American Express Canada announced that it has joined the MaRS FinTech cluster as a sponsor, with the goal of working with FinTech startups to boost digital marketing and services innovation.
“By working with American Express Canada, we’re connecting MaRS FinTech with a leading payments partner,” said Adam Nanjee, head of MaRS FinTech. “This collaboration will vastly expand the resources available to our FinTech community enabling our innovators to transform financial services for the better.”
American Express has stepped into the startup space in the past, including its participation in Vancouver-based Trulioo’s $15 million equity financing round. The payments provider said that it will use its presence at MaRS to “connect with consumers” by working with startups focused on loyalty, alternative payments, and lending.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with MaRS and its network of startups,” Aileen Kheraj, Vice President, Lending Products and Partnerships at American Express Canada. “Working with MaRS will enable us to accelerate momentum across a variety of innovation initiatives and deliver best in class services for customers.”
American Express isn’t the only major payments organization trying to become more open to FinTech startups in recent weeks, as the announcement comes on the heels of Visa launching its payments developer platform.