Startups in Toronto and Vancouver have been making positive moves this past week. Here is the latest in company partnerships, new features and global expansions for Canadian tech companies.
Casalova partners with Dream Maker Developments on online condo purchase system
Toronto-based Casalova, a Canadian brokerage and full-service real estate marketplace, has teamed up with Dream Maker Developments to allow homebuyers to purchase a pre-construction condo completely online.
Potential buyers will be able to see the details of each unit, including the square footage, floor plans, and condo features all online. Buyers can also complete and submit all paperwork and put down a deposit using their credit card.
“Our team is thrilled to be working with Casalova on this new project. This digital approach appeals to a huge market of potential buyers and also saves resources that would otherwise be invested in model suites and sales centers,” said Isaac Olowolafe, CEO of Dream Maker Developments. “Developers are always looking for new ways to reach more homebuyers and this offering modernizes how people purchase a pre-construction condo.”
Casalova co-founder Ray Taeeb was on The Disruptors last year to talk about the benefits for landlords. Tenants are given a risk score using Casalova’s team of data scientists and machine learning specialists to let landlords know if their tenants are high risk.
Goldmoney Network adds new payment providers, expands offerings for Chinese market
Toronto-based Goldmoney announced several updates to its service for users across the world.
Through the Goldmoney Network, anyone can buy, sell, transfer, earn, or redeem physical allocated gold online. The company has added full local credit card processing and bank transfer capabilities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.
Goldmoney will soon allow users in Canada and the US to be able to purchase gold via Apple Pay, and has upgraded its Network service to include all US banking institutions. American users can now link any US checking or savings account to make secure direct deposits and redemptions without delays or wire fees.
For the Chinese market, the company has integrated Alipay – China’s leading third-party online payment solution – as a deposit method, and will soon accept WeChat Pay.
“As an international gold-based savings platform, our mission is to make securely vaulted gold more accessible than ever before. Today’s launch is the result of months of engineering and integrations, and is by far our broadest payments expansion to date,” said Darrell MacMullin, CEO of Goldmoney Network. “As we expand our global footprint, we will continue to improve our international payment processing capabilities and integrate new payment options to empower users around the world.”
In December, Goldmoney added the Royal Canadian Mint’s precious metal storage vault to its vault network.
Trulioo expands its ID verification product to South Korea
Vancouver-based Trulioo, a global ID verification company, announced that they have expanded their GlobalGateway product to South Korea.
The identity verification product, GlobalGateway, allows businesses to perform identity verification for 4 billion people in over 60 countries using more than 200 data sources.
In South Korea, the product will be used to help facets of daily life including registering for a bank account, e-commerce, online transactions and accessing government services.
Stephen Ufford, CEO of Trulioo, said that previously, international clients faced regulatory barriers of entry in doing business in South Korea. “An ecosystem powered by transparent and robust regulatory compliance systems helps enable more cross-border commerce and trade to fuel South Korea’s rapidly growing economy,” said Ufford.
In August 2016, Trulioo updated its anti-money laundering watchlist to include country-specific, extensive sanctions lists, as well as an enhanced politically exposed persons watchlist containing over one million entities worldwide.
TouchBistro POS system expands its Square integration to Australia
Toronto-based TouchBistro, an iPad point-of-sale (POS) system for restaurants, is expanding its Square integration to Australia.
“We are now offering restaurants in Australia, our third largest customer base, seamless integration with Square’s best in class hardware and processing to help improve their operations and deliver exceptional customer service,” said Alex Barrotti, CEO and founder of TouchBistro. “In North America, where the integration was launched last year, we’ve seen TouchBistro and Square deliver a great solution for hospitality venues of every size.”
TouchBistro’s app is also able to tell serving staff what to upsell and list food preparation variations. The app features a full suite of cloud reporting tools that address all the information restaurateurs need to manage the business, from seating, inventory, and sales analysis to scheduling and payroll.
In February, TouchBistro partnered with Thinking Capital, which uses data to make lending decisions for small and medium-sized businesses, to help restaurants secure financing. Restaurant owners across Canada can apply for financing from Thinking Capital through their TouchBistro account portal.