minute. BBVA had already added AI generated investment ideas to ePricer in September. Riskfuel goes further into the workflow by speeding up the numerical pricing work while BBVA's own model remains the reference. How Riskfuel Speeds Up BBVA's Autocallable Pricing Autocallables can depend on volatility, interest rates, dividends, maturity, coupon levels and several barrier conditions. Autocallables are structured investments ...
Nov 12, 2026 Buying a Canadian money services business starts with identifying what the buyer will acquire: a legal entity, a registration history, contracts, records and possibly an active operation. The value of that package depends on whether it supports the services the new owner intends to provide. A FINTRAC registration entry is an important starting point. It does not establish the company’s financial condition, the quality of its compliance programme or the availability of banking relationships after an acquisition. A payment business may also need a separate assessment under the Retail Payment Activities Act, or RPAA. For investors evaluating a Canadian MSB company for sale, due diligence should connect registration status, actual activities, transaction structure and financial evidence before the parties agree a completion timetable. Verify the Canadian MSB registration and legal entity Begin with the target’s exact legal name, incorporation details, registration number and current status. Match the entity in the corporate documents to the entity in FINTRAC’s Money Services Business Registry. FINTRAC explicitly states that registration does not mean it endorses or licenses a business. It also states that it does not issue licences or certificates of registration. A sales presentation using the phrase “FINTRAC licence” should ...
November 12, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Wealthtech Investing And Trading Strategy still runs a software business, but Bitcoin now dominates its assets and capital raising. MSCI no longer treats that balance as an index eligible operating company. November 11, 2026, MSCI confirmed Strategy’s removal from the MSCI USA and MSCI World indexes after the November 30 close under its new methodology for non operating companies. MSCI is one of the world’s largest index providers, and its benchmarks are followed by funds investing across global equity markets. Japan’s Metaplanet is also being removed from an MSCI index. MSCI has decided that Strategy no longer qualifies for its equity indexes because Bitcoin now dominates its assets and much of its capital raising. Strategy still sells software and reports operating revenue, but MSCI is drawing a line between a business that holds investment assets and one where those assets have become the main financial story. Why Is MSCI Removing Strategy From Its Indexes? MSCI first looked at a rule aimed specifically at digital asset treasury companies. It later dropped that proposal and change it's methodology to cover companies whose finances ...
Nov 12, 2026 Crypto market cap is calculated by multiplying an asset's reference price by its circulating supply. A token priced at $2 with 50 million units circulating has a market cap of $100 million. The calculation estimates the value of that supply at the reference price; it does not total the money investors deposited. To understand a change in the ranking, examine both inputs and the provider's definitions. A larger number can result from price changes, supply changes, or revised reporting. Establish what the two inputs represent The arithmetic is simple, but neither input is self-explanatory. “Price” may be a reference assembled from selected trading pairs and venues, rather than the last transaction on the exchange you use. A provider may exclude observations or convert quote currencies. Two services can publish different estimates because their source selection and methods differ. Circulating supply is an estimate of units treated as available in the market under a provider's rules. It may differ from the number minted, the total recorded by a contract, or the maximum permitted under a protocol's current design. Locked balances, treasury allocations, burns, and scheduled releases require interpretation. A transparent methodology matters because identical arithmetic can still use ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Risk Compliance And Regtech Financial firms are putting AI agents into production well before giving them broad financial authority. That creates time to set identity, permissions and transaction controls before autonomous execution becomes common. On November 11, 2026, Bank of England Financial Policy Committee external member Jonathan Hall used his final FPC speech to examine what happens when AI agents get more authority inside financial firms. A Bank of England and FCA survey of 196 firms found that 80% already deploy AI agents and another 14% plan to within 12 months. Only 2% reported agents with broad autonomy, and none of those were in trading and payments. Finance is adopting agents quickly, but firms are still keeping people and hard limits around the decisions that can change money, positions or customer outcomes. AI Agents Are In Finance But They Are Not Trading Alone The 2026 Bank of England and FCA survey separates four levels of authority: Decision support lets an agent recommend an action while a person decides and executes it. Constrained execution lets the agent act inside preset rules. Conditional autonomy ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Entrepreneurs Startups Small Businesses, Equity Crowdfunding And Alternative Funding A small group of large rounds is carrying Canadian venture totals while deal count and growth stage financing remain well below recent norms. On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association published its Q3 2026 venture capital report. Canadian companies raised $4.3 billion across 397 deals through September, only 1% less capital than a year earlier. But 23 rounds of $50 million or more represented just 6% of disclosed deals and absorbed 58% of all venture capital invested. Deal count has also fallen every year since 2021. The national total is holding up far better than the number of companies getting financed. Six Big Rounds Carried 59% Of Q3 Venture Capital Q3 produced $1.35 billion across 129 deals. Capital was 1% higher than Q2, but deal count fell 15%. Six rounds above $50 million accounted for $793 million, or 59% of the quarter’s capital. That's a decent quarter for the companies that closed those rounds, but a weak quarter for everyone else. Mega rounds above $50 million totalled $2.5 billion across 23 transactions ...
