Plus: Canadian FinTech startup duo partners to bring AI-powered advice to financial advisors.
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Conquest Planning partners with CapIntel to bring AI-powered advice to more financial advisors and investors (BETAKIT)
Winnipeg-based Conquest Planning has partnered with another Canadian FinTech firm focused on the wealth-management space: Toronto’s CapIntel.
The deal will bring Conquest’s strategic advice manager (SAM) to CapIntel’s network of more than 12,000 financial advisors across North America. Using artificial intelligence (AI), SAM analyzes client information and provides personalized financial planning advice.
Vesttoo investigation reveals $4 billion fraud involving fake letters of credit (CTECH)
The allegedly fake letters of credit (LOCs) provided by investors to insurers for reinsurance transactions on the Vesttoo platform are believed to total a sum of around $4 billion, Calcalist has learned.
The suspicion surrounding Vesttoo is that investors using the platform were able to purchase insurance risk from insurance companies by presenting fake collateral that Vesttoo’s system did not detect. These alleged forgeries may have involved cooperation with employees of various banks, primarily in China.
WatchMojo CEO leads Mosea $2.5 million CAD raise to help Canadians split the bill (BETAKIT)
Mosea, a Toronto-based payments startup, has raised $2.5 million CAD in seed funding. The startup says it plans to use the funds to fuel its expansion and introduce its social payments app to new users across Canada.
Similar to the American peer-to-peer payments platforms Venmo and Splitwise, Mosea offers an all-in-one payments app that allows for bill-splitting between friends.
POWERED BY: TECHNATIONAddressing Canada’s talent gap in the tech industry boils down to removing the barriers for equity-deserving groups.
The Advanced Digital and Professional Training (ADaPT) program is a cost-free digital and professional skills development initiative that bridges the employment gap. It equips students in their final semester and post-secondary graduates with in-demand skills for entry-level tech roles.
ADaPT supports a diverse group of talent from varied educational backgrounds, with 81% of participants identifying as belonging to at least one equity-deserving group. Backed by 70+ hours of intensive training, the program exposes participants to tech career pathways.
The ADaPT program is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre and led by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute in collaboration with TECHNATION Canada.
To support future talent in thriving tech careers within Canada’s changing job market and become an ADaPT employer, find out more here.
‘The Wallet Event’: Crypto Startup Bankrupt After Losing Password to $38.9 Million Physical Crypto Wallet (404 MEDIA)
Prime Trust pitches itself as a crypto fintech company designed to help other startups offer crypto retirement plans, know-your-customer interfaces, ensure liquidity, and a host of other services. Now, it has found itself bankrupt, primarily because it can’t gain access to a physical crypto wallet with $38.9 million in it.
OMERS Ventures turnover continues with global head Damien Steel joining Deep Sky as CEO (BETAKIT)
At the beginning of 2023, head of venture capital Damien Steel laid out a bold vision for the future of OMERS Ventures. Now, he is leaving the firm.
Steel’s departure is the latest in a series of reversals for OMERS Ventures, which at the beginning of the year announced plans for a fifth fund featuring a unified global investment team. Since then, the firm has pulled out of the European market, losing or terminating multiple managing partners in the process. Now, only two managing partners remain: Yang, and Henry Gladwyn, who moved to New York as part of the London, UK office shuttering.
Klarna’s Q2 results include profitable month as GMV continues growth streak (TECHCRUNCH)
Things continue to look up for European fintech giant Klarna. Around this time last year, it would have been hard to say that.
The company, best known for its buy now, pay later offerings, has reported a profitable month in the second quarter as gross merchandise volume grew 14% to 238.6 billion Swedish Krona ($21.8 billion) from 209.2 billion ($19.1 billion) Krona in the same quarter in 2022.
Gambit Partners aims to take some of the risk out of early-stage investing by leaning on its LPs (BETAKIT)
Toronto-based venture capital (VC) fund Gambit Partners aims to de-risk pre-seed investing with the help of its limited partners (LPs).
Co-founder Simon Sokol claims that Gambit’s assembly of LPs is “uniquely situated” to help early-stage entrepreneurs with hiring, fundraising, and tech problems, noting that Gambit can bring in LPs to analyze prospective investments, solve issues at portfolio companies, or even join them.
SEC takes first action against an NFT project as an unregistered security (THE VERGE)
The SEC, in its first enforcement action against NFTs, said the NFTs issued by Impact Theory were unlicensed securities.
The company has agreed to a cease-and-desist order, paid $6.1 million in penalties, and agreed to destroy all of the NFTs in question still in its control. Impact Theory will also eliminate any royalties that it might have received from sales of those NFTs on secondary markets.
Seven Canadian tech founders dish about their journey running a startup (BETAKIT)
So far, 2023 has been tough for entrepreneurs. Inflation has kept costs high and profits low, and investors have mostly kept their chequebooks closed. But in uncertain times, founders can lean on each other for wisdom and inspiration.
We talked to a diverse group of Canadian tech founders about what motivates them during tough times and the importance of learning from their customers and peers.
Trustly Acquires French Fintech SlimPay in €70 Million Deal
(BNN BLOOMBERG)
Swedish payments firm Trustly has acquired the French recurring payments platform SlimPay in a €70 million ($75.7 million) deal as it continues its Europe-wide expansion.
Trustly, which competes with card companies and digital rivals like PayPal Holdings Inc., plans to use the deal to expand into repeating payments such as subscriptions or donations.
Bank of Canada taps EvolutionQ to explore impact of quantum computing on digital dollar (BETAKIT)
Quantum security startup EvolutionQ is contributing to a Bank of Canada research project involving quantum-safe cybersecurity technologies for digital currencies.
One potential impact of quantum computers would be on the proposed Canadian digital dollar. The Bank of Canada is exploring technologies and technical ecosystems that may help decide how a Canadian digital dollar would be developed.
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