Despite a global downturn in fintech funding in 2024, Canada’s fintech sector continued to defy global trends, attracting record-breaking capital. Last year, a total of US$9.5 billion was invested across 121 fintech deals in Canada, up from US$1.1 billion invested in 2023 across 129 transactions, according to a new KPMG report.

Total fintech investment activity (VC, PE and mergers and acquisitions) in Canada, Source: Pulse of Fintech H2 2024, KPMG, 2025

Interest from venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investors remained strong, especially in larger and more established fintech firms. One of the year’s biggest moves came from Montreal-based Nuvei, which was taken private by PE firm Advent International in a US$6.3 billion all-cash deal. The transaction took Nuvei private four years after it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Another major boost came from a US$1 billion PE investment into Montreal’s Plusgrade from General Atlantic in March.

This trend highlights the strength and scalability of Canada’s top fintech firms and showcases that institutional investors are seeing long-term value and exit opportunities.

In this article, we look at some of the most successful and valuable fintech startups from Canada, showcasing the country’s homegrown fintech innovators and trailblazers.

For this list, we focus on independent, fintech startups headquartered in Canada, excluding companies that have been acquired or which have gone public. We explore their value propositions, growth strategies and recent strides, emphasizing their success and scale.

Top fintech startups in Canada

Blockstream

Founded in 2014, Blockstream is a global leader in Bitcoin and blockchain infrastructure, with offices in Montreal, Mountain View, Lugano and Tokyo, and remote team around the world. The company’s key products and services include:

Blockstream’s sidechain technology, the Liquid Network, which enables trustless Bitcoin swap settlements and secure, dependable smart-contracts while empowering financial institutions to tokenize assets;
Blockstream Mining, which provides colocation services to miners, across multiple enterprise-class mining facilities;
Core Lightning, which is a leading implementation of the open Lightning Network protocol, widely adopted for enterprise Bitcoin Lightning Network deployments;
Blockstream Jade, an open-source hardware wallet that offers advanced security for Bitcoin and Liquid assets; and
Blockstream Green, an advanced consumer Bitcoin wallet, seamlessly integrating with Jade, Core Lightning, Bitcoin, and an expanding portfolio of tokenized assets on Liquid. It offers a comprehensive solution for self-custody.

Blockstream has raised about US$588 million in venture funding to date, with a valuation of US$3.2 billion, according to Dealroom and CB Insights. This makes it one of the most valued tech startups in Canada.

Clearco

Founded in 2015, Clearco provides e-commerce brands with working capital to fund invoices and receipts, allowing businesses to access the funding they need against invoices and receipts pertaining to inventory, marketing expenses, shipping, logistics, tax bills, and more.

Clearco stands out for its ability to provide in as little as 24 hours. The funding is non-dilutive, meaning that businesses do not have to give up equity, and payments are capped on a weekly basis, ensuring that businesses know exactly what they’ll need to repay.

In addition to working capital, Clearco also partners with marketplaces, brokers and financial experts, marketing and professional services agencies, suppliers and vendors, as well as software solution providers, to provide value to e-commerce merchants within its ecosystem.

Clearco claims it has funded more than 10,000 businesses with US$2.5 billion invested to date, making it a prominent financing partner. The startup has raised about US$500 million in venture funding, according to Dealroom, and is a unicorn startup valued at US$2 billion. It was also named one of the world’s top 250 fintech companies by CNBC in 2024, recognized for its contribution to the e-commerce financing sector.

Figment

Figment is a leading blockchain infrastructure provider. The company specializes in staking infrastructure, offering a staking solution for over 700 institutional clients, including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, foundations, custodians, and large token holders, to earn rewards on their digital assets.

Figment claims it is the largest non-custodial staking provider of staked ether on the Ethereum network. It offers institutional staking services including seamless point-and-click staking, portfolio reward tracking, application programming interface (API) integrations, audited infrastructure, and slashing protection.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Figment has expanded strategically to meet the growing demands of institutional clients. The company has established a presence in London, and recently expanded into Latin America (LatAm) with a new office in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where it now provides customers like Mercado Bitcoin and Hashdex with localized solutions while adhering to regional regulations.

Figment has raised about US$165 million in funding to date, according to Dealroom and CB Insights, and the startup is valued at US$1.4 billion. Like Clearco, Figment was named one of the world’s top 250 fintech companies by CNBC in 2024.

FreshBooks

Founded in 2003, FreshBooks is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution built for service-based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a focus on the US and Canadian markets. The platform aims to serve as a comprehensive operating system for its users, enabling SMEs to handle everything from invoicing clients and receiving payments to managing time tracking and payroll processing.

The Toronto-based startup claims that more than 30 million people have used have used its solution. It says that the platform has processed over US$60 billion in invoices, saving businesses an average of 192 hours annually.

FreshBooks has raised US$146 million in funding to date, and is valued at US$1 billion, according to Dealroom. FreshBooks was also named one of the world’s top 250 fintech companies by CNBC in 2024.

Trulioo

Trulioo provides electronic identity and address verification of both individuals and businesses. The company’s comprehensive suite of in-house capabilities, integrated across a single automated platform, powers customizable onboarding workflows tailored to meet any market requirement. Combining its state-of-the-art technology with expertise across diverse markets, Trulioo enables the highest verification assurance levels, optimizing onboarding costs and fostering trust in the global digital economy.

Trulioo covers 195 countries and can verify more than 14,000 identification documents and 700 million business entities while checking against more than 6,000 watchlists. It serves customers including Canadian digital bank EQ Bank, as well as fintech unicorns Airwallex and Nium.

Trulioo has raised US$472 million and is valued at US$1.75 billion, according to Dealroom and CB Insights.

Neo Financial

Founded in 2019, Neo Financial offers modern, technology-driven financial services.. Headquartered in Calgary and Winnipeg, the startup offers a wide range of innovative financial and banking solutions, partnering with leading financial institutions to provide its members with safe and secure ways to spend, save, invest, and get a mortgage.

Furthermore, Neo for Business powers financial solutions for Tim Hortons, Cathay Pacific, Hudson’s Bay, and over 11,000 other partners across the country, including co-branded credit card programs, a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform, as well as loyalty and rewards programs.

Neo Financial has raised about US$500 million in funding and has been recognized as the top tech startup in Canada by LinkedIn in 2023. The startup was also ranked first in Deloitte’s 2023 Technology Fast 50 in the Companies-to-Watch category, and was named among the world’s top 250 fintech companies of 2024 by CNBC.

Last year, Neo Financial ranked first on the 2024 Report on Business magazine’s annual ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies, achieving a remarkable three-year revenue growth of 38,431%.

Koho

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Toronto, Koho offers a full-service digital financial platform designed to empower Canadians with better control over their money. Through a mobile app, the company provides spending and savings accounts, a prepaid Mastercard, as well as tools for budgeting, credit building, earning, and borrowing, in addition to insurance.

With a mission to financially empower a generation of Canadians, Koho has grown rapidly, now serving more than 1.7 million customers.

The startup has raised about US$293 million in funding to date, according to Dealroom, securing its last round in October 2024 and raising C$190 million (US$135 million) in equity and debt. Koho said it would use the proceeds to fund its growth, expand its lending book, and support the launch of new products, including metal cards, cheque deposits from the Koho app, pay later, and international money transfers. Koho is also

Koho is also working on securing a Schedule 1 bank license to become a domestic bank.

Featured image credit: edited from freepik