November 11, 2026 | NCFA Story Intelligence | Competition And Market Structure, Wealthtech Investing And Trading, Regulation And Policy Canada is cutting bank fees and switching barriers after years of weak competition, high concentration and poor productivity. On November 7, 2026, the federal government proposed something Canadian investors have complained about for years. Banks would no longer be allowed to charge most investment account transfer fees, which typically cost about $150 per account. Ottawa also wants clearer transfer information and tighter timelines for moving investments to another financial institution. The fee matters because leaving can already be slow and frustrating. Receiving firms often reimburse the outgoing charge to win the account. That means a fee collected by the institution losing the customer can become part of the acquisition cost for the institution trying to win that customer. Canada's six largest banks hold roughly 93% of banking assets. The Competition Bureau was warning about barriers facing fintech competitors in 2017. Ottawa began reviewing open banking in 2018. A federal advisory committee later recommended an operating system by January 2023 and warned that government should not delay. January 2023 came and went. Real Time Rail also slipped years beyond its first expected ...
November 10, 2026 | NCFA Fintech Market Insight | Digital Assets Blockchain And Tokenization, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding, Regulation And Policy Funds, Collateral And Settlement Lead Canada’s Near Term Tokenization Opportunity On November 10, 2026, the Canadian Securities Administrators published its Project Tokenization Phase 1 findings, setting out where Canadian market participants see the strongest commercial opportunities for tokenization and what regulators plan to test next. The report draws on 233 organizations, 21 bilateral meetings and 80 survey responses, along with workshops attended by 281 people in Calgary and 491 in Toronto. Participants put investment funds, private assets, collateral, treasury and settlement infrastructure ahead of public stocks as the strongest near term opportunities. The report also cuts through one of tokenization’s biggest sales pitches. Blockchain can change how an asset is recorded, transferred or settled, but it doesn't automatically create liquidity, investor demand, broader eligibility or stronger ownership rights. Those outcomes still depend on the product, market, legal structure and infrastructure around it. The CSA now plans to take specific projects into Phase 2 through a 120 day public call for proposals. Firms may be able to use existing regulatory processes, tailored regulatory treatment or bounded testing in a ...
Nov 11, 2026 A positive work environment is key for any team that wants to succeed. Team morale is crucial for productivity, motivation, and job satisfaction. Engaging in activities that lift spirits and strengthen connections can lead to great results. Creating a positive team environment requires creativity, engagement, and some fun. Each activity can strengthen connections, boost motivation, and improve workplace dynamics. When teams focus on strategies to boost morale, they work toward shared success. These activities can lead to lasting memories and help build a stronger team culture. Here are some fun strategies to help improve your team's morale and make the workplace livelier. Fun at the Arcade Visiting an arcade spot is a great way to enjoy time together and build teamwork. Imagine your team facing challenges with various games. Whether it's racing or playing team games, the arcade encourages friendly competition and bonding. These fun experiences can help reduce stress and improve relationships among coworkers. Arcades offer many options to suit diverse interests and skill levels. The lively atmosphere invites everyone to relax and take a break from their daily tasks. Shared laughter and enjoyment can lead to better communication and teamwork when you return to the ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Fundraising, Investing, Trading, Leadership, Competition, Human Capital, Health A Brokerage Race Beyond $0 Commissions On November 10, 2026, Webull Canada added Nasdaq Basic Canada, giving clients free real time Level 1 quote and trade data across Canadian listed equities. The feed provides best bid, best offer and last sale information for stocks listed on the TSX, TSX Venture, CSE and Cboe Canada. Nasdaq says its consolidated feed can reduce Level 1 market data costs by more than 60% compared with traditional Canadian data packages. Webull isn't first to give Canadian investors free real time information. The more interesting story is how quickly another paid feature is becoming part of the basic brokerage account. Wealthsimple helped normalize $0 trading in 2019, Questrade followed in 2025 and Webull dropped its own commissions in April 2026. With the headline trading fee largely gone, brokers now need other reasons for investors to move money and keep it on the platform. Who Led Canada’s Race To $0 Trading And Free Market Data Wealthsimple Trade launched nationally on March 13, 2019 with $0 commissions on Canadian and U.S. stocks and ETFs. Questrade removed commissions on listed stocks and ETFs ...
