Weekly FinTech & Financial News
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September 14-18, 2026
Top FinTech Updates this Week
💰 Portage, Toronto-based VC firm closed its fourth venture capital (VC) fund at approximately $600M USD ($836M CAD)
💰 Intrepid Growth Partners, Toronto- and London, UK-based VC firm secured $525M USD ($730M CAD) for its inaugural fund
🚀 Finofo, a Calgary-based financial operations platform for businesses launched expense management and purchasing on its AI-native platform, expanding from AP automation to every way money leaves the business
🚀 Wise launched its Chequing Account in Canada, featuring free Interac e-Transfers, CDIC insurance eligibility, and high-yield USD interest to simplify banking for those with international financial lives
🚀 Nuvei, a Montreal-based payment infrastructure provider and Kolleno, UK-based financial operations platform have integrated global payment infrastructure into an AI-powered order-to-cash platform to automate B2B collections and reconciliation
Top Financial Institutions Updates this Week
💰 BDC earmarked a $500M Defence Fund to invest in Canadian and allied-nation venture capital, growth equity, and private equity funds focused on defence and dual-use technologies
💰 Canada Life aims to invest $10B over the next five years in Canadian infrastructure and other nation-building projects that meets its return objectives
🚀 The 2027 Canada Games Host Society launches Legendary Builders, an innovative partnership program that brings together leaders in the insurance and financial services sectors around a shared mission to invest in the potential of our youth and Beneva, Desjardins, iA Financial Group, Intact Insurance, Sun Life and TD Insurance are joining forces to support the initiative
🚀 CIBC introduced a $2B commitment to support much needed funding for small and medium-sized defence-related and dual-use businesses across Canada
🚀 CIBC is expanding its Military Banking Program for Canada's defence community, including members of the Canadian Armed Forces, veterans, members of the Coast Guard, and their families
🚀 TD Bank launched a five-year, $150B commitment to drive new lending, underwriting, advisory and other financing activities and accelerate investment, growth and innovation across sectors critical to Canada's economic future
🚀 BMO is supporting the next generation of leading AI companies in Canada and abroad through a strategic investment in the Radical Breakouts Fund, a new venture capital strategy from Radical Ventures focused on supporting high-growth AI companies as they scale into global leaders
🚀 BMO launched a new initiative to support critical economic sectors in Canada by mobilizing capital investment with commitment of up to $70B
🚀 RBC launched its redesigned Avion Rewards Travel offering, an all-in-one booking platform that gives Canadians the freedom to book any flight with over 500 airlines and redeem Avion points for flights, hotels, car rentals and more
🚀 Deutsche Bank is set to launch its digital asset custody solution this year for institutional and corporate clients in Europe with secure and regulated custody services for selected digital assets
🌟 Scotiabank launched Scotia Growth Institute, a new platform dedicated to supporting key stakeholders in advancing long-term economic growth and competitiveness in Canada and across North America
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The Wise Chequing Account Canada provides a comprehensive solution for individuals and businesses managing money across borders. By combining free Interac e-Transfers, CDIC insurance eligibility, and high-yield USD interest into a single platform, Wise eliminates the need for multiple financial providers while simplifying international and domestic money management. To support the rollout of the Wise Chequing Account Canada, the company is launching a physical pop-up experience at Toronto’s Eaton Centre. Running from September 14 to October 11, this initiative aims to provide hands-on support for newcomers and existing customers alike. | Fintech Finance News
The partnership integrates Nuvei’s global payments network into the Kolleno platform, an AI-powered environment used by finance teams to manage the entire order-to-cash lifecycle. By embedding payment functionality directly into existing workflows for collections, disputes, cash application, and forecasting, the collaboration allows customers to settle invoices without exiting the Kolleno interface. The primary objective is to mitigate the structural gap that leads to more than half of all B2B invoices being paid late. Under this new arrangement, Kolleno’s AI automates the chasing process according to specific collections workflows defined by the finance team. Nuvei then facilitates the actual transaction, supporting various payment methods and geographies. This ensures that the payment remains within the same digital workflow that handles reconciliation, providing a more connected path from the initial invoice to final settlement. The integration is designed to help finance organizations shift their focus from managing fragmented administrative tasks to more strategic oversight of working capital. | Merchant’s Eye
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In addition, BDC has increased its direct investment vehicle, the StrongNorth Fund, from $300 million to $500 million. BDC said the $200-million increase will allow the fund to continue meeting demand from Canadian defence and dual-use companies. BDC launched its $4-billion defence platform last December, after the federal government made a major $82-billion financial commitment to defence spending in the 2025 budget. This past March, BDC expanded the platform to $6 billion so it could provide more loans and investments to the sector. BDC’s Defence Fund will invest in funds focusing on Canada’s defence and sovereignty priorities, and it made its first investment in Intrepid Growth Partners‘ inaugural $525-million USD ($731-million CAD) fund. | BetaKit
