Digital Finance Institute
What Began as a Response Became an Ecosystem for Canadian Innovation
Building an Innovation Ecosystem
When the Institute surveyed Canada’s FinTech landscape, it saw conferences with no women speakers, awards that did not exist, and innovators struggling to connect with banks and capital. So it built what was missing.
It launched the FinTech Cup with Payments Canada, featuring a full day of pitch training, mentorship, and coaching from Silicon Valley investors. The program culminated in live pitches judged by industry leaders, giving Canadian startups a real stage to refine their ideas under pressure and compete for exposure.
Recognizing that innovators needed places to connect, learn, and be seen, the Institute launched FinTech Week Canada, the AI World Forum, and annual conferences in Vancouver and Toronto. The reach was immediate. By FinTech 2016, its online platform spanned 114 countries and 1,063 cities, with over 1 million engagements on Twitter.
The Institute’s impact extended globally. Partnering with the FinTech Association of Nigeria, it created and hosted the inaugural FinTech Nigeria conference in Lagos. It brought Canadian speakers to the city, recruited African FinTech and AI leaders, and ran a startup competition that helped launch what is now Africa’s largest annual finance event. On behalf of third parties, it also organized AgTech in Africa to address food security, finance, and technology.
In 2015, the Institute founded the Canadian FinTech and AI Awards to recognize innovation from coast to coast to coast. Designed from the outset as a bridge between startups and established financial institutions, the Awards grew to include prestigious categories like Scotiabank’s FemTech Leader of the Year, Visa Innovation Leader of the Year, the Canadian Bankers Association Bank Innovator of the Year, and CIBC FinTech Startup of the Year.
To give Canadian startups real-world credibility, the Institute recruited judges from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Uber, Oracle, Fujitsu, Credit Suisse, Square, Cisco, HSBC, BNP Paribas, and more. Presenters have included Nobel laureates, platinum-selling musician bbno$, and Kevin O’Leary, turning the Awards into a launchpad for the innovators driving the industry forward.
Inclusive AI and Finance
Long before AI governance entered mainstream policy debates, the Institute was calling for responsible AI, which involved inclusivity and the rule of law. As early as 2015, it convened sessions on responsible AI, emphasizing that law and ethics must be embedded into development, implementation, and automated decision-making. One early discussion examined how self-driving vehicles should navigate ethical crash scenarios. By 2016, the Institute warned that AI in financial services risked worsening exclusion through branch closures, loss of human recourse, and algorithms that discriminate using proxies. Those warnings proved accurate.
As early as 2015, the Institute began raising the alarm about the need for ethics and the rule of law in AI, years before these issues entered mainstream policy debates. By 2016, it warned that AI in financial services risked worsening exclusion through branch closures, loss of human recourse, and algorithms that discriminate using proxies. Those warnings proved accurate.
Research and Industry Reports
The Institute helps build the future of digital finance through foundational research. It published Canada’s first national FinTech report, created the landmark Bridging the Gender Gap study with SWIFT, and released Canada’s first AI benchmark report for commercializing artificial intelligence. Working with industry, it also researched and published its Top 50 FinTech Companies and Top 50 Women in FinTech reports, giving visibility to the innovators shaping the sector.
Its thought leadership extends globally. The Institute authored chapters for Europe’s bestselling The RegTech Book and contributed a paper to a United Nations publication on digital currencies.
In 2014, the Institute developed the concepts that led to a collaboration with Amsterdam-based THNK and Stanford University to teach digital currencies and blockchain for energy and social housing. The course ran in early 2015. The Institute brought the idea and the expertise years before blockchain for energy became a recognized field. Today, as microgrids and peer-to-peer energy trading pilot blockchain solutions worldwide, Canada was there first.
The Institute brought the idea and the expertise years before blockchain for energy became a recognized field. Today, as microgrids and peer-to-peer energy trading pilot blockchain solutions worldwide, Canada was there first.
Responsible Innovation Policy
The Institute has worked with central banks and national and international agencies to advance responsible innovation across payment rails, open banking, and financial inclusion. In Canada, it participated in government roundtables and co-hosted “Open Banking: Canada’s Regulatory Developments” with the Senate of Canada and Accenture, helping shape early policy frameworks for secure, consumer-focused banking infrastructure.
Technology Projects
The Institute creates technology for third parties and spearheads projects that establish real-world use cases for responsible innovation.
On the blockchain front, it built a prototype designed to future-proof real estate and asset recovery efforts. Modelled on real-world victim cases from Holocaust asset recovery, it was demonstrated in Toronto in 2019. In 2016, it developed blockchain technology to record, manage, and audit traditional paper-based records for timber processing, shipping, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. That technology was presented at FinTech Toronto the same year. It also engineered a process to record identity verification on a public blockchain, providing immutable, date-stamped proof for financial crime compliance.
Built in 2016 and demonstrated in early 2017, it was Canada’s first conversational AI platform for financial crime compliance. It applied law, facts, and documents to assess transactions and render decision-ready insights long before generative AI entered the mainstream.
In applied AI, the Institute built a conversational platform in 2016 that allowed users to upload financial transactions, corporate records, geolocation information, and public search information. Users could then engage in structured dialogue with the system to assess suspicious activity, fraud, and identity management concerns. The system would make a legal determination on whether the activity constituted a suspicious transaction in law. Demonstrated before a panel of judges at AI Toronto in early 2017, it was the first of its kind in Canada, delivering decision-ready compliance assessments long before generative AI entered the mainstream. The platform was featured in a Canadian technology magazine in July 2017, alongside other leading domestic innovations. The Institute also partnered with organizations including UNHCR to create a chatbot offering startups a one-touch platform for fundraising information.
Sharing Ideas with the World
The Institute is a sought-after voice on digital finance, AI, and inclusion.
At the request of the Government of Canada, the Institute contributed to a publication commemorating the close relationship between Canada and Singapore in celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary, authoring a section that highlighted Canadian innovation and technology leadership. The Institute was also featured, at the request of Canada, in a special edition of FinTech Finance dedicated to Canadian FinTech leadership.
The Institute has spoken at major global events hosted by APEC, the FATF, WEBIT, ACAMS, the Singapore FinTech Festival, the Asian Development Bank, SWIFT’s Sibos, Money 20/20, Innovate Finance, the Milken Institute, and leading American, European and Asian banking publications, including a closing keynote in Beijing for Asian Banker.
The Institute was invited by the White House to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and by the offices of President Macron and His Majesty the King of Morocco to address a technology conference in Morocco. Acting as Canada’s FinTech ambassador internationally, it has encouraged foreign direct investment, presented on blockchain applications for smart cities in California, and delivered the first speech on the future of AI in Nigeria. This opened new conversations about technology and inclusion in emerging markets.
The Institute did not wait for the ecosystem to become inclusive. It built one that started that way.