November 10, 2026 | Market Activity | Artificial Intelligence And Data, Capital Markets Infrastructure And Funding A Toronto Fintech Riskfuel Analytics Brings AI Pricing Into BBVA’s Global Markets Workflow On November 10, 2026, BBVA deployed Riskfuel Analytics' neural pricing technology inside the pre-trade structuring workflow for autocallable products on its ePricer platform. Riskfuel is a Toronto fintech founded in 2019 that builds AI models for derivatives pricing. BBVA is a global bank with a large corporate and investment banking business. The deployment puts Canadian built AI directly into the calculations used to design complex structured products at a major global bank. Riskfuel's model is trained on BBVA's own pricing engine and uses more than 4,000 market and product inputs. The company says the surrogate was tested against more than 100,000 trades and can evaluate thousands of candidate structures in under a minute. BBVA had already added AI generated investment ideas to ePricer in September. Riskfuel goes further into the workflow by speeding up the numerical pricing work while BBVA's own model remains the reference. How Riskfuel Speeds Up BBVA's Autocallable Pricing Autocallables can depend on volatility, interest rates, dividends, maturity, coupon levels and several barrier conditions. Autocallables are structured investments ...
Exponential Group Joins NCFA as an Industry Partner | Interview with ExG Co-Founder, James Wallace
NCFA Canada | Craig Asano | Aug 20, 2019
TORONTO, ON Aug 20, 2019 The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA) is pleased to announce that the Exponential Group (Exponential Ventures, Exponential Capital and Exponential Markets) has joined NCFA as an industry partner.
NCFA's industry partners are builders, investors and innovators who have provided a significant level of service and/or contribution towards the sustainability and growth of NCFA and related fintech sectors globally. We encourage the fintech ecosystem to support and collaborate with NCFA's global network of industry partners by engaging directly with their ventures of mutual interest.
"Since founding NCFA in the summer of 2012, one of it's core missions has been working with communities of change that are passionate about enabling inclusive opportunities for 'big vision' companies seeking to change the world but need access to capital and resources to innovate competitive products and services that otherwise may not exist. These companies often focus on new economies of scale that look beyond 'for profit' models alone. Supporting and leading this change by developing new infrastructure and partnerships while leveraging new technologies can be a beacon of light resulting in massive transformation and change." - Craig Asano, Founder and CEO, NCFA
Meet James Wallace, Co-Founder of the Exponential Group
Exponential Group is the world's first fully integrated early-stage seed capital, business advisory, later stage capital raising, digital issuance and trading.
Q1. How did you get to where you are today?
James: A whole lot of failures that led to a massive amount of learning.
Q2. What can you attribute your achievements to date to?
James: Empathy for the excluded, plus grit and determination.
Q3. What’s the story behind founding Exponential Group and specifically what problems are you interested in solving as a Founder?
James: An unwavering intention to migrate society to a free, inclusive and abundant paradigm by resolving government and financial exclusion. Alleviate suffering and expand human potential to enable meaningful living.
Q4. Can you tell us more about the Digital Asset Impact Fund?
James: The exchange-traded diversified digital asset impact fund will allow anyone access to a fund that holds a board basket of digital assets. These assets include tokenized real estate, currencies, precious metals, art, and venture capital. This is the easiest way to participate in migrating the economy to the digital asset world.
Q5. What role/impact do you think blockchain and digital securities will have on the future of financial services?
James: Blockchain introduces trust to the Internet for the first time. Said another way, a trusted engagement is a secured value exchange, whether that’s an exchange of time reading content on a blog, giving personal data to your government, or trading any store of value such as a digital asset for fiat currency.