Canada Life's commitment will focus on investments that support Canada's long-term economic development, including opportunities across infrastructure, power and utilities, transportation, digital infrastructure and other assets that contribute to a stronger and more resilient Canadian economy. This plan reinforces Canada Life’s role as one of the country’s largest and longest-standing institutional investors. | Canada Life
Winners of the 2026 Empowering Your Community grant include: Access Credit Union and Assiniboine Credit Union; Compass Credit Union and Rolling River First Nation (MB); Alterna Savings and Credit Union Limited (ON) ; Salmon Arm Savings and Credit Union (BC) ; Affinity Credit Union (SK) and StellerVista Credit Union (BC). Together these initiatives show what the credit union system contributes to Canada: local decisions, local ownership and local results, at a time when the country is investing in its own capacity to grow. | EQB
This initiative proposes an approach that defi es the agreed rules of traditional partnership. Organizations in the same industry contribute equally and set aside the competition to mobilize around a common cause and an event that promotes the values they share – the well-being of youth, healthy lifestyles, solidarity, mutual help and commitment to the community. By creating the Legendary Builders, the 2027 Canada Games are introducing a new approach to private funding for major events. This first-of-its-kind initiatives comes to life thanks to the boldness of six organizations that, driven by shared values and commitments, have chosen to build on the power of collective action to increase their reach. | Desjardins
The commitment is designed to help Canadian companies scale, strengthen domestic capability and pursue growth opportunities in sectors that are becoming increasingly important to Canada's economic resilience and long-term competitiveness. Funding will be targeted to support eligible businesses operating across a range of strategic sectors, including infrastructure, energy, cybersecurity, digital capabilities and advanced technologies. The initiative combines financing with sector insight and dedicated banking support for eligible clients. Through Commercial Banking, CIBC has established a national network of defence sector specialists to provide sector expertise, structured financing and strategic connections to help businesses navigate the industry and grow. | CIBC
The program offers specialized personal banking support, tailored advice and exclusive benefits, including relocation-related mortgage fee relief for eligible military moves. These initiatives build on CIBC's continued support for the sector. In February, CIBC announced its participation as a partner bank for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank Development Group. | CIBC
TD's commitment focuses on five key sectors: Energy, including clean and conventional energy, grid and energy infrastructure, storage and related services; Critical minerals and resources, including exploration and extraction, processing and refining, related equipment and services; Defence and aerospace, including naval, aerospace supply chains, cyber-defence capabilities and dual-use technologies with defence applications; Digital and AI, including AI innovation and commercialization, cloud infrastructure, secure digital networks and new frontier technologies and Infrastructure, including ports and trade corridors, railways and high-speed rail, roads, bridges and related infrastructure services. Through new lending, underwriting, advisory and other financing activities, TD will directly support initiatives and businesses central to the investment supercycle and publicly update on its progress. | TD Bank
BMO plans to mobilize up to $70 billion in new capital for sectors critical to Canadian economic security and resilience over 10 years, including AI computing. The Radical Breakouts Fund announced it has secured more than US$1 billion in commitments from leading institutional investors and is designed to provide late-stage capital to innovative AI companies during critical stages of growth. The strategy aims to help promising businesses access the scale of capital needed to commercialize innovation, expand globally and create long-term economic value. By supporting the growth of leading AI companies, BMO is helping strengthen Canada's innovation ecosystem and accelerate the commercialization of technologies that can create long-term value for businesses, communities and the broader economy. As BMO advances its own AI strategy to personalize client experiences, augment employee expertise and automate routine processes, the bank is committed to the responsible development and use of AI through strong governance, risk management and oversight. | BMO
Building on more than 200 years of financing Canada's growth, BMO plans to mobilize up to $70 billion in new capital for sectors critical to Canadian economic security and resilience over 10 years, including: Electricity infrastructure (generation, transmission and distribution); Energy infrastructure (pipelines); Transportation infrastructure (roads, airports, terminals); Mining and critical minerals; AI computing; Defence & security and Oil & gas. BMO's commitment is expected to support national priorities while helping Canadian businesses compete and succeed in a rapidly changing global economy. This planned capital mobilization is expected to take the form of bank financing, debt capital markets activity and the raising of public equity. | BMO
