Canadian Fintech: Wealthsimple's very good Q4 📈
MortgageAutomator gets acquired. Neo Financial becomes a direct issuer.
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💰 Funding
Q4, an investor relations platform raised debt financing from CIBC Innovation.
The company went private in a $257m buyout to private equity last year.
Keypr, an online tool for bidding, negotiating and purchasing a home raised an undisclosed amount and launched in Toronto.
Other emerging discount brokerages in Canada are Zown and Bode.
🤝 M&A
MortgageAutomator, a Toronto based loan origination system for private mortgage lenders was acquired by the private equity arm of Bessemer Venture Partners.
AppDirect, a Montreal based white-label tool for launching marketplaces and referral programs acquired US competitor Builtfirst.
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🚀 Product
Pine, an online lender, formally launched their mortgage referral partnership with Wealthsimple.
Pine has been quietly piloting this partnership for 7 months. Wealthsimple and Pine are both backed by Inovia.
Neo Financial has become a direct issuer for Mastercard. They previously issued their card through ATB Financial.
It’s uncommon for non-bank entities to issue directly with a payment network. Brim Financial also makes the list.
Wealthsimple had a very very good Q4:
increased assets under management by $6b
accounted for more than half of all online brokerage accounts opened in the country
clinched its spot as the 2nd largest online brokerage in Canada after TD Waterhouse
⚖️ Policy
Fresh off a USD $4b settlement for terrorist financing in the US, Binance is being fined $6m by FINTRAC (federal regulator) for not reporting 5,902 transactions greater than $10k, an AML reporting requirement.
The crypto exchange is also under investigation by the OSC (Ontario regulator).
Binance exited Canada last year amid a tightening regulatory environment… evidently it did not exit quick enough.
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Have a great week! See ya 👋