Different blockchains verify various aspects of user engagement online. As more and more blockchains connect to support the services of web users, non-blockchain equipped services will simply fall away, as they will not (and can never) be trusted.
Connections to web pages and native applications that are not secured and validated by blockchains will simply cease to exist over time. Bad players will slowly go extinct as blockchain-based services prevent their access to users.
The network of blockchains will eventually become the new Internet. And, because we believe absolute trust scales absolutely, ExV invests in platforms that create and grow trust with their users, in addition to adding significant value by solving a major problem.
Q6. What’s the greatest risks and challenges to improving mass adoption and education of blockchain and other technologies with the potential to impact great social change?
James: Education and updating regulation. In parallel, we need to help everyday investors understand that there are only benefits to digital securities, as well as press the regulators to allow access to digital asset investments for retail investors. We believe the rest will happen naturally.
Q7. Where do you see Exponential Group in 3-5 years from today? How can our community help out and get involved and where can we get more information?
James: Exponential Group will continue to focus on expanding cross-border digital securities trading and as a result we believe in 3-5 years we will be one of the largest global investors, issuers and traders of digital securities.
Exponential Group is looking for dynamic founders to assist in issuing high quality digital securities and investors that wish to upgrade their investment portfolios to contain digital assets.
The best place to connect and get more information is at exgroup.ai.
Thanks to James and the Exponential Group for their support of the NCFA Community. We look forward to collaborating and continuing to advance the development, adoption and growth of industry!
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Fintech Investor Interview: Peggy Van De Plassche, Founding Partner, Roar VC
Roar Ventures | Peggy Van De Plassche | June 28, 2019
Intro: NCFA Fintech Confidential spoke with some of Canada’s experienced fintech investors, on their background, how Canada has evolved, what we should be doing, advice to fintech founders and what keeps them awake at night. This is part 2 of a 4 part series.
What is your background, and how did you come to found Roar Ventures?
Peggy: I studied in Finance in France, graduating in 2001. Not the best year to join the VC world 🙂 I worked in finance for a credit union, then joined a PE-back firm, managing amongst other things their value creation program, which I absolutely loved! Then I moved to Montreal and shortly after joined CGI, this is where I learnt my software. It was a new group aiming at allocating capital among the different LPs that have been acquired through multiple acquisitions. We had solutions mainly in the US and Canada with the biggest sectors being Financial services and Government. It was awesome! I really loved the organization, my boss, my colleagues, the role, simply amazing.
I moved to Toronto & joined BMO. Also, great learning opportunities, my boss, Joanna Rotenberg, was a fantastic role model. I was also allocating capital to tech projects. My goal was always to go to VC/PE and I was building my skill set and network. We were hearing more about Fintech in the US & in the UK and I thought that it was where I wanted to go and be early on the trend that I saw as disruptive. I joined a wealthy software entrepreneur to start Fintech companies for him and also invest in the space. It was a wild ride, definitely invaluable learnings and a great way to reposition my career.
See: FINTECH FRIDAY$ (EP.3-Aug 3): Investing in Canadian Diversity with Peggy Van De Plassche, Founding Partner at Roar Ventures
Being early in Canada on the trend I advised large organizations with their digital banking strategies. I ended up joining CIBC as VP, Innovation. Great opportunity to cement my network and understand the challenges and opportunities large FIs have. After CIBC, I advised Portag3 VC for ~1 year and decided to launch Roar VC following the announcement of the VCCI. I applied, interviewed ... and was not selected for funding! The whole process went from February to November, during this time I lined up investors but when the allocation didn’t come through the dominos fell on the wrong side and was back at the drawing board. It was a great opportunity to rethink my thesis, especially in fintech, as many funds had launched in one year in Canada.
I took some time to reassess my best options and decided to pivot...like any entrepreneur would do when getting a curve ball. I am now working with a business partner who is also a dear friend, focusing on later stage opportunities through an independent sponsor model and I am still doing angel investments in the early stage Fintech space and get involved with the companies I invested in.
How have you seen the Canadian fintech ecosystem change in the past 5 years? How has the Canadian fintech ecosystem evolved?
Peggy: Overall our Fintech entrepreneurs are getting more savvy:
- More and more entrepreneurs are starting their go-to-market (GTM) strategy with selling in the US or the UK which I believe is a winning strategy.
- B2C in financial services in Canada being extremely difficult, many fintechs pivoted to B2B as their main source of revenues and growth.