Avion Rewards Travel is taking the work out of booking travel by bringing together flight, hotel, car rental, activity and vacation-package booking in a single interface. The new platform is powered through a strategic collaboration with HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions), a leader in global travel technology that puts smart, AI-assisted tools directly in members' hands. The platform elevates travel loyalty by embedding smart, AI-driven insights directly into the booking process. Avion Rewards members can now effortlessly track airfares in real time, receive automated price alerts and tap into historical data to help them find out when to book and get notified when prices drop. | RBC
Matthew was selected for this distinction in recognition of his impact on business transformation, leadership development, financial innovation, and contributions to strengthening Canada's financial infrastructure and economic connectivity. A respected leader in banking transformation and financial innovation, Matthew has driven initiatives that have helped strengthen Scotiabank's international banking franchise, modernize financial infrastructure, and deepen connectivity across the Americas, including, Leading the transformation of International Commercial Banking, Building high-performing and inclusive teams, Advancing innovation across financial services and Strengthening Canada's financial and economic connectivity. Matthew is a passionate advocate for mentorship, inclusion, and the future of financial services. He also champions initiatives through Women in Payments that help advance diverse talent and future leaders across the financial services sector. | Scotiabank
The Institute will draw on Scotiabank's expertise, insights, and partner and client perspectives from high-growth sectors to guide policymakers, business leaders, and markets in making decisions about Canada's long-term competitiveness, and to bring greater focus to the economic choices ahead. Scotiabank is appointing Strategic Advisors--distinguished leaders with deep experience in national competitiveness to support the Scotia Growth Institute's work. Alongside the launch of the Institute, Scotiabank commits over $100 billion in financing, underwriting, and investment to be available to support Canadian companies and projects in key sectors that will drive forward Canada's economic growth agenda over the next five years. Through Scotiabank's ScotiaRISE commitment to support economic resiliency across its footprint, the Bank will also dedicate $50 million to programs that build the skills, talent, and capacity needed for a stronger, more resilient economy. These partnerships will aim to close the gap on future labour market shortages and equip Canadians with the skills required for high-growth sectors and innovation and AI. | Scotiabank
The Scotia Growth Institute appointed Peter Tertzakian as a Strategic Advisor
Mr. Tertzakian joins the Scotia Growth Institute alongside Ambassador Kristen Hillman, who serves as Lead Strategic Advisor. Mr. Tertzakian is a leading energy economist with more than three decades of experience advising key stakeholders across Canada and globally. He currently works at Studio.Energy, a research and advisory firm he founded, dedicated to helping policymakers, industry leaders, and investors make decisions in the business of energy with trusted, timely knowledge. Previously, he helped shape industry dialogue through the ARC Energy Research Institute, which he founded to examine the forces transforming global energy markets. He has advised governments and industry leaders through numerous panels and currently serves on the Government of Canada's Generation Energy Council. Mr. Tertzakian is also the bestselling author of A Thousand Barrels a Second and The End of Energy Obesity. | Scotiabank
The new digital asset custody solution will allow clients to safeguard their digital assets and transfer digital assets to third parties. Deutsche Bank will manage the wallets and private keys on clients' behalf. This will reduce the need for clients to build and maintain their own custody infrastructure. At launch, Deutsche Bank will support a selected range of digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ether, as well as selected stable coins or e-money tokens, including USDC and EURC, EURAU. The range of supported assets may be expanded over time, subject to client demand and the bank’s product-approval, risk management and regulatory processes. Tokenized financial instruments are also included in the roadmap. Deutsche Bank’s solution has been designed around multiple layers of security and operational control within a strict governance. | Deutsche Bank
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Under the agreement, InterVest, through its affiliate, has committed to purchase up to $1 billion of personal loans facilitated through Avant's platform over a 24-month period, subject to customary funding and financing conditions. The transaction gives Avant access to a new source of capital, supporting the company’s mission of expanding credit access for middle-income Americans. The collaboration reflects Avant’s broader funding strategy, which combines whole loan sales, securitizations and institutional partnerships like this one. Adding capital sources beyond traditional channels helps Avant reduce reliance on any single funding stream and maintain flexibility across a range of market conditions. This added capacity supports the company’s ability to serve borrowers across its platform. | Globe Newswire
