Newswire.ca | July 5, 2017 

Royal Bank of Canada Enters Agreement with VersaPay to Offer ARCTM to Business Customers Under RBC Brand (CNW Group/VersaPay Corporation)

TORONTO, July 6, 2017 /CNW/ - VersaPay Corporation (TSXV: VPY) ("VersaPay" or the "Company"), a leading provider of cloud-based invoice-to-cash solutions including electronic invoice presentment and payment, automated accounts receivable, cash application and collections management, today announced a strategic relationship with Royal Bank of Canada RBC (TSX: RY). As part of the agreement RBC will offer its business customers VersaPay ARC^™, an integrated accounts receivable solution, under the RBC brand.

"RBC is always looking for new and innovative ways to help clients use digital platforms to manage and grow their businesses," noted Greg Grice, EVP, Business Financial Services at RBC. "The invoice-to-cash process is vital to the success of all businesses. Integrating this offering into RBC's leading cash management solutions, our business clients now have another way to improve the customer experience and better manage their receivables and cash flow."

RBC's relationship with VersaPay is unique amongst major banks in Canada — the collaboration between the Canadian Fintech and one of Canada's largest banks has provided commercial businesses with a leading and robust cash management solution.

"We are delighted to collaborate with RBC to deliver this new offering. With the bank's breadth and depth of banking and cash management services, and an impressive roster of business customers, RBC is in an ideal position to expand the use of ARC," commented Craig O'Neill, CEO of VersaPay. "The RBC team has been a pleasure to work with as we integrated our systems and prepared our market launch. We look forward to serving many customers together."

As part of the agreement, RBC will offer the solution to its business customers, with support from the VersaPay team. The bank has already introduced the service to select clients with the first RBC customer already signed. By signing up for the new service, RBC clients can offer an enhanced customer experience, reduce manual effort and operational costs, gain greater insight into their customers' accounts, and get paid faster.

About VersaPay

VersaPay is a Fintech company and leading provider of cloud-based invoice-to-cash solutions, enabling businesses to provide a superior customer experience, get paid faster, streamline financial operations, and dramatically reduce DSO and costs. VersaPay ARC is the new standard in accounts receivable and collections management with a customer self-service environment to view invoices online, collaborate on inquiries and disputes, and facilitate secure online payments (EFT/ACH and credit card). Businesses gain access to a suite of powerful tools that enable efficient collections, cash application and real-time insight into accounts receivable. VersaPay ARC automatically reconciles payments and account information through integrations with a wide range of ERPs and accounting software providers.

More information about VersaPay is available at www.versapay.com or under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Forward Looking and Other Cautionary Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Such forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

These forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business. Management believes that these assumptions are reasonable. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the speculative nature of the Company's business, the Company's formative stage of development and the Company's financial position.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source: VersaPay Corporation  

Everything Zoomer | By Peter Muggeridge | June 20, 2017

When most of us go about our daily banking, without really thinking about what happens to our money. We deposit our cheques, invest in a GIC or pay our mortgages with the comfort that our money is safe and secure. But seldom do we consider the mechanics of the banking system, such as where our money is invested and what ventures it supports.

Paul Allard and Andy Krupski want to change all that. This pair of disruptors ran into each other a few years ago and realized they had similar goals. Allard, from Montreal, Krupski, from Toronto, wanted to make two changes in the financial industry: a) change the ways banks do business and b) change the way customers interface with their banks.

That's the concept behind impak Finance – an enterprise that isn't only in the business of making money but also wants to help individuals and companies improve the world.

Changing an entrenched industry like the banking sector is a lofty dream. Allard and Krupski spoke recently at ideacity 2017. Here's their story:

Allard and Krupski came to the financial world from diverse backgrounds. Krupski ran Sprint Canada before moving into the marketing and communications field, with The Hive. Allard's path was more eclectic: he studied music and engineering, became a stage performer (touring with Les Miserables) before becoming highly successful in the world of tech start-ups, including Engagement Labs. Both were doing well in their fields. Yet both felt something was missing.

Krupski: "About 10 years ago, I decided that, when all the shouting is done, can I leave a legacy somehow? I reframed my company's mission to do what's right for the customers and, where possible, what's right for the world."

Allard: "I was seeking something with more purpose. I wanted to combine my entrepreneurial skills with my knowledge of tech but to give a purpose to all of it."

When they bumped into each other, they batted around ideas before eventually settling on transforming the banking industry.

Krupski: "About two years ago, I was studying the financial business trying to understand how Millennials are interfacing with their banks and a lot of the research coming out was that they were distrustful ­ – the financial institutions were certainly safe (especially here in Canada) but their motivations were questionable, especially with the amount of money they were making."

Allard: "Through my work raising money through investment bankers, I got really interested in understanding the mechanics of the financial economy. And the more I read, the more and more pissed off I became. I read all the thought leaders and I began to understand that banks don't work for most of the people on the planet."