- Entrepreneurs are taking more US money as more US investors are coming north to find great entrepreneurs at good valuations.
- Many startups entrepreneurs got burned badly through banks partnerships and are approaching these opportunities with more circumspection.
See: Fintech Investor Interview: Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital
How can we strengthen and grow the Canadian fintech ecosystem?
Peggy: To strengthen the ecosystem we need to have more Fintechs scaling, creating growth along the way and successful employees who will themselves start Fintech companies. Meaning, we need more sales! Sales and marketing are usually where we are falling short versus US companies both in terms of expertise and in terms of use of proceeds. Focusing more on GTM and growing the top line is primordial to have Canadian champions. US allocates a way higher use of proceeds to sales and marketing both in percentage and value. Oftentimes that S&M expertise is not available in Canada and should be brought from the US.
What advise would you give to Canadian fintechs competing globally?
Peggy: Focus on your sales and GTM strategy early. CEO’s should not delegate the sales process prior to $1m ARR. Sell in the US very early on, have a multi-layer sales strategy: small deals, medium deals and large deals to manage sales cycle and cash flow. Get these clients logos as soon as you can on your pitch deck :-)…In 3 words: sell, sell, sell!
What keeps you awake at night?
Peggy: My cat! Ethics in Fintech, with the progress of AI I am worried that we will exclude a part of the population by pricing them out of the market. Lending and insurance are areas where things can degenerate very quickly. FMP, expansion of financial exclusion versus financial inclusion is real, especially as there is no global or even national framework. Dying from a thousand cuts...
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Peggy: Think Global!! Canada is amazing...and the world is a big place where we have what it takes to thrive.
We need these Canadian champions!!
Peggy Van De Plassche, Founding Partner, Roar VC (LinkedIn)
Peggy Van De Plassche is an experienced technology, operations, strategy and finance executive with expertise in new venture development, business management and restructuring, investment management, strategic planning and financial analysis. A finance professional by trade, Peggy started working in technology 15 years ago, before fintech was a word. She is a founding partner at Roar VC, which invests in Canadian Data AI startups catering to the financial services industry. Prior to launching Roar VC, she was senior advisor at Portag3 Ventures as well as VP Innovation at CIBC. Peggy has also worked at CGI and BMO, founded 113 Ventures, invested in tech companies, and consulted for large organizations and startups.
More Canadian Fintech Investor Interviews in this 4 part series:
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Part 1: Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital
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Part 2: Christian Lassonde, Founder & Managing Partner, Impression Ventures
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Part 4: Rob Antoniades, General Partner, Information Venture Partners
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Fintech Investor Interview: Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital
Luge Capital | Karim Gillani | June 2019
Intro: NCFA Fintech Confidential spoke with some of Canada’s experienced fintech investors, on their background, how Canada has evolved, what we should be doing, advice to fintech founders and what keeps them awake at night. This is part 1 of a 4 part series.
What is your background, and how did you come to co-found Luge Capital?
Karim: My background is in fintech, mobile tech, engineering, finance and strategy. Prior to Luge, I was at PayPal, leading M&A activities in Canada. I joined PayPal through its $890M acquisition of Xoom, a renowned cross-border remittance company, where I started the Corporate Development practice. I have an Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo, a Master of Finance degree from the University of London and a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto.
Luge Capital was the byproduct of highly motivated LPs, and a recognition that fintech venture capital needed a kickstart at the early stages. David Nault and I co-founded Luge in early 2018 with a new model to seek out entrepreneurs in the US and Canada that not only had a drive to take over the world, but also built their product to reflect that inevitability. We spend a lot of time with our companies because we believe our experience as former operators can be valuable, and we've architected a fund that is collaborative with our LPs.
How have you seen the Canadian fintech ecosystem change in the past 5 years? How has the Canadian fintech ecosystem evolved?
Karim:
- In the last five years, we’ve seen the emergence of fintech companies expand. Since 2013, between 70 and 100 new fintech companies are founded in Canada every year. Prior to 2011, it was about 20 per year. Payments continues to lead all other categories, but we’ve seen meaningful emergence of crypto-focused companies in the last two years.
- We’ve also seen systematic maturing of entrepreneurs in financial services. There is a greater understanding for the nuances of specific industries, and bigger ambitions to tackle problems that are global in nature.
