In today’s climate, it is essential to support up-and-coming entrepreneurs as they foster innovation and tackle challenges that address the needs of Canadians.
2021 welcomes Fintech Cadence’s fourth cohort of its Ascension program – a 3-month incubation program where selected fintech startups across the country will get to meet with over 60 renowned experts from the industry covering a wide variety of topics such as regulations, financing, partnerships, technology, marketing, human resources and much more.
Fintech Cadence was thrilled to receive an unprecedented number of applications from across 8 different provinces. Of the selected 15 teams, we were happy to see that the reach and growth of the solutions being provided were expanding and that parity amongst male/female founders were industry highs.
Overview of the 2021 cohort:
- 5 provinces represented from coast to coast, including British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.
- 47% of these startups have women founders and/or hold executive positions.
- Startups address 9 verticals from across the sector with a special mention in the following four highlighted by our Executive Director, Layial El-Hadi:
- Proptech: Real-estate sector is growing in Canada, a lot of Canadians are becoming more engaged, so it only makes sense that our products and services are modernizing.
- Insurtech: In the era of Covid-19, we’re seeing companies come up with solutions to help Canadians with their life insurance, home insurance, car insurance and other major components needed.
- Payments: With Payments Canada launching the real time rails in 2022, happy to see innovation has started and is continuing, to help Canadians with all payment services and businesses as well.
- Responsible Finance: In today’s day and age, not being aware, not being involved, not supporting and creating positive impact is not a given anymore, so seeing companies that are focused on building products that are responsible in the finance sector is inspiring to see.
Other verticals included in this year’s cohort are wealth management, non-dilutive funding, banking, alternative lending and personal finance management which continue to be incredibly pertinent for Canadians.
For the next 3 months, our startups will be undergoing weekly expert sessions and be provided with a variety of workshops from leading organizations in the technology, entrepreneurship and financial space, including: District 3, Holt Accelerator, finnovate.io, Peak Financial, Portage and more.
The program will culminate on April 29th with our traditional Demo-Day – which will be open to the public and held remotely. During the event, the ecosystem will be able to hear from these founders directly and see the exciting solutions that they have been developing, scaling and growing over the course of the program. Prizes will also be provided – with many already confirmed from Expertus, IBM, finnovate.io, Peak Financial and more to come!You can catch the full announcement of the cohort here. Help us help the startups by reaching out to them, sharing your network and letting Canadians know that these products and services are available!
Here are the 15 fintech startups:
Alfi: It’s a marketplace platform (web & app) of financial products and services embedded in a financial literacy game. More here.
Blankit Health: Employee benefits management platform (for insurance advisors) that has 3 components – Canada’s first multi-insurance company rating engine, integrations with leading HR platforms, and is completely digital. More here.
Boss Insights: Single API to instant real-time business financial data to banks, accelerating business lending from months to minutes. More here.
Bounc3: Insurance for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and self-employed hustlers. More here.
Fifo: Leveraging technology to bring financial literacy to the masses. More here.
Green Apple Pay: The Future of Digital Fundraising for the Low Touch Economy. More here.
Kalsa: Kalsa is an app that helps friends and family grow their money together for things like trips, weddings, the down payment on a home, and even retirement. More here.
Knnct Markets Corp: knnct platform connects lenders & brokers to get mortgage deals done. Quickly! POST. CONNECT. CLOSE. IT’S THAT SIMPLE. More here.
Mind The Gap: A one-stop location that showcases all the information needed for inheritance purposes. More here.
Monkiri: A mobile e-learning platform focusing on improving financial literacy and inclusion. More here.
Orchid B: Helping the self-employed and small & medium enterprises (SMEs) focus on their core business. More here.
QUBER: Manage money mindfully. More here.
Rivvi: Modern Payroll For The New Normal. More here.
Upky Solutions: We build data driven innovative tools for real estate professionals. More here.
Whatifi: whatifi is a highly visual, low-code, financial scenario builder and projection platform for advisors and professionals. More here.