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Vendor invoices, corporate card expenses, employee claims, purchase orders, approvals, payments, and reconciliation now run through one queue, one approval model, and one posting path into the ERP or accounting system the business already uses. The announcement comes with a deliberate difference from the rest of the spend management market. Finofo does not issue cards, and it does not force adoption of a new corporate card program as a condition for better expense management. Finance teams keep the corporate cards they already hold with their bank. Finofo pulls statement data from banks and other card providers, matches receipts to card transactions, and reconciles the spend on the cards already in employees’ wallets. | Globe Newswire
The application to FINMA represents a strategic pivot for Revolut in Switzerland, a territory that already hosts 1.3 million of its customers. This level of market penetration puts Switzerland on par with the company’s major European hubs in France, Spain, and Poland. By securing a local licence, the firm aims to transition from a cross-border service provider to a fully integrated domestic bank within the Swiss regulatory framework. The proposed banking structure would allow for the introduction of several localized features that are essential for Swiss retail banking. These include the provision of Swiss IBANs, the ability to host salary accounts, and integration with eBill. Furthermore, the licence would provide customers with deposit protection under Swiss regulatory standards. Revolut has also indicated that it is considering the inclusion of Pillar 3a retirement products and integration with TWINT, the dominant Swiss mobile payment system, alongside merchant acquiring services. | Fintech Finance news
SFC granted Revolut its definitive license to operate (licencia de funcionamiento), authorizing the company to function as a regulated bank within the Colombian market. This milestone allows the fintech to introduce a comprehensive portfolio of financial products designed to address local frictions in cross-border money management and remittances. Users in Colombia will benefit from the protection of Fogafín deposit insurance, which provides a safety net under the local regulatory framework. The entry into Colombia follows a period of significant financial growth for the Revolut Group. | Fintech Finance News
Monzo Aura is a new credit card product designed to bridge the gap between daily expenditure and financial growth. The primary feature of the card is its automatic investment mechanism, which directs cashback earned on purchases into a range of funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) via the fee-free Monzo Investments platform. Customers earn 1% cashback on grocery spending and 0.5% on all other transactions, with the funds being automatically moved into the user's chosen investment strategy. The product is delivered as an iridescent metal card and includes a bundle of partner perks valued at over £360 annually, which the bank notes is double the card's yearly fee. These benefits include subscriptions to Apple TV and Google AI Plus with 2 TB of storage, alongside two airport lounge passes and two airport fast-track passes every 12 months. The travel benefits are paired with access to Apple Originals content, including titles such as Slow Horses and Ted Lasso, positioning the card as a lifestyle product as much as a financial tool. | TradeTech Eye
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The round was led by UpHonest Capital with participation from AMINO Capital, Welight Capital, UpScaleX, and AltaIR Capital. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts. Expertise AI provides a virtual private server platform that enables enterprises to build AI fluency and deploy AI agents across sales and customer support. Their solution allows organizations to select custom models to automate product inquiries, lead qualification, meeting bookings, and service routing. | FinSMEs
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The 51st edition of the festival kicks off today in Toronto and will celebrate the best of Canadian and global cinema over the next 10 days. As part of the partnership, Intact Prestige will serve as the Presenting Partner of one of the Beyond the Red Carpet events, an exclusive event curated by TIFF's CEO Cameron Bailey, that brings the festival's most passionate supporters and industry leaders together to celebrate standout Gala Films. This year's event will take place on September 18, 2026 at the Ritz Carlton Toronto, followed by a Gala Premiere Screening of Wayne Wang's Diary of a Mad Old Man at Roy Thompson Hall. Intact Prestige is a bespoke offering for high-net-worth clients, combining specialized expertise, tailored coverage, and personalized service to meet each client's unique needs. | Intact
From February 27 to March 14, 2027, young athletes aged from 12 to 30 will compete in a national multisport event in Quebec City. This partnership represents a shared ambition to support the next generation of Canadian athletes and aligns closely with Intact's values of excellence and commitment to outperformance. Intact's support will help provide young athletes with training, mentorship and competition opportunities that enable them to pursue their goals, develop their skills and reach their full potential, while contributing to stronger, healthier and more resilient communities. | Intact