See:

•  Canadians need to come together to take our startup community forward

• Impak Finance raises largest single-day amount for Canadian equity-crowdfunding initiative

This led to the novel idea of not trying to take on the big banks but to offer an alternative to the way banks carry out their business. Traditionally, financial institutions take your deposits and much of it is invested in complex financial vehicles (derivatives, hedge funds, financing transactions) that have nothing to do with the real economy. While bank profits are massive, their motivation is solely to make profit, not improve the world. Both men saw an opportunity to change this construct.

Krupski: "The big banks have the ability to leverage money. There's a lot of money swirling around but not enough of it is going into the real economy."

Allard: "There's been sort of a disconnect with the financial economy and the real economy. I always felt finance and financial tools should help support the real economy. The real economy creates job and creates wealth."

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The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with both social and investment crowdfunding stakeholders across the country. NCFA Canada provides education, research, leadership, support, and networking opportunities to over 1500+ members and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding industry in Canada. Learn more at ncfacanada.org.

NCFA Canada | Oct 24, 2016

CHANCE TO WIN FREE #CCS2017 TICKETS!

NCFA Canada will be at the Small Business Forum 2016 at Booth #135.  Come visit our Booth on Tuesday, Oct 25th and get your photo taken with the National Crowdfunding Association (NCFA) for an opportunity to win a ticket to the 3^rd Annual Canadian Crowdfunding Summit (#CCS2017) on March 1^st at the MaRS Discovery District.

Rules:

1. Visit our booth and let us snap a photo of you by the NCFA banner.
2. We will post the photo to our Twitter and/or Instagram account and tag your company/organization.
3. All you have to do is share it and ask others to like and/or share your photo with “Help me get FUNDED & win a ticket to #CCS2017 with @NCFACanada”
4. The photo with the most engagements, retweets and likes will enter our draw to win a complimentary ticket to the 3^rd Annual Canadian Crowdfunding Summit (#CCS2017)

Small Business Forum 2016 Info:

Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
222 Bremner Boulevard
South Building, Level 800, Exhibit Hall F &G
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3L9

*Attendee tickets are FOC

Full list of exhibitors:  http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=5aeb34c42bca7410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

Betakit | By Jessica Galang | Sep 17, 2015

A few weeks ago, BetaKit reported that Spacefy would be the first Toronto early-stage startup to use Waverley’s platform, which, powered by InvestX, allows companies to fill financing rounds using its database of retail accredited investors. The company was seeking to fill $250,000 of its seed financing round.

Spacefy has announced it was able to reach 100 percent of its funding goal in just five days, and, at the request of InvestX, kept the offer open, offering another $50K in equity. That amount was filled in another 48 hours, with Spacefy closing at an oversubscribed offering of $300,000.

See CEO/Founder of InvestX speak on Sep 29th at VanFUNDING 2015 (downtown Vancouver)

“Raising capital through our online platform to invest in an early stage company like Spacefy is a new and still relatively unproven model in Canada,” said InvestX CEO Marcus New. “The significant interest Spacefy enjoyed was indicative of the major appetite in the market for private investment in disruptive technology which is backed by a strong business model and growth strategy.”

Spacefy service is targeted to creative people, and works by connecting them to spaces to fulfill their projects, productions, and classes.

Continue to the full article --> here

The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with both social and investment crowdfunding stakeholders across the country.  NCFA Canada provides education, research, leadership, support and networking opportunities to over 1100+ members and works closely with industry, government, academia, community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding industry in Canada.  Learn more About Us or visit ncfacanada.org.

PE Hub | Richard Remillard | Jan 6, 2015

Richard Rémillard heads Remillard Consulting Group, a firm that specializes in research-based solutions to public policy issues affecting the financial services industry. He has over two decades of experience with financial trade associations, including the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and the Canadian Bankers’ Association.

Despite the perils of forecasting what the future may hold for Canadian private equity and venture capital firms, it is perhaps now more important than ever to do so.

The largely unforeseen, rapid and precipitous tumble in world oil prices, which has wreaked havoc on everything from government revenue to stock markets, reinforces the need, as captured by the famous Boy Scouts motto, “Be Prepared!”

The black box

What do we need to be prepared for?

A known known, as Donald Rumsfeld would have put it, is that 2015 will be an election year in Canada. An unknown known is what the exact timing, ballot question or outcome will be in that election.

With this in mind, here are some fearless predictions:

Private equity and venture capital will not be centre stage in the political debates that will rage in the period leading up to and during the election.

All the main parties contesting for power will talk about their commitment to innovation and growth but there will be precious few specifics.

As a result, there will be considerable uncertainty, a black box, in effect, about the plans that each party has for Canada’s PE and VC industry going forward. In that sense, it might not greatly matter to the industry which party assumes the reins of power or whether the country finds itself with a minority or a majority government.

However, there are some tiny glimmers that can be discerned. These include:

• The flow through share mechanism may be expanded for cleantech investments in the next federal budget. The House of Commons’ Finance committee’s pre-budget report released last week called on the government to examine ways to promote the industry, either via extending the accelerated capital cost allowance or other similar tax incentives;

• Only the New Democrats may be tempted to advocate in favour of a tax on carried interest, similar to that proposed in other foreign jurisdictions, such as the United States;

• No party will call for the re-introduction of the federal portion of the labour-sponsored venture capital corporation tax credit.

