Fintech summit coming to Toronto in December

Discussions to focus on the sector’s future in Canada

By Ephraim Vecina

06 Sep. 2018

The AltFi FinTech Summit, which was launched in 2013, is coming to Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District on December 5, 2018.

This will be the first time that the Summit will be conducted in Canada.

Fintech companies, alternative finance platforms, and institutional investors will be convening to discuss the future of the Canadian fintech sector.

“We’re always on the lookout for the next fintech hotspot for our Summit series, and Toronto fits the bill,” AltFi executive director David Stevenson told BetaKit. “A mixture of exciting local firms and progressive regulatory thinking has the market poised to take off.”

In the past few years, Toronto and Montreal’s status as prime destinations for financial and intellectual capital has placed these cities at the centre of the fintech revolution.

Artificial intelligence research and development are currently among the most active areas of fintech investment, KPMG International said in a study released last month. Toronto and Montreal, along with Edmonton, are acknowledged global leaders in these disciplines

KPMG reported that a combination of changing consumer outlooks and a shifting policy environment has led to a record-breaking number of fintech investment deals across Canada this year.

“There were more than 50 deals in the first half of 2018 alone. That is almost as many as we saw in all of 2017, the busiest year on record for Canadian fintech,” KPMG national industry leader for financial services (Canada) John Armstrong said.

The first two quarters of the year saw approximately $263 million invested in fintech venture capital, mergers, and acquisitions nationwide.

“Evolving customer expectations, recent changes stemming from the 2018 federal budget, as well as expected changes coming via the review of the Federal Financial Sector Framework (including the Bank Act), are clearly spurring increased activity in the Canadian fintech sector.”