FinTech

There is no question that fintech has reinvented financial services. The pioneers of this transformation are now established financial services companies that have disrupted the market through the innovation of new fintech products. Whether you are seeking regulatory advice on a blockchain solution, strategic advice on partnering with a fintech company or looking to negotiate your fintech arrangements, Blakes has one of the top-regarded fintech law practices in Canada, with a multidisciplinary team and deep bench strength. From e-wallets and cryptocurrency to robo-advisers, payment platforms, emerging payments and bitcoin, our FinTech lawyers have a thorough understanding of these and other fintech products to advise you on their regulation and risk.

Recognized as a leading fintech law firm by Chambers FinTech, Blakes brings together Canada’s preeminent technology, financial services regulatory, consumer protection, capital markets, private equity, competition, M&A and intellectual property practices to provide the ideal combination of innovation and experience to guide you through the rapidly evolving landscape of fintech and leverage its opportunities. Having worked with several leading financial institutions and technology companies that have developed fintech products, our lawyers understand the different types of products and applications to meet your strategic legal and business needs.

In 2017, we launched Nitro powered by Blakes, an innovative program that provides access to top-tier legal services for emerging technology companies in the pre-seed to growth stage. The program is overseen by a team of Blakes lawyers and patent agents who have extensive experience working with fintech start-ups.

Recent Experience

Transactions

Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. in its US$175-million acquisition by Bitfarms Ltd.
Payroc WorldAccess, LLC, a leader in global payments, on its acquisition of Sterling Payment Solutions Inc., an advanced payment solutions provider
Nordic Capital on its acquisition of a controlling interest in Zafin Labs.
Advent International Corporation on its proposed US$6.3-billion acquisition of Nuvei Corporation, a Canadian fintech payment platform.
GGV Capital in their investment in Arteria AI, a company that sells AI-powered software designed to help financial institutions generate, collaborate on, and analyze various documents.
IG Wealth Management, part of the IGM Financial Inc. family of companies, on its strategic agreement to have nesto Inc. provide next generation white label mortgage services to IG clients across Canada through its Mortgage Cloud solution.
Centana Growth Partners, as lead investor, on the C$27-million Series B financing of Plooto Inc.
Cboe Global Markets, Inc. on its share purchase of Aequitas Innovations, Inc. (more commonly known as NEO).
The underwriters on Propel Holdings Inc.'s C$61-million initial public offering.
Koho Financial Inc. on its C$70-million Series C financing led by new investor TTV Capital.
Controlling Shareholder of Wealthsimple in respect of the C$750-million financing round of Wealthsimple shares led by Meritech and Greylock, which involved a C$500-million secondary sale of shares by the controlling shareholder.
ATB Financial on the acquisition of the technology assets of Grow Technologies Inc.
Gypsum Management & Supply, Inc. on its C$800-million acquisition of WSB Titan from TorQuest Partners.
Great Hill Partners on the acquisition of VersaPay Corporation.
Lucara Diamond Corp. on its US$29-million acquisition of Clara Diamond Solutions Corp., a digital sales platform using cloud and blockchain technologies.
Polymath on the establishment and launch of their Security Token Standard on the Ethereum blockchain.
FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. on the acquisition of Associated Foreign Exchange, Inc. (AFEX), a cross-border payment solutions provider and Cambridge Mercantile Corp., a business-to-business payments company, for approximately US$650-million.
Global Payments Inc. on its acquisition of the merchant acquiring business and portfolio of 40,000 merchants of Desjardins Group.
EVO Payments, Inc. on its acquisition of Delego Software, a provider of best-in-class integrated payment solutions for merchants leveraging SAP’s ERP solutions.
KOHO on its C$42-million series B investment round.
TD Bank Group on its acquisition of Layer 6 Inc.
CI Financial Corp. on its acquisition of a majority stake in WealthBar Financial Services Inc.
PayPal Holdings, Inc. on its US$400-million acquisition of Hyperwallet Systems Inc.
Senso.ai on its initial structuring and seed investments led by Breakawaygrowth LLC.
Financeit in connection with their launch of the “The Home Depot Project Loan” in partnership with Home Depot.
Frontier Capital, LLC on its acquisition of Agreement Express Inc. and its subsidiary corporations through a plan of arrangement.
Stored Value Solutions, a subsidiary of FleetCor Technologies, Inc., on its acquisition of Buyatab Online Inc., as part of its expansion in the emerging digital gifting space.
Rally Chain Technologies Inc. on the sale of substantially all of its assets to Finhaven Technology Inc.
Guangbo Group on its acquisition of a 26 per cent stake in Geoswift Asset Management Limited.
Volkswagen Financial Services AG in connection with its acquisition of PayByPhone from PayPoint plc.
Imperva, Inc., a cybersecurity leader, on its acquisition of assets of Camouflage Software, Inc.
Dealnet Capital Corp. on its C$35-million acquisition of EcoHome Financial Inc. from Chesswood Holdings Ltd. and financing by way of a private placement of subscription receipts.
Webtech Wireless Inc. on the sale of its issued and outstanding common shares to BSM Technologies Inc. pursuant to a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act.
IGM Financial Inc. on a US$50-million acquisition of preferred stock of Personal Capital Inc. with an agreement to invest an additional US$25-million in the following year.
Morgan Stanley Capital Partners on the complex, cross-border leveraged acquisition of Access Cash Limited Partnership, a Canadian ATM operator.
Cognizant on its acquisition of Idea Couture, a privately held firm that offers digital innovation, strategy, design and technology services.
Galaxy Investment Partners LLC on an arrangement involving the business combination of Bradmer Pharmaceuticals Inc., Galaxy Digital LP and First Coin Capital Corp. to form a leading new enterprise in the blockchain, digital asset and cryptocurrency space.
Evolve Funds Group Inc. on the initial public offering of the Evolve Blockchain ETF and preliminary prospectus filing of the Evolve Bitcoin ETF.
Kik Interactive on its initial coin offering.

Regulatory and Compliance

SecureKey Technologies Inc. on its new product offering Verified.Me.
Financeit in connection with its launch of a home improvement project loan, an innovative point of sale financing product that combines the features of a prepaid card, line of credit and instalment loan.
Credit Karma, a free credit and financial management platform, with its expansion into Canada.
Intuit Inc., a business and financial software company, on complying with Canadian regulatory law.
CIBC on its services agreement with Borrowell Inc. and providing commercial and regulatory advice on its partnership with a FinTech — a first for a major Canadian bank.
Iconomi on the establishment of a digital asset array management platform.
Lenders on structuring e-commerce payment instalment plans.
Retailers in structuring payment apps and payment processing programs.
Issuers in structuring arrangements with program managers.