Introducing Innovate Financial Health’s inaugural cohort

We are extremely excited to announce the cohort for Innovate Financial Health’s inaugural Impact Accelerator.

Four startups working towards addressing the financial needs of Canadians have been selected to participate in our three-month accelerator program. Funded by Capital One, the program aims to help the selected ventures grow and scale their impact across Canada.

According to TD’s 2019 Financial Health Index, only 27% of Canadians are considered financially healthy with over half (54%) spending more than or equal to their income in the last 12 months and 32% unable to pay all of their bills on time and in full.

At Innovate Financial Health, we believe that technology can and should be used to address the challenges that millions of Canadians face every day. It is difficult, however, for mission-driven entrepreneurs to find the support and resources they need to help grow their businesses. At Innovate Financial Health, we aim to address this gap.

The program will run over three in-person sessions in Toronto and participating ventures will receive $25,000 in grant capital, intensive feedback from 70+ mentors and investors, and a curriculum aimed to address the unique challenges that financial health founders face such as forming partnerships with financial institutions, measuring impact, conducting inclusive user testing, and navigating regulation.

More than 40 ventures from across Canada applied for the inaugural cohort and we have been excited to see a wide array of exciting solutions — from alternatives to payday lending to experiential financial education for children. The IFH team along with Capital One and select advisors evaluated the applications on their impact potential, traction, team, and scalability / replicability.

Here are the four ventures in our cohort shaping the future of financial health in Canada:

1. AltruWisdom (Calgary, AB): An online subscription-based financial education platform to help Canadians make informed life decisions
2. PolicyMe (Toronto, ON): A platform for customers to get smart and honest life insurance advice in 5 minutes
3. Quber (Moncton, NB): A financial app that provides people with easy and fun solutions to help them get control of their money
4. ZayZoon (Calgary, AB): A HRTech company that provides employees access to wages on-demand and personal financial management tools to better their financial health

We look forward to supporting these ventures over the next three months and beyond.

Elvis Wong is the Founder and Managing Director of Innovate Financial Health, a national non-profit focused on creating and scaling innovative products and services that improve the financial lives of Canadians, particularly those most financially vulnerable. Innovate Financial Health is funded by Capital One and JP Morgan Chase.