VCAP is completed

The Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) will be fully rolled out in 2015, though the opposition parties will decry the fact that this process has taken three years since first being announced in the 2012 budget. The New Democrats will also criticize VCAP for being spread out over too many years to make a meaningful contribution to resolving the funding challenges facing Canadian VCs.

Venture capital will still be viewed as a pariah asset class by legions of institutional and retail investors, as a sudden and massive improvement in its returns performance is unlikely to materialize soon.

A consequence of the continuing deeply-out-of-favour views of VC by investors is that VCAP funds of funds will continue to experience challenges in their own fundraising efforts. To date, these funds have raised $672 million, far short of the $1.2 billion objective set by program architects.

As a result, there will be pressure on government to extend its own commitment to the asset class. The default position, based on prior patterns, has been for Ottawa to continue injecting money into the direct and indirect VC activity of its crown corporations, notably the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC).

In the same vein, government will turn to immigrant investors to help recapitalize the asset class. Ottawa recently announced the launch of an Immigrant Investor Venture Capital pilot program for 2015, which is expected to be raise $100 million to invest in early-stage companies and private funds.

Because demand for entry into this country may be quite significant, we can anticipate that future capital flows from immigrant investors looking to secure permanent residency status also will be directed to infrastructure, private equity and aboriginal capital corporations.

The Americans are Coming! The Americans are Coming!

Actually, U.S. and other foreign private equity and venture capital firms are already here. They now account for approximately 40 percent of the investing dollars in the PE/VC markets in Canada. And the prospect is for that share to grow to 50 percent in 2015, as Canada remains largely underfunded relative to the United States.

On the VC side, VCAP has already led to commitments in U.S. investors, such as Versant Ventures. To the extent that more such commitments are made under VCAP, tensions between Ottawa and the more than 25 Canadian VC firms that are currently raising funds today, or will be in early 2015, will undoubtedly rise.

View:

• Fearless Look at Canadian Crowdfunding 2015

• Fintech Trends for 2015: Investing Services, Anti-Social Trading, and Digital Crowdfunding

Canadian VC’s ongoing supply challenges may cause Canadian governments to give more thought to what else public policy can do to help. This might first involve a formal public review of existing federal support mechanisms and their relative effectiveness to date, just as the British Columbia government is doing right now.

On the PE side, market conditions in Canada are once again ripening to perhaps cause a reprise of what we saw less than a decade ago with the proposed acquisition of BCE. That transaction, which involved KKR, and other high-profile PE giants, served to throw a negative spotlight on Canadian PE, which had previously gone unnoticed by public policymakers. Since then, the Canadian private equity industry has largely benefited from government inattention, unlike its counterparts in the United States and Europe.

Let’s not forget crowdfunding

Also on the horizon in early 2015 is the advance of equity crowdfunding initiatives in Canada. Securities regulators are currently putting the finishing touches on measures that will increase access to this type of capital for small and medium-size companies. These measures include final regulations on the use of offering memoranda in Ontario, and at the national level, the proposed addition of an ‘eligible’ investor category to complement the ‘accredited’ investor category.

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The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place.  Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support

Guest post by Andrew Thompson | Jan 6, 2015

Crowdsourcing has already helped thousands of upstarts succeed, whether it's from creating new computer games or opening an incredible unique type of business. While the idea of seeking $5 from people all over the world is usually associated with fledgling companies, a more traditional form of industry has sought help from it last year.

The world’s mining industry hasn’t been on a great track in recent years, following a slump due to fundamental factors that negatively affect the prices of precious metals. BullionVault reported that metal prices have lost about 1/3 of their value compared to their bullish prices from 2010 to 2012. Without much support from investors these days, the mining industry has attempted to revive its operations through crowdfunding.

Compared to other businesses, the mining industry is a difficult one to operate. Its unsafe working conditions and environmental impact (chemicals are used in extracting ore) make getting a license from governments around the world difficult. Currently, most mining companies don’t have the technology to make its operations safer for the workers and environment. Pair those issues with factors that weaken the prices of precious metals and you will clearly see the reason why investors aren’t backing miners as of the moment.

View:  Early Bird Discount Tickets for 2015 Canadian Crowdfunding Summit

Thankfully, crowdfunding, apart from its ability to seek help from interested parties around the world, has the capability to change the image of the business. Most crowdfunding sites have rules that parties seeking help from people all over the world should fully disclose their working operations financial statements to their backers. With such requirements, people will be able to see which miners have the potential to be successful in the long run.

Several companies have already benefitted from crowdfunding. KlondikeStrike Canada is the world’s first mining crowdfunding platform that was launched in order to help private individuals invest in the mining sector. One company that was able to benefit greatly from crowdfunding is Planetary Resources, garnering over $1 million in just 30 days. Planetary Resources aims to mine Asteroids for precious metals and other resources in order to increase humanity's footprint in space.

The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place.  Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Learn more About Us | Crowdfunding | Support