Flinks, a Canadian fintech which provides data aggregation services, has landed CAD 16 million ($11.8 million) in a Series A round.
NAventures, the corporate venture capital arm of National Bank of Canada, led the round.
“One area of expansion will be to integrate a new type of information: wealth data,” says CEO
The fintech says roughly one in three Canadians have connected their bank accounts with Flinks.
Retail to wealth
CEO, Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, says so far Flinks has focused on retail banking. But with a fresh capital injection behind it, the start-up is looking to develop its capabilities in a new financial vertical.
“One area of expansion will be to integrate a new type of information: wealth data,” says Leboeuf.
“Flinks will enable connections to data sources in the wealth management space, through a new aggregation service.
“This is something we’re going to pull off in the near future — in fact, we’re already well into the beta phase.”
US expansion
As well as moving into the wealth sector, Flinks is also gearing up for its US expansion.
This will pit the fintech against open banking competitors already settled stateside, such as Plaid, Finicity and TrueLayer.
The US has been dubbed one the global governments least likely to enact open banking regulation.
This is partly down to its fragmented bank regulatory system which currently prioritises consumer protection. Susan Pandy, Federal Reserve Bank Boston’s payment strategies director, observed this in March.
She pointed out that financial institutions (FIs) and technology companies – like Flinks – are driving the impetus for open banking in the US.
To date, US regulators have taken a more hands-off approach by issuing non-binding guidelines.
Data network for all
Leboeuf says open banking ecosystems “are strongly tilted towards data consumers”. By this, he means those companies already digitally enabled to leverage financial data.
“It hasn’t yet delivered the same opportunities to the financial institutions acting as data suppliers,” says Leboeuf.
“Our ambition is to bridge that gap by building a data network that is truly beneficial for all stakeholders.
“It’s time to take everything we’ve learned servicing hundreds of financial businesses – and their millions of customers – and push the boundaries further.”
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