Canadian Fintech: Someone Bought a Bank π¦
Fiscal.ai raises $10m. Circle K gets deeper into fintech.
Good morning! Welcome back to the Canadian Fintech Newsletter, an industry roundup for founders, operators and investors.
Every Monday we break down the hottest topics in the industry in under 3 minutes.
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π° Funding
Fiscal.ai, a Toronto based equities research platform raised $10m led by Portage.
The Bloomberg competitor recently rebranded from FinChat and crossed 350k users.
π€ M&A
Pesa, a Toronto based remittance platform acquired Authoripay Emony, a UK based issuer / acquirer.
Pesa has processed over $380m in transaction volume.
Conexus, Cornerstone, and Synergy Credit Union finalized their merger.
The three Saskatchewan credit unions will have $15b in AUM, 200k members and 57 branches.
Burgundy Asset Management, a wealth management firm with $27b in AUM is being acquired by BMO for $625m.
Bitcoin Treasury Corporation (BTCT), an Alberta based bitcoin investment and lending company is going public in a reverse takeover.
Anthony Lacaveraβs acquisition of Wealth One Bank was approved by the federal government.
Wealth One is a 10 year old schedule 1 Canadian bank, which caters to Chinese-Canadian clients. The bank is small ($516m in assets), unprofitable, and has been under regulatory scrutiny for AML violations and alleged connections between its founders and the Chinese government.
Lacavera wants to convert it into a challenger brand, similar to what he did with his previous company Freedom Mobile (fka Wind Mobile) in the telecom market.
The irony here is that Wind Mobile, was also the target of regulatory scrutiny for running afoul of Canadaβs ownership rules. Their largest investor was an Egyptian billionaire.
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π Product
Huumans, a free community group for small business owners get advice on budgeting and benchmarking launched.
The company was founded by the team behind Wagepoint, a Canadian payroll software.
WesternUnion is using Montreal based ZΕ«mβ―Rails to let their Canadians users fund international transfers via Interac e-Transfer.
Forbes, the publisher, is white labelling Homewise to broker mortgages in Canada.
Homewise does the same for the Canadian free credit score apps Credit Karma, Borrowell, and ClearScore.
Circle K, a Canadian gas station chain, is launching a fuel card for fleet drivers powered by Fillip, a Calgary based fintech.
Last year Circle K partnered with iFinance to offer unsecured consumer loans.
ZayZoon, a Calgary based earned-wage-access platform is expanding beyond early wage payouts by launching employer perks like tax support, insurance products & discounts on groceries.
βοΈ Policy
The FCAC, Canadaβs open banking regulator reaffirmed their commitment to launching it by 2026, but did not share an updated timeline on the rollout.
The Liberals made (technically remade) the commitment in the Fall Economic Statement last year. But that was prior to the federal election.
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Have a great week! See ya π