Fostering Fintech – Building an Innovation Ecosystem in Canada 

Fostering Fintech – Building an Innovation Ecosystem in Canada 

Canada’s fintech scene, which includes the burgeoning hubs of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, is on a high after a strong 2021 that saw the highest-ever levels of fintech investment. According to KPMG , fintech investment in Canada skyrocketed to almost $5billion in the first half of 2021, surpassing the previous annual record set in 2017. While data from Fasken , one of the country’s largest law firms, revealed further funding successes in the second half of 2021 with a total of 77 venture capital-backed deals over 72 companies. Fintechs bagging notable funding last year included multiplatform banking firm Wealthsimple , cloud banking company FreshBooks , regtech Trulioo , NFT firm Dapper Labs , Bitcoin miner Blockstream and e-commerce investor Clearco – who all earned the status of ‘fintech unicorn’. Meanwhile Koho ’s $210million Series D financing in February of this year has put the Toronto-based fintech close to joining their $1billion unicorn ranks. Today, Canada has more than 1,200 fintech companies with Toronto its largest commercial hub. The innovation ecosystem in Toronto is supported by the region being the second largest financial centre, and having the highest concentration of financial services employment, in all of North America. Canada is