With an outdated financial services system dominated by a select few institutions, the FinTech industry in Canada has been ripe for quite some time — and has paved the way for startups like Wealthsimple, which recently partnered with fellow FinTech startup Borrowell, and Grow Financial, which caught the attention of BC’s third largest credit union.
Among the FinTech startups trying to change the way we handle money is Lendified, one of the latest pitchers on The Disruptors.
“We take a process that can normally take up to eight weeks and easily takes 25 hours of a small business person’s time, and we condense that into five or ten-minute loan applications,” said Lendified founder Troy Wright, a former CEO of Scotiabank Mexico. “You can do the application online or on your phone, and you can do it within minutes.”
So far, the company has processed about $35 million worth of applications. Wright said that the company is also building its lending technology platform that can be used as a data and analytics model used in an algorithm — an aspect of the business co-host Bruce Croxon was especially interested in.
“I think you need to figure out what other things can be done because as a platform on its own — I’m not sure, I haven’t seen it work,” said Croxon. Co-host Amber Kanwar noted that a lot of “smart money” was being invested into the FinTech sector — and that even the founders themselves are former bank executives.
“There’s been a lot of smart money that have lost a lot of money as well, so for me, my jury’s out,” Croxon replied.
Watch the whole pitch below:
BetaKit is a production partner on The Disruptors. Tune in to BNN every Thursday night at 7pm for full episodes!