Canadian Fintech: Everyone is getting acquired 🛒

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 your industry in under 3 minutes.

Last week I made my 2025 Canadian Fintech Predictions! You can read them here.

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💰 Funding

• Una Software, a Toronto based financial planning platform raised $7.5m

🤝 M&A

• Lexop, a Montreal based debt collections software for lenders and telcos was acquired by Eltropy, a US competitor.

• Humi, a Toronto based HR, benefits and payroll platform was acquired for over $100m by Employment Hero, an Australian competitor.

• Village Wellth, a Calgary based marketplace to buy and sell small businesses acquired ByAndSellABusiness.com, a Vaughn based competitor.

• Carbon6, a Toronto based portfolio of e-com tools for Amazon sellers (inventory management, listing optimization, tracking reimbursements, etc.) was acquired by SPS Commerce, a retail focused supply chain company for $301m.

  • Carbon6 raised $88m in 2022.

• Thomson Reuters, the Toronto headquartered media conglomerate acquired SafeSend, a US based tax automation platform for USD $600m.

• Softchoice, a publicly traded enterprise cloud and cybersecurity company was taken private by WWT, a US based IT company. I wrote about the Canadian go-private trend in last week’s predictions.

• Altus Group, a Toronto based commercial real estate analytics firm sold its property tax business to Ryan, a US based tax services company for $700m.

• 1Password, a Toronto based secure sign-in platform acquired Trelica, a UK based security tool to manage access to company apps in one place.

  • 1Password has raised USD $920m to date and this is their fourth acquisition.

• Scotiabank is selling off its banking operations in Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama to Davivienda, a Colombian bank in exchange for a 20% stake in the lender.

  • Scotia also recently acquired 14.9% of KeyCorp, a large US lender.

• The $6b merger of Fairstone Bank and Home Trust has closed. You can read my breakdown here.

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🚀 Product

• RBC is implementing Cohere’s new enterprise AI platform “North” within the bank.

  • TD has also been testing Cohere’s models.

• Grayhawk Wealth, an Alberta based ultra high net worth wealth management firm is rebranding as Sagard Wealth.

  • Sagard, Montreal based alternative investments firm that operates within the Power Corp family of companies, purchased a majority stake in Grayhawk in 2020.

• Spring Financial, a Vancouver based consumer lender launched a personal finance management app called Bloom.

• Shakepay, Montreal based bitcoin focused banking platform (crypto exchange, cash accounts, bitcoin cashback card, etc.) has become a regulated member of CIRO.

  • Wealthsimple and WonderFi are also dealer members with crypto businesses.

• TD’s incoming CEO is reviewing their 10% ownership in Charles Schwab, a large US based FI.

  • TD was slapped with a USD $3b fine and a cap on their US assets after pleading guilty to a US money-laundering scandal.

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Have a great week! See ya 👋

-Tal Schwartz