The Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst and RBC have launched the RBC FinSec Incubator, a new program to foster early-stage FinTech and cybersecurity startups.
The program aims to help participating startups enhance their product security and resilience, and achieve product-market fit, by teaching entrepreneurs about industry procurement requirements and providing opportunities to demonstrate their technologies to industry experts and potential investors.
“The RBC FinSec Incubator is strategically aligned with our mission to drive innovation and security within the broader financial services sector,” RBC senior vice president Adam Evans said in a statement. “Through collaboration with these startups, we’re enhancing the security and resilience of financial services for Canadians.”
The incubator’s launch follows a rise in cyberattacks this year. In March, Global News reported that tools needed for cybercrime are becoming cheaper and easier to use against weak cyber defences. The report accompanied news that Canada’s financial intelligence unit, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), shut down some of its systems after experiencing a “cyber incident.”
The RBC FinSec Incubator is open to early-stage startups established within the last five years and have, or plan to have, operations in Canada. Startups must also have a minimum viable product in the ongoing, or upcoming, marketing validation and commercialization stage. The incubator is looking for FinTech products that require high security standards, or tech-enabled products that can solve a cybersecurity problem in the financial services industry.
Applications for the incubator close on June 5.
RELATED: Rogers and RBC commit $16M to Cybersecure Catalyst
Catalyst launched in 2018 as a national centre for cybersecurity out of Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson University) to promote training, research, and commercial innovation in the field of cybersecurity.
In 2019, the hub received $30 million from Rogers, RBC, FedDev Ontario, and the City of Brampton before it changed its name to the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst. Last November, Rogers and RBC celebrated five years of Catalyst by contributing another $16 million to support the hub’s workforce training programs and research. At the time, Catalyst claimed over 7,000 people and over 500 businesses had participated in its cybersecurity training programs.
Other cybersecurity hubs have been setting roots down in Canada to address a perceived cybersecurity skills gap, including California-based cybersecurity company Fortinet, which committed $30 million CAD in March to create a cybersecurity technology hub in downtown Calgary.
Featured image courtesy Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst.