Accelerator Plug and Play entering Canadian fintech market

financialpost.com:

TORONTO — Global startup accelerator Plug and Play is entering Canada’s fintech market with Visa Canada as a founding sponsor.

Saeed Amidi, founder and chief executive of Plug and Play, said in a statement Monday that the partnership will help amplify the impact of fintech startups in the region.

Visa said the partnership comes as Canada’s fintech industry is seeing significant potential with an expected compound annual growth rate of 25 per cent through 2029.

Chris Ferron, head of digital partnerships and fintech at Visa Canada, said in a statement that the company works with both large and small fintech companies helping to shape the future of payments.

“We look forward to working with Plug and Play to advance the mission of fintechs and make money movement easy,” he said.

Visa said the partnership will build on its existing fintech program with the accelerator in the U.S., where it launched a program focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the sector.

The company said it won’t bring the inclusive fintech accelerator program to Canada at this point, focusing instead on meeting new fintech firms and on its fintech fast track program.

Plug and Play opened an office in Mississauga, Ont., in 2020 and has since expanded to Calgary and Edmonton.

Besides fintech, areas of focus for the accelerator in Canada include sustainability, — with Shell Canada Ltd. signing on as a partner in that program in December — health and food supplies.

Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play says it has more than 400 corporate partners and has operations in more than 50 locations across five continents.