Six months after the launch of its FinTech cluster, MaRS announced today that it has added one of Canada’s most venerable payment brands. The new strategic partnership brings Interac Association and Acxsys Corporation, the organizations behind Interac, into the cluster to connect with startups building the next generation of payments, peer-to-peer, lending, and crypto-currency technologies.
Interac says it will not only connect with Canadian startups, but actively collaborate with them on emerging financial technologies.
“As Canada’s domestic debit brand, we are excited to strengthen our commitment to home-grown innovation through our partnership with MaRS,” said Mark O’Connell, President and CEO at Interac. “In a time of rapidly advancing payments technology, our participation in the innovation ecosystem at MaRS enables us to engage with the brightest minds from Canada’s FinTech startups while exploring the latest innovative and secure payment solutions.”
The partnership follows similar announcements made earlier in the year with CIBC, PayPal, Moneris, and UGO. As part of the cluster, Interac says it will not only connect with Canadian startups, but actively collaborate with them on emerging financial technologies.
The addition of Interac, which is used more than 12 million times daily to pay and exchange money, is a major coup for Adam Nanjee, Head of MaRS’ FinTech cluster. When asked by BetaKit to put Interac’s participation in the cluster into perspective, Nanjee was direct in response.
“Having a payments network join our cluster is a critical part of building a global FinTech hub that offers startups and partners everything they need to launch innovative financial services,” Nanjee said. “With the right mix we’re able to support our FinTech entrepreneurs with access to customers, capital and expertise, while providing established players the opportunity to explore new ideas.”
“Through their expertise, Interac can offer our startups valuable perspective on the Canadian and global payments industries.”