- The big banks have set up formal structures internally to talk to fintech companies, engage in pilots, become customers and invest directly.
- There is more capital available now than 5 years ago for talented founders at almost all stages. With the entrance of Luge as a fintech-focused investor, there is even more money for early stage companies that need support to see their products take off. We’ve also seen capital inflow from America VCs who are realizing the tremendous calibre of our Canadian founders.
How can we strengthen and grow the Canadian fintech ecosystem?
Karim: Financial services accounts for approximately 20% of the Canadian economy, if you include real estate. It’s the single biggest sector in our country. And most of it still relies on old, archaic infrastructure. When you open a new bank account, an RESP account, or buy life insurance, the process is still driven by pen and paper. We need motivated entrepreneurs who have a deep understanding of the inefficiencies within financial services to overhaul how we interact with money and data. And we need those entrepreneurs to not only solve for Canada, but also for other geographies that suffer from the same (or worse) inefficiencies.
See:
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2019 Annual Summer Kickoff Networking Social - July 11 Toronto (Registration now OPEN!)
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Early-stage Investing – The Public gets a Seat at the Table
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Fearless: How Technology Helps Conquer our Fear of the Unknown
What advice would you give to Canadian fintechs competing globally?
Karim: Solve the big problems and do it well. Strive to be the best in the world at what you do, otherwise someone else will push you out. Some founders don’t realize that with limited financial resources, you still have meaningful assets that can be leveraged to create value: passion, enthusiasm, time and industry experience. Never doubt that a small group of talented people can make a huge difference in the world.
What keeps you awake at night?
Karim: Three things:
- The huge amounts of debt (especially student debt) that exists across North America. The US alone has $1.56 trillion of student debt across 44.7 million people, and $1.03 trillion of credit card debt across 197 million people.
- Approximately 1.7 billion people still don’t have access to a bank account, which would not only keep them safe from storing value in cash but would connect them to the formal financial system.
- Millennials are entering (or have recently entered) adulthood and are not able to save enough to become financially independent. Millennials are only saving 5.3% of their income on average, and 53% of the population between 21 and 37 still rely on their parents for financial assistance.
Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital
Karim has an extensive background in fintech, mobile tech, engineering, finance and strategy. Prior to Luge, Karim led Corporate Development for Xoom, a leading cross-border remittance company that was acquired by PayPal in 2015 for USD $890 million. Before that, Karim managed M&A and investment activities for BlackBerry in Silicon Valley. He developed the company’s overall strategy for mobile payments and commerce, including NFC payments, P2P and App World. Karim spent several years working for Redknee Solutions in the UK where he designed network infrastructure, including mobile money solutions, for carriers in East Africa and Western Europe.
More Canadian Fintech Investor Interviews in this 4 part series:
-
Part 2: Christian Lassonde, Founder & Managing Partner, Impression Ventures
-
Part 3: Peggy Van De Plassche, Founding Partner, Roar VC
-
Part 4: Rob Antoniades, General Partner, Information Venture Partners
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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There’s no doubting these Toronto Raptors anymore
CBC Sports | | June 14, 2019
Led by the stoic Kawhi Leonard, team sheds years of disappointment with 1st NBA championship
There's no more wondering what might have been.
No more talking about missed shots or missed opportunities. No more heartbreak.
Not this time. Not this team.
The Toronto Raptors are on top of the basketball world, 24 years in the making. For the first time in the team's history, the Toronto Raptors are NBA champions.
Led by the King of the North, Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors 114-110 and silenced the hostile Oracle Arena crowd to take the basketball crown away from the back-to-back defending champions.
It was Toronto's 106th playoff game in team history. It was Toronto's 106th game of the season. They won the Finals in six games. Now the Larry O'Brien championship trophy is heading to "The 6ix."
"I can't really think right now, this is crazy. This is awesome man," said Toronto guard Kyle Lowry. "Toronto! Canada! We brought it home baby! We brought it home!"
Leonard became just the third player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP with two different teams – joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lebron James.
"This is what I play basketball for," Leonard said. "This is what I work out for."
Raptors president Masai Ujiri risked it all for this moment. He fired the NBA coach of the year, Dwane Casey, after another playoff failure a year ago. He traded away the franchise's most popular player, DeMar DeRozan, for Leonard. He certainly wasn't popular with the fans a year ago at this time.