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Portage announced its final close of Portage Ventures IV on Wednesday. New American strategic limited partners like Broadridge and Fifth Third Bank have backed the fund, which will focus on founders building FinTech businesses in areas like wealth and asset management, banking, insurance, and payments from seed to Series C, helping them tap into the commercial networks and partnerships they need to grow. This milestone brings Portage’s total assets under management to $7 billion USD. | BetaKit
The AI-focused VC firm secured this amount from a group that includes some of the country’s largest pension funds and banks. While Radical did not disclose its exact target for the fund, this first close puts it roughly on par with Georgian’s more than $1-billion USD 2021 alignment fund. Radical moved beyond its early-stage roots into later-stage investing in 2024 with an $800-million USD growth fund. | BetaKit
Founded in 2023, Intrepid aims to be a specialist growth investor for AI, with a particular focus on Canada and the UK, as well as the United States and Europe. Intrepid’s inaugural fund is backed by more than 80 global limited partners, including multiple institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds like Singapore’s Temasek, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, the British Business Bank, Export Development Canada, and the Business Development Bank of Canada. Thirty percent of the fund’s backing came from investors in Asia and the Middle East, while 15 percent came from Europe (including the UK), 10 percent came from the US, and the remaining 45 percent came from Canada. | BetaKit
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The new Call Status Detection tool is now live for Klarna users in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The feature is designed to provide a definitive answer to whether a person on the other end of a phone call is a legitimate representative of the digital bank. Because caller ID spoofing has become a trivial task for sophisticated scammers, Klarna is bypassing traditional telephony signals in favor of its own encrypted app environment. The user experience is built around immediate visual cues. When a customer receives a call from someone claiming to be from the company, they can open the Klarna app to see a status banner at the top of the interface. A green banner confirms the call is verified and it is safe to continue, while an amber banner indicates the call cannot be verified, serving as a direct instruction for the customer to hang up. This feature is enabled by default in the Klarna app for iOS users in the Nordics, while Android users must enable the feature within their app settings. The company stated that more regions are to follow. | Fintech Finance News
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The startup, which is developing safe-by-design AI systems, announced the funding at the ALL IN conference in Montréal on Wednesday afternoon. LawZero said the funding will power the next phase of its technical roadmap, which includes growing its international scientific research team and securing computing infrastructure. This means that LawZero will expand its European operations with a new office in Berlin and establish a dedicated, sovereign compute infrastructure in Canada through a partnership with Canadian data centre providers Hypertec and 5C. LawZero said it needs this compute power to pursue its research at scale, while anchoring its critical AI infrastructure, expertise, and capabilities in Canada. | BetaKit
The round also included debt financing and non-dilutive funding from the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program. With more than $18 million CAD in total capital raised to date, and customers across national and provincial governments, oil and gas, mining, energy production, and major utility operators, Ultimarii’s Series A financing will go toward expanding the company’s regulatory intelligence platform across Canada and the United States. Additionally, Ultimarii said it would use the new capital to substantially expand its regulatory infrastructure, with a particular focus on building deeper data sets around US-based regulatory frameworks, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Texas Railroad Commission. | BetaKit
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The platform assembles information needed from different parties in a transaction, and provides tools for preparing closing documents to register the change in title for a piece of property. Closer’s software, which it claims is used by more than 600 real estate law firms in Ontario, is now available for use by firms anywhere in Alberta. The province-wide rollout follows a three-month, early-access program the company made available to 14 law firms across Alberta. The Alberta expansion is a jumping-off point for the larger project of rolling out Closer across the country. | BetaKit
The financial terms of the deal, which closed during the second quarter was not disclosed. SGV’s 13-person team has joined the permanent capital investment firm. Define buys, optimizes, and holds established and profitable niche, business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) firms. SGV fits that bill. The bootstrapped company, which was founded in 2003 by former CEO Kapil Gupta, has been selling compliance software to Canadian postsecondary institutions for a long time. Today, SGV caters to more than 40 colleges and universities across the country, processing over two million documents and 100,000 transactions annually. As part of this transaction, former SGV vice-president of operations Shaila Gupta has transitioned to CEO. Define plans to expand SGV’s sales and marketing capabilities, advance its use of AI, and support its expansion across Canada and abroad. | BetaKit
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