Moncton Company With Money-Saver App Part Of New Fintech Accelerator
MONCTON – A Moncton-based fintech company that helps users save money is hoping to forge new national partnerships with the help of a new accelerator.
Quber is one of four Canadian startups in the inaugural cohort of the Innovate Financial Health (IFH) accelerator.
Quber’s app offers users a fun and easy way to save money. Users provide their bank account number and the app then securely transfers money to their personalized “savings jars,” with automatic rules set by the users. The app also suggests fun and interactive saving challenges to help fill users fill up their jars.
Innovate Financial Health is a national non-profit founded in 2018 and focused on supporting the creation and scaling of innovative products and services that improve the financial lives of Canadians.
In addition to $25,000 in grant funding, the four start-ups will receive access to a roster of more than 70 mentors and curriculum support over the three-month program. Workshop sessions include impact measurement, inclusive user testing, and financial institution partnerships.
“For us, it’s an opportunity to go to Toronto and be where the big financial institutions are and the companies who are looking to innovate with fintech,” said Quber co-founder Jen Leger, in an interview with Huddle. “It was more of an opportunity to build the b-to-b partnerships that we’re looking for. With those b-to-b partnerships, then we can bring more users onto Quber and make revenue.”
According to the 2019 TD Financial Health Index, more than half of Canadians spend equal or more than their income in an average month. Almost a third of Canadians surveyed were unable to pay all their bills on time.
Technology can play a role in helping people address these types money challenges, with the number of financial technology companies growing worldwide. However, Canadian fintech entrepreneurs face some difficulties getting the support tailored to their needs.
IFH aims to fill this gap and to build out an ecosystem of start-ups, investors, non-profits, and financial institutions with the common goal of helping fintech ventures scale their impact.
More than 40 ventures from across Canada applied for the inaugural program. Besides Quber, the other companies participating in the accelerator are:
- AltruWisdom (Calgary): An online subscription-based financial education platform to help Canadians make informed life decisions
- PolicyMe (Toronto): A platform for customers to get smart and honest life insurance advice in five minutes
- ZayZoon (Calgary): A HRTech company that provides employees access to wages on-demand and personal financial management tools to better their financial health.
For the program, Leger will be traveling to Toronto once a month for a week. Though the accelerator is just getting started, Quber already has its first partnership. The company will be working with Momentum, a Calgary not-for-profit that helps lower-income people in the city.
“We actually kicked that project off and we’re starting to see lots of users onboarding from Calgary now which is great.
With the pilot, when Momentum customers save money through Quber, they help boost their savings.
“Let’s say they save $110, [Momentum] is giving them $40, so they saved $150. It’s a little bit of incentive and a prize,” said Leger. “What they’re testing is to see what is it they’re customers like from Quber and then they want to do some customization within the Quber. That would be the next step and that would be where we move into the revenue model.”