National Bank of Canada Acquires Majority Stake in Montreal Fintech Startup Flinks

National Bank of Canada has invested $103 million in the Montreal-based fintech startup Flinks. The investment is intended to serve as capital for accelerating the expansion of the startup’s fintech activities throughout North America. Much of this expansion is intended to target a new customer base in the United States, with Flinks hoping to double their clientele there.

Flinks Develops Innovative Solutions for Handling Fintech Data

This investment is set to make National Bank of Canada the majority shareholder of Flinks. Their commitment is set to be realized in September. The deal is composed of $73 million in shares purchased from existing shareholders and direct injection of $30 million in capital into the company.

This is the first major investment in Flinks following their Series A round of financing in July 2020. The company raised $16.2 million in funding from that time, including investments by NAventures, the venture capital arm of Nation Bank of Canada. This funding went into launching the startup’s fintech services into the United States, greatly expanding their user base.

Flinks focuses on providing tools for digital finance for all sizes of companies across areas, including lending, digital banking, and payment processing. Their technologies enable these organizations to better implement links between bank accounts and apps, having worked with such prominent companies as Wealthsimple, TransferWise, and PayBright.

Their extensive connectivity network allows for the aggregation of user accounts and data across a wide range of applications. This provides organizations with key data enrichment that leads to more effective use of raw financial data to improve business operations.

Related: Station Fintech Montreal Accelerator seeks Canadian startups developing payment technologies

National Bank of Canada Hopes to Capitalize on Developing Technologies

As the need for fintech services focused on data and connectivity continues to grow, National Bank of Canada believes that their controlling share in Flinks will enable them to better leverage these developing technologies.

Louis Vachon, President and CEO of National Bank of Canada, stated that “Flinks is strategically positioned at a key moment in the evolution of customer experiences. The combination of talent and data technology solutions that Flinks boasts put them in a good position to capture the opportunities offered by a high-growth marketplace in North America.”

CANADA – MAY 28: The National Bank of Canada logo is displayed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, May 28, 2009. Toronto-Dominion Bank, CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia and National Bank reported second-quarter results that were better than analysts expected, adding to stock gains for Canadian banks that have outshone U.S. rivals. (Photo by Norm Betts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Future of Flinks and Their Fintech Aims

Moving into the future, Flinks aims to continue its work in building more meaningful connections between fintech applications. They refer to the underlying principle of their technology as “the financial data layer of the internet,” seeking to provide the easiest and most effective integration for banking, investing, payments, and more.

They’re doing so by maintaining their commitment to developing better ways to handle financial data, with Flinks CEO Yves-Gabriel Lebouef stating, “Leveraging financial data still today requires technical know-how. We want to empower service providers of all sizes to drive positive outcomes for their customers using financial data. That’s why Flinks has been developing a leading data enrichment and connectivity platform. With this investment, we have the financial backing, expertise, and network to make it ever more easy and efficient to use financial data.”