ChangeJar, Mobeewave, Overbond, Voleo, ZayZoon

Check out the June 2016 edition of the Fintech Five.

PayPal gives people better ways to connect to their money and to each other, helping them safely access and move their money and offering a choice of how they would like to pay or be paid.

The Fintech Five powered by PayPal profiles five of the hottest and most promising financial technology companies across Canada each month. The list is curated by Techvibes editorial staff and reflects who is making waves in our nation’s fintech ecosystem right now.

ChangeJar is a mobile app that lets users receive or pay with change from everyday transactions using their smartphones. The value of coins that were previously lugged around, left to rattle in cars or languish in household containers instead is instantly credited to the ChangeJar Mobile app on the user’s phone.

Instead of rummaging through pockets or purses users can make purchases or tip for service using their ChangeJar Mobile balance. Users also can do instant person-to-person transfers to divvy up bills and handle other common personal cash exchanges. ChangeJar Mobile is free for users and merchants pay no transaction fees.

ChangeJar is available at select Ottawa-area merchants and will expand across Canada later this year.

Paying other people – whether you’re buying a bike from a stranger on Kijiji or paying back a friend who picked up dinner – is usually done the old-fashioned way, in cash. Montreal-based fintech startup Mobeewave is looking to change that.

Mobeewave recently launched a public beta of PayMeTap, an app that allows almost anyone with an Android phone to accept VISA or MasterCard payments with just a tap of the card. The app uses the near-field-communication technology embedded in around 90 per cent of Android phones and found on contactless smart cards.

Early this month Toronto’s Overbond, a fintech platform for digital bond issuance, closed a $7.5-million seed financing round. The deal marks a step forward for the company as the first fintech entrant into the new bond issuance market.

Overbond BPS is a cloud-based solution that streamlines dealer-issuer communication and provides advanced market analytics. Overbond says it plans to use the financing to expand its fully-digital primary bond issuance platform.

Vancouver mobile-first fintech application company Voleo is creating a social investment network. Over the course of nearly two years, Voleo has developed a sophisticated group trading platform that enables users to combine their assets and knowledge to invest together with people they know and trust.

Directly from their mobile phones, tablets or computers, users are able to propose, discuss and vote on trades in publicly listed stocks and ETFs, wherever and whenever they want, with the majority effecting trades automatically. Voleo’s users benefit from the collective intelligence of their teams and can get competitive as each person’s decisions are tracked and hypothetical positions managed so they can prove to their friends how things would have gone if everyone had listened to them.

ZayZoon is a unique fintech solution for employees that is taking on the $46 billion payday loan industry. The ZayZoon app lets workers borrow money and then have it automatically paid back through their paycheques at half the cost of a traditional payday loan while never taking on any debt in the process.

Unlike payday lenders, ZayZoon is only targeting people at work, integrating with payroll firms to gain access to companies and their employees. Users download the app, sign up and borrow funds, which are then automatically deducted from their bank accounts on paydays.

Earlier this month, ZayZoon was the winner of the FinTech Cup and $20,000 at the Payments Panorama conference in Calgary, AB.

–

With PayPal‘s 184 million active customer accounts globally and 6.4 million in Canada, we have created an open and secure payments ecosystem that people and businesses choose to securely transact with each other online, in stores and on mobile devices. 

Want to be a part of the next Fintech Five? This list isn’t something you can apply for, but make a splash and you’re certain to get on our radar.