CALGARY, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Calgary-based financial technology companies Philip and Miq were announced as the winners Friday night at an awards ceremony to celebrate the inaugural Digital Commerce Bank Calgary Fintech Award. Together, the two companies take home more than $300,000 in non-dilutive cash prizes.
The Calgary Fintech Award champions fintech companies that demonstrate clear innovation and a strong value proposition for the Calgary region through job creation, economic growth and diversification.
“The Calgary Fintech Award helps fintech startups accelerate their business by providing award winners with cash prize money that is non-dilutive capital. The award encourages them to continue to grow in Calgary,” said Jeffrey Smith, president and CEO of Digital Commerce Bank (DC Bank) and founding sponsor of the Calgary Fintech Award. “We’ve been very pleased with the quality of the Fintech Award participants, founders and their teams. Calgary is a fantastic city to continue growing the Fintech market and we’re excited to give back to our industry.”
45 fintech startups from across Canada applied for the award and 24 were selected to participate in the intensive program. Over the past 3 months, the companies have conducted fintech-specific workshops, mentoring sessions with world-class advisors, pitch coaching and business evaluation. At the beginning of October, the field was narrowed down to 11 finalist companies.
In Calgary on Friday, the top 5 finalists were selected to make a final pitch live at the Platform Innovation Center to a judging panel of fintech experts and entrepreneurs from across Canada. The second place prize of $60,000 went to Miq, a financial platform that enables community cooperatives to pool funds, save and build credit. The first place prize of $250,000 was awarded Philipthe first digital payment platform built for corporate fleets to enable drivers to pay for fuel and maintenance expenses with a secure digital wallet.
“For us and for Calgary, this award is an opportunity to shine – to demonstrate to the world that Calgary is the best place to start, scale and succeed in technology and business,” says Alice Reimer, CEO of Fillip.
The top 5 finalist companies in the Calgary Fintech Award included Credit App, Fillip, Miq, PayShepherd and The Smart Benefit by YRPlans.
The Digital Commerce Bank Calgary Fintech Award is a joint initiative of DC Bank and Platform Calgary. DC Bank has committed $1 million over four years to support fintech startups through the Calgary Fintech Award.
Platform Calgary
Platform Calgary is an impact organization whose members are technology companies large and small, united in a vision of inclusive, innovation-driven prosperity for Calgary. Platform Calgary brings together the resources of Calgary’s tech ecosystem to help startups launch and grow at every step of the journey, from ideation to scale. The focus is to make all parts of Calgary’s startup ecosystem better resourced, connected, efficient and prominent.
For more information about Platform Calgary, visit: platformcalgary.com
Digital Handelsbank
Digital Commerce Bank (DC Bank) is a Canadian Schedule 1 bank that focuses on technology and delivers robust and secure payment technologies. The bank’s technology-driven platform provides innovative payment and banking solutions to business customers, so that businesses can offer their own financial and payment solutions. The bank’s proprietary banking-as-a-service and payment solutions, as well as simple APIs, offer customers efficiency, flexibility and convenience when it comes to integrating services directly into a business’s product. The bank is a member of Payments Canada, and is a principal member of Interac, Visa and MasterCard. For more information about Digital Commerce Bank, please visit www.dcbank.ca
