Power Financial acquires controlling stake in Koho

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By Ted Liu

Koho Financial Inc. today announced the closing of a new $8 million major financing with Portag3 Ventures, a venture capital arm of Power Financial Corporation (TSX: PWF).

With the closing of the new financing, Koho reconstituted its board of directors with three Portag3 nominees: Paul Desmarais III (Senior Vice-President, Power Financial Corporation and Executive Chairman, Portag3 Ventures), Adam Felesky (President, Portag3 Ventures), and Michael Katchen (co-founder & CEO, Wealthsimple).

Wealthsimple is majority owned by Power Financial.

Koho is a new company that’s bringing modern-day financial services to the mobile generation. It provides everyday consumers novel ways of accessing rich insights into their spending habits, while providing core financial services, free of fees.

Customers can make purchases everywhere with the Koho card, deposit their paycheque, access more than 8,000 fee free ATMs, pay bills, and send e-Transfers. Koho also provides a suite of modern capabilities like real-time purchase updates, savings goals, instant Koho-