Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Solifi Acquires Vancouver Fintech Inovatec
September 1, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity + Insight | Lending Consumer Credit And BNPL, Digital Banking And BaaS, Competition And Market Structure
Vancouver lending software joins a larger private equity backed global finance platform
On September 1, 2026, Solifi acquired Inovatec Systems, a Vancouver company whose cloud software handles digital applications, loan origination and servicing for banks, credit unions, captive finance companies and specialty lenders across North America. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Inovatec brings more than 160 employees and 20 years of lending technology development into a much larger secured finance business.
For Inovatec, the sale provides the scale its founders say customers are demanding. For Solifi, it adds retail automotive, powersports and specialty lending capabilities to a platform already strong in equipment, wholesale, working capital and automotive finance. Canada gets another successful fintech commercialization event, while ownership and future capital decisions now sit with a global company under foreign private equity control.
The transaction arrives in a Canadian market where those outcomes are common. KPMG estimates that nearly half of Canadian acquisition targets across industries are bought by international firms. Canadian companies are active buyers abroad too, completing more than two thirds of their own transactions outside Canada. The question is whether Canada is producing enough companies that can keep scaling into global buyers themselves?
Inovatec Built More Than an Auto Lending System
Vladimir and Danijela Kovacevic founded Inovatec in 2006 with two people. The platform now spans its Propel digital application portal, loan origination software and loan and lease servicing. It supports automotive, powersports, equipment and other consumer and commercial lending, with more than 70 third party integrations across its products.
The software reaches several workflows where lenders spend time and money. Applications can flow from consumers or dealers into credit decisioning and funding, while the servicing system handles payments, collections, customer service and asset recovery. Inovatec says lenders using its AI based funding automation have cut time spent manually reviewing documents by as much as 80%. That's a company reported customer result rather than an industry benchmark, but it shows the type of operating efficiency Solifi is buying.
Inovatec has also kept adding capabilities while expanding in the United States. In August, less than a month before the acquisition, it integrated Fortiro technology to detect altered and AI generated lending documents during origination. The company reports annual SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC 3 audits along with ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certifications, requirements that help lending software get through the security reviews of banks and other regulated customers.
The founders described the reason for selling in unusually direct terms. Customers want more products, channels and automation, and “meeting those needs requires scale.” Solifi gives Inovatec access to a much larger product portfolio, implementation organization and international customer base.
Solifi Was Already Buying Its Way Into More Finance
Solifi has dual headquarters in Minneapolis, United States, and Milton Keynes, United Kingdom, and sells software to banks, captive finance companies and independent lenders around the world. When TA Associates became its majority investor in October 2024, Solifi had more than 650 employees globally. Thoma Bravo, which had backed the company since 2019, kept a meaningful investment.
The ownership change came with an explicit acquisition plan. TA and Solifi said they intended to expand into adjacent finance markets and new countries through strategic acquisitions as well as internal growth.
That plan started producing deals. In September 2025, Solifi acquired DataScan, an Atlanta area company whose wholesale finance and inventory risk software serves more than 45 major banks and captive lenders. DataScan added floorplan lending, digital inventory audits and field inspection capabilities.
While DataScan strengthened the wholesale side of automotive finance. Inovatec adds the consumer application, credit, funding and servicing work that happens on the retail side. Solifi can now sell across more of the financing relationship instead of relying on separate products for each part.
That makes the Vancouver acquisition easier to understand. Solifi isn't simply adding another software company. Its private equity owners are funding a deliberate expansion across secured lending, and Inovatec brings technology and customer relationships that would take years to reproduce organically.
Canadian Fintech Is Producing Assets Global Buyers Want
The timing fits Canada's current fintech market. KPMG counted US$996.7 million invested across 47 Canadian fintech deals in the first half of 2026. That was down more than 40% from US$1.7 billion across 82 deals a year earlier, while capital concentrated in companies with established scale, specialized technology and clearer economics.
KPMG partner Dubie Cunningham summarized what is attracting capital as “technology, customers, licences or regulated platforms that can accelerate expansion.” Inovatec fits that description closely. Solifi is buying working lending software, a North American customer base, integrations, regulated industry experience and a team that has spent two decades inside automotive and specialty finance.
Recent Canadian sales highlight various versions of the same commercial pattern. Fiserv bought Toronto based Payfare for C$4 per share, with the final acquisition covering roughly C$193.1 million of outstanding shares. Fiserv wanted Payfare's card program management, white label app and embedded finance capabilities. Payfare's situation included customer concentration and financial pressure before the sale, so it isn't a direct parallel to Inovatec.
Robinhood acquired WonderFi for about C$250 million for a different reason. WonderFi's Bitbuy and Coinsquare platforms brought roughly 300,000 funded customers at closing and regulated Canadian crypto access. Robinhood used the acquisition to enter Canada rather than spending years building that position itself.
European payments company Paynt used its 2025 acquisition of Vancouver based E-xact Transactions to expand in North America. E-xact was processing more than C$3.5 billion annually across 50 million transactions, and Paynt made Vancouver a new operational hub. The transactions differ, but the assets being purchased are software, customers, transaction volume, licences, regulatory experience and local distribution.
Foreign Ownership Is Only Half the Canadian Story
Canada isn't simply selling companies while everyone else buys. KPMG's wider M&A data show Canadian firms conduct more than two thirds of their transactions outside the country. The domestic fintech market is also still financing independent growth. Nesto raised C$302 million in its 2026 Series E at a C$1.47 billion valuation, the largest Canadian fintech financing in KPMG's H1 data.
Selling to a larger company can be a good outcome. Founders and investors get paid, employees may get more resources, and Canadian technology can reach customers that would have been costly to win alone. The bigger concern is when Canada keeps building valuable fintechs but too few grow large enough to become global buyers themselves.
Solifi says customers will keep their existing products and support, and that it will continue investing in Inovatec's products. The founders also say clients will keep working with the same team. What Solifi hasn't said is whether Vancouver headcount will grow, where future product decisions will be made, or where new intellectual property will be developed. There is no evidence today of layoffs, office cuts or development work leaving Canada.
Canada's economic return will depend on more than where the shareholder register ends up. Inovatec found the scale it wanted by joining Solifi. Canada's fintech market becomes stronger when more companies can eventually provide that scale themselves.
Talking Point
How many Canadian fintechs can grow from attractive acquisition targets into global acquirers?
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