Synctera has secured $15 million as it expands its banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform into Canada.
“This new partnership with the National Bank helps us … [bring] BaaS to customer-focused entrepreneurs and enterprises in Canada.”
– Kris Hansen, Synctera
The financing was led by NAventures, the corporate venture arm of the National Bank of Canada. It also saw participation from The Banc Funds, Veritex Community Bank, Midland States Bank, and Emigrant Bank.
Synctera is making its BaaS platform available to Canadian companies in partnership with the National Bank. The startup said it expects to launch its first FinTech customers in the market in a “couple of quarters” and be fully operational by the end of the year.
While Synctera is bringing its service to Canada for the first time, it has always had roots here. Synctera was launched in 2020 with one of its co-founders being Kris Hansen, the former CTO of Koho and Portage Ventures. The startup has secured around $65 million USD since its launch. Its investors include Portage-backed Diagram Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Affirm and PayPal founder Max Levchin, and Zachary Perret, CEO of Plaid.
Synctera noted it is actively hiring for several teams for its Canadian division, including roles in compliance, engineering, marketing, operations, product, and sales. As a dual-headquartered company, Synctera has operations in Silicon Valley and an engineering team in Canada, with over 100 employees across both locations.
“Canada is on the precipice of open banking, and many Canadians have a lot of pent-up demand for the financial innovation that often comes from FinTechs and non-financial institutions,” said Hansen, CTO and co-founder of Synctera. “This new partnership with National Bank of Canada helps us … [bring] BaaS to customer-focused entrepreneurs and enterprises in Canada.”
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Synctera’s platform enables organizations of various sizes to build and launch compliant FinTech apps and embedded banking products such as bank accounts, card programs, and lending, among others.
Synctera has only served clients in the United States (US) until now. Synctera told TechCrunch that it decided to expand its offering after several US and Canadian FinTech firms inquired about Synctera’s service in other markets.
TechCrunch also reported that Synctera is currently working with 50 FinTechs, of which 14 are live, including Wayapay and Float.
For the remainder of this year, Synctera said it plans to add support for new credit, lending, and other banking use cases, as well as expand into new geographies and client segments.
