Vault, the all-in-one online financial platform for small-to-medium sized business (SMBs), announces its official launch and widespread availability across Canada.
Founded in late 2021 by Saud Aziz and Ahmed Shafik, Vault’s mission is to revolutionize the financial experience for Canadian entrepreneurs and SMBs by providing them with a one-stop-shop to manage their money more efficiently and effectively while saving on costly banking fees.
Vault’s platform is all online. Business owners can sign up for an account in as little as five minutes. Once approved, they will gain access to robust financial products and services not easily available to SMB owners, with no monthly or annual fees or minimum balances, including:
- Local accounts in CAD, USD, GBP, and EUR where you can send, hold, and receive funds
- Real-time currency exchange that’s significantly cheaper than the big banks
- Vault Prepaid Mastercard® Card with 1% cashback powered with Vault’s FX rates*
- 1% cashback on card purchased that also take advantage of Vault’s FX rates
- Spend management for team members
- Free domestic and international bank transfers to 180 countries in over 36 currencies
- Accounting integrations to automate bookkeeping
Vault also announces the ability to purchase investment products, including GICs that will earn highly competitive rates. The company is committed to extending its product and service offerings and has plans to include lending, savings products, payment automation and more complex FX products later this year.
“My co-founder, Saud Aziz, and I have parents who are small business owners, and we experienced first-hand the antiquated banking services that constrained their ability to freely manage how they spend, move and manage their money, all while enduring excessive fees. We founded Vault to change this,” said Ahmed Shafik, Co-founder of Vault. “Today, entrepreneurs and SMBs owners have a cheaper and easier way to manage their businesses financial needs – all without the need to visit a branch and backed by 24/7 customer service.”
Co-founders Saud and Ahmed bring extensive experience working with alternative financial institutions, including Revolut and Koho. Angel investors in Vault include founders and executives from top US and Canadian companies such as Paypal, Google Pay, Affirm, BNY Mellon, Airbnb, Coinbase, Revolut and Robinhood. The company also secured CAD$5,000,000 in funding co-led by Fin Capital and Gradient Ventures.
“Peoples has a strong history of working with Canadian fintechs in helping drive innovation in the Canadian market,” said Karen Budahazy, Vice President of Digital Enablement & Issuing at Peoples Group. “Vault is a new and exciting financial platform for SMBs in Canada, and we look forward to helping their clients better manage their money through our partnership.”
“With Vault I have saved time and thousands of dollars on annoying bank fees and foreign currency conversions,” said Anna Hu, Co-Founder & CEO of Zoolife.tv. “We pay international vendors with ease and provide virtual cards for the team’s cross border travel needs without compromising controls. I highly recommend using Vault for managing your businesses finances if you want speed and modern functionality.”
Vault partners with regulated financial institutions to offer customers safe and secure accounts. Clients can easily view which financial institution is holding their funds via their Accounts page. Vault is registered as a Money Services Business with FINTRAC, and is a member of the Registered Deposit Brokers Association.