FinTech is transforming the world of investment, insurance, banking, payment solutions, loans and credit. Experts continue to refine and upgrade technologies that are reshaping the financial sector through the implementation of innovative solutions.
Québec and Canada are seeing exponential growth in this sector. Since 2017, 50% of Canadian companies have adopted FinTech1 solutions, which represents a growth figure of 177%. So why invest in FinTech in Québec?
Québec is a major financial center with 184,300 employees and over 7,000 finance and insurance companies. In fact, Montréal ranks first among 25 global centers of AI expertise in terms of talent and costs for banking and financial services. What’s more, Québec City is the insurance capital with some of the largest headquarters in Canada.
With over 50,000 university students enrolled in FinTech-related programs, over 40 research organizations in the field, numerous industry collaborations, tax credits and multiple incentives, Québec is an indisputable choice for a new or established company.
1EY, Global FinTech Adoption Index, 2019
What the experts are saying
For many years now, world leaders have shown their confidence in Québec, including Microsoft, Google, Facebook Research, Samsung and, since 2020, SwiftCTRL, the research and development center for real estate management. In 2018, BITMAIN bet on Québec City for cryptocurrency mining. And in 2016, Morgan Stanley set up a computer technology centre in Montréal.
What are the key factors that attract foreign companies to set up operations in Québec? The answer is quality and availability of talent.
Jérôme Gagnon, principal architect of the Paytm platform, says:
"Our company made the decision to open a research and development center in Montréal to take advantage of the city's expertise in megadata and artificial intelligence."
Renaud Laplanche, co-founder and president of Upgrade Inc, emphasizes:
"Clearly, Greater Montréal's distinctive technology culture and rich pool of engineering talent will help strengthen Upgrade's innovation capacity and product DNA."
Innovation at the core of Québec's success
Québec stands behind innovative business ventures and boasts many FinTech success stories, including:
- The Desjardins and Imetrick partnership behind Ajusto
, a technology that adjusts insurance premiums based on driver behavior; - Walo , an application to improve the financial health of the next generation, which won CFA Montréal's FinTech Coup de Coeur award;
- Emma , the first platform to offer online life insurance in Canada;
- Welthica , an application that centralizes investment accounts and portfolios to facilitate client decision-making.
A dynamic FinTech cluster that relies on a robust IT industry
With FinTech comes artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum technologies. More than 230,000 IT professionals and nearly 10,000 companies, including many consulting firms, facilitate the integration of FinTech solutions. Québec's diverse IT expertise supports the province's FinTech industry.
Artificial intelligence
- More than $3B in investments in Montréal since 2016
- Home of Scale AI, Canada's supply chain AI supercluster
Cybersecurity
- Presence of global leaders such as GoSecure and Atos
- Québec is the 4th largest destination in the world for investment projects in the field
Quantum technologies
- Presence of world leaders such as IBM Q Network in Sherbrooke
- Internationally renowned research organizations such as the Quantum Institute, INO and C2MI
To learn more about FinTechs: https://www.investquebec.com/international/en/fintech.html
