National Bank of Canada and Luge Capital have participated in a $1.75 million funding round in 18-month old data aggregation and account verification startup Flinks.
Montreal-based Flinks currently connects just shy of 200 fintechs and banks in Canada, US and Europe to over 250,000,000 financial accounts. The firm counts Transferwise, WealthSimple and ATB Financial among its clients and claims a three percent uptake by Canadian citizens. The company expects that number to grow to 10% by the end of this year.
The funding, which was also supported by Innostart Capital, Panache, iNovia Capital and Conconi Growth Partners, is part of a first round of financing that the firm plans to use to develop an AI-based risk assessment product based on the transaction habits of end-users and the health of their financial accounts.
The investment marks a quick start for Luge Capital, which opened for business in June after securing a $75 million investment pot from several Quebec-based financial institutions. The fund is tracking seed and Series A funding rounds in startups working to improve customer experiences, enhance efficiency for financial institutions and implement data-driven methods and AI for decision-making.
Yves-Gabriel Lebœuf, president and CEO of Flinks, says: “We’ve managed to quickly build close ties with Canadian financial institutions, giving us access to the partners and capital we need to really speed up the pace of innovation at Flinks. We're very fortunate to be a part of this adventure with National Bank and Luge Capital.”