Canadian Fintech: National Bank Buys Another One 🏦

Apr 28, 2025

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Vena Solutions, a Toronto based FP&A software, raised a debt facility led by CIBC Innovation.
- Vena recently crossed $100m in ARR.
Traction Complete, a Vancouver based revenue operations software, also raised a debt from CIBC Innovation.
- Traction Complete spun out of Traction-on-Demand, a Salesforce consulting firm, which Salesforce acquired in 2022.

National Bank of Canada is acquiring PGM Global Holdings. Why?
- PGM helps institutional investors (pension funds, assets managers, etc.) execute trades - meaning they buy and sell large amounts of bonds, stocks, etc. on behalf of clients.
- National Bank runs a division called BNRI, that takes care of custody, trade execution, settlement, etc. for independent wealth managers that run their own books of business.
- The combo gives National Bank a killer offering to attract independent wealth advisors.
- … buuuut why does National Bank want to support independents in the first place, considering that they also run their own wealth management business line that competes for similar clients?
- The answer is a great example of National Bank’s 6th place challenger mentality. If their in-house wealth advisors lose a client to their BNRI platform, the bank still makes fees on custody and trade execution - a potential win-win.
- The big 5 banks are the complete opposite. None of them offer a full service independent wealth advisor platform because they prefer to manage all assets under their own brand - a potential win-lose.
LifeSpeak, a digital wellness platform that sells benefits to health insurers is delisting from the TSX.

VoPay, a Vancouver based payment gateway now supports international endpoints including cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets.
Float now labels Canadian vendors in their expense management platform to help users “buy Canadian”.

Propra, a Calgary based property management software, launched embedded accounting features.
Alan, a digital health insurer launched group benefits plans that can be purchased entirely online.
- Alan is the first insurer to be licensed in Canada in the last 70 years.
HonestDoor, an online property appraisal tool launched an AI assistant that can provide property insights on Canadian neighbourhoods.

Payments Canada announced that the technical build of the Real-Time Rail (RTR) system’s clearing and settlement component is 60% complete.
- By Q3 the system will allegedly be ready for testing.

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