See: Advancing Competition in a Changing Marketplace
In fact, it was one year and a day ago Nick Nurse, an assistant on Casey's staff, was promoted to head coach, and he rewarded Ujiri by guiding the Raptors to an NBA title in his first season at the helm.
Winning has a way of making people forget and forgive. Ujiri has never been more popular.
But long before the brilliant championship moment Thursday night at Oracle Arena when the bright lights of the basketball world shone down on the Toronto Raptors, there was darkness.
The path to this title for this cast of characters on the Raptors roster has been paved with heartaches and setbacks. Fred VanVleet was five when his father was shot to death. Kawhi Leonard was 16 when his father was killed. Serge Ibaka's mother died when he was just eight. And Pascal Siakam's dad was killed in a car crash when Pascal was 20.
And then there's Lowry, the longest-serving Raptor, who grew up in the rough and tough neighbourhoods of North Philly. He was raised by a single mother and his grandmother, and they did everything they could to make sure he could play basketball.
"Going to work, getting up at five in the morning and going to work and making me cereal, having a bowl of cereal sitting in the refrigerator with some milk and being able to provide for me and my brother and my family. That's pressure," Lowry said earlier in the week.
"Just being willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that your kid will see better than what you've ever seen."
All championship teams resonate with fans to some degree because people love a winner. And all championship teams have stories of adversity, stories of triumph against all odds.
But at the heart of this Raptors team is resiliency, a foundation of unshakable poise built up through a lifetime of hard knocks. And perhaps that's what's made the nation fall in love with this team in particular.
See: [Report] A New North Star: Canadian Competitiveness in an Intangibles Economy
Competitive spirit
Despite being elite basketball players and being paid millions of dollars, there's a relatability with the players because there are many in this country who know what it means to be heartbroken, only to rise above.
That's why, in the face of doubters and haters and people who said this team could never win, the Raptors rose above.
Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto is PACKED 🤯#WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/7MCVuc9kzD
— Tim and Sid (@timandsid) June 14, 2019
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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SmartHalo crowdfunds an additional $1 million for smart biking device
Betakit | | June 13, 2019
Montreal-based SmartHalo, a smart biking device developer, has successfully crowdfunded $1 million for the second generation of its product on Kickstarter.
“It made sense to return to Kickstarter after the success of the first SmartHalo campaign,” the company wrote on its Kickstarter page. “It’s a great platform for us to share our vision and receive the support needed to bring it to life. Crowdfunding allows us to give back to our community by giving our fans the opportunity to get the new SmartHalo first and at a discounted price. It’s a winning solution for everyone.”
SmartHalo2 is a connective device that allows riders to track cycling metrics, sync that data with fitness apps, and find new routes with navigation signals. It is water-resistant and comes fitted with an anti-theft alarm and a front light. Arguably its most recognizable new feature is PeekDisplay, which complements the product’s Halo display to provide more visible information to the rider.
“We see a huge opportunity in cycling. Not necessarily for sports, but for mobility,” said Xavier Peich, CEO and co-founder of SmartHalo. “Cities are investing in better infrastructure, while increasingly limiting car access and parking to downtown cores. This is a huge trend that is coming to Canada sooner than we think.”
CS2016 Throwback: Smart Halo CEO and Co-Founder, Xavier Peich, wins NCFA live pitching session 1
SmartHalo, formerly known as CycleLabs Solutions Inc, was founded in 2014 by Peich, Gabriel Alberola, Maxime Couturier, and Olivier Bourbonnais. In 2015, the company launched its first Kickstarter campaign, resulting in over 3,000 community pledges and raising half a million dollars. In 2016, the company raised a $328,000 angel round, and has been backed by Fonds Innovexport since 2017, a Quebec-based fund that also backs the likes of cloud software company, AlayaCare.
In the second half of 2017, the company struck a deal with Apple, distributing the SmartHalo device in Apple stores across North America and Europe. Peich said SmartHalo is both the first Kickstarter project and the first Canadian hardware company to launch at Apple. Since then, the company has delivered 25,000 units to cyclists in over 70 countries. Peich told BetaKit the company expects to raise a Series A sometime this year.
The company participated in The Next36’s 2016 Venture Day, where Peich was recognized as a Next Founders Valedictorian. The company also advanced to the finals of the Startup Community Awards in 2017, placing in the top three in the Startup Champion of the Year category.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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