Montréal, Quebec, October 31, 2018 – Four Canadian start-ups won top honours yesterday at the FinTech Startup Pitch Contest, which took place during the 2018 Canada FinTech Forum, the country’s largest FinTech gathering.
The ten finalists, chosen among 118 start-ups from Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa, had the opportunity to present their innovative solutions to a panel of judges made up of industry leaders: Peter Holt Dunn (Holdun Family Office), Laviva Mazhar (Luge Capital), Chris Betz (Morgan Stanley), Nancy McCuaig (IGM Financial), Sebastian Boisjoly (Investissement Québec) and Stephanie Choo (Portag3 Ventures).
OWL.co and Symend each won a $25,000 jury prize, awarded by Finance Montréal and the public’s choice prize of $15,000 from Mackenzie Investment was awarded to Nesto.
Symend is also receiving a $150,000 investment offer from Luge Capital. Luge Capital and BDC Capital, through its Women in Technology Fund, surprised the audience with an on-the-spot investment offer of $150,000 each (for a total of $300,000) to Lendified, and Edelman Montréal added $15,000 worth of communication services to the prize.
“The Canada FinTech Forum and Luge Capital primary goal is to support the FinTech ecosystem while providing resources that will help startups succeed. The FinTech Startup Pitch Contest perfectly aligns with this,” said David Nault, General Partner at Luge Capital. “Congratulations to all the startups who presented, especially to the winners, who all work tirelessly to develop innovative solutions that solve real problems in the financial services industry.”
“In just three years, the contest has earned an enviable reputation in the global FinTech community, as we can see from the number of applications and the value of the prizes. I would like to highlight the excellent performance of the ten finalists and congratulate those who won the prizes offered by our partners. Thank you to all our participants, judges and partners; you have made this edition of the contest and the Forum a tremendous success,” said Matthieu Cardinal, Finance Montréal’s Vice President, FinTech Development and Corporate Affairs.
