Financial news

A new all-in-one online financial platform and bank for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and entrepreneurs in Canada, Vault, has officially launched. 

Vault was founded in late 2021 and aims to provide Canadian entrepreneurs and SMBs with a one-stop shop to manage their money more efficiently and effectively and help them save on banking fees.

The platform explained that business owners can sign up for an account in minutes. Once approved, they can access robust financial products and services not generally available to SMB owners, with no monthly or annual fees or minimum balances.

The products and services included with Vault are:

• Local accounts in CAD, USD, GBP, and EUR
• Real-time currency exchange – aiming to be cheaper than big bank offerings
• Prepaid Mastercard card with one per cent cashback
• 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 includes an opportunity to purchase investment products. The company is extending its product and service offerings and has plans to include lending, savings products, payment automation and more complex FX products later this year.

Supporting small Canadian businesses

Co-founders of Vault, Saud Aziz and Ahmed Shafik, boast extensive experience from a range of 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, BNY Mellon, Airbnb, Coinbase and Revolut. The company also secured CAD$5,000,000 in funding.

Ahmed Shafik explained the pair’s motivation behind founding Vault: “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.

“Today, entrepreneurs and SMBs owners have a cheaper and easier way to manage their business’s financial needs – all without the need to visit a branch and backed by 24/7 customer service.”

Karen Budahazy, vice president of digital enablement and issuing at Peoples Group, also commented: “Peoples has a strong history of working with Canadian fintechs in helping drive innovation in the Canadian market. 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.”