The Digital Finance Institute is an independent, largely volunteer-led organization that has become one of the most recognized voices in FinTech, AI policy and financial inclusion. What began as a response to gaps in Canada’s innovation ecosystem grew into a national and international platform, one that has shaped policy, built a tech community, and carried Canadian ideas to the United Nations, the White House, and beyond.
Building an Innovation Ecosystem
When we looked at Canada’s FinTech landscape, we saw conferences with no women speakers, awards that did not exist, and innovators struggling to connect with banks and capital. So we built what was missing.
For startups, we created the FinTech Cup with Payments Canada, a full day of pitch training, mentorship and coaching from Silicon Valley venture capitalists, culminating in live pitches and a winner selected by industry judges. The Cup gave Canadian founders a rare opportunity to learn from the best, refine their ideas under pressure, and compete on a real stage.
We launched FinTech Week in Canada, the AI World Forum, and annual FinTech conferences in Vancouver and Toronto because innovators needed places to connect, learn and be seen. For example, the impact of our events can be measured by FinTech 2016 – we reached 114 countries, and 1,063 cities with over 1 million reach on Twitter.
Working with the FinTech Association of Nigeria, we created, organized, launched, and hosted the inaugural FinTech Nigeria conference in Lagos. We brought Canadian speakers to Lagos, recruited Nigerian and other African FinTech and AI leaders to speak, and ran a startup competition on the ground. The conference has since grown into Africa’s largest annual finance event. On behalf of third parties, we also organized AgTech in Africa, an event to address food security, finance, and technology.
In 2015, we founded the Canadian FinTech and AI Awards, an annual celebration recognizing innovation in financial technology and artificial intelligence from coast to coast to coast. The Awards were designed from the outset to be a genuine bridge between startups and established financial institutions. Banks ended up sponsoring the awards, and small FinTechs won alongside them. The Awards became a destination event for Canada’s technology community. To give Canadian startups real-world exposure and credibility, we recruited judges from some of the world’s most recognized companies, including NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Uber, Rolls Royce, Oracle, Fujitsu, LG, Didi and Instagram. Our presenters have included Nobel laureates, platinum-selling musician BBno$ and Levin O’Leary – making the Awards a launchpad for the innovators driving it forward.
We did not wait for the ecosystem to become inclusive. We built one that started that way.
Inclusive AI and Finance
We have long believed that financial innovation must serve everyone, not just those already well served by the system. We created FemTech Leaders to support and profile women in finance. We profiled women across the industry and recognized their leadership with the Scotiabank FemTech Leader of the Year Award. We also honoured women in tech with the Top 50 Women in FinTech report, and hosted a networking event for women in tech with Genesys to help forge important connections.
We worked with SWIFT and other partners to bring awareness to the lack of refugee financial services. We advocated for policies to support refugee payment initiatives, so that displaced populations can access safe and dignified financial services. We followed that up with sessions with MasterCard on solving financial inclusion.
As early as 2015, we began raising alarms about the need for ethics and the rule of law in AI, years before these issues entered mainstream policy debates. We convened sessions to discuss these issues, including the law and ethics of selfdriving vehicles. Beginning in 2016, we warned that AI without inclusion would lead to the closure of bank branches, the loss of human recourse in automated systems, and algorithms that discriminate using proxies. Those warnings proved accurate.
Whether advancing gender equity, protecting refugees, or shaping the ethics of artificial intelligence, inclusion at the Digital Finance Institute is not an afterthought. It is where we start.
Research and Industry Reports
We do not just study the future of digital finance. We help build it. Our research includes Canada’s first national FinTech report, a landmark study on women in finance titled Bridging the Gender Gap created with SWIFT, and Canada’s first AI benchmark report for commercializing artificial intelligence.
We joined Amsterdam-based THNK and in partnership with Stanford University, lent our expertise to teach future uses of digital currencies and blockchain for energy and social housing as part of THNK’s immersive courses exploring the reinvention of capitalism. We authored chapters for the bestselling The RegTech Book and contributed a paper to a United Nations publication on digital currencies.
We worked with industry to research and publish our Top 50 FinTech Companies and Top 50 Women in FinTech reports, celebrating Canadian leadership and giving visibility to the key innovators driving the industry forward.
Responsible Innovation
Policy work is quiet, but it shapes everything. We have worked with central banks, international agencies, and the United Nations on policy development, payment rails, open banking, financial inclusion, and responsible innovation. For example, for open banking in Canada, we participated in government roundtables and hosted “Open Banking: Canada’s Regulatory Developments” with the Senate of Canada and Accenture. For blockchain, we convened sessions at the University of Toronto “Blockchain for Holocaust Asset Recovery”, and developed blockchain technology using a distributed ledger system to record, manage and audit traditional paper-based records for timber processing, shipping, and IUU fishing. We presented that technology at FinTech Toronto in 2016. We also developed a generative AI bot designed to detect suspicious financial transactions, which we demonstrated at AI Toronto in 2017.
We created a chatbot to encourage FinTech innovation in Canada in partnership with numerous organizations, including the United Nations. At every level, from central banks to the UN, we work so that innovation can serve inclusion, security, and fairness, not just efficiency.
Sharing Ideas
Our leaders are sought-after voices on digital finance, AI and inclusion, speaking at major global events including APEC, FATF, WEBIT Bulgaria, ACAMS, Singapore FinTech Festival, the Asian Development Bank, SWIFT’s Sibos, Money 20/20, Innovate Finance, Canadian Business Council, Asian Banker, American Banker, and the Milken Institute.
We have been invited by the White House to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India, and by the offices of President Macron and His Majesty the King of Morocco to speak at a technology conference in Morocco.
We have acted as FinTech ambassadors for Canada internationally, encouraging foreign direct investment, presented on using blockchain for smart cities in California, and delivered the first speech on the future of AI in Nigeria, opening new conversations about technology and inclusion in emerging markets.
Wherever the future of finance is being debated, the Digital Finance Institute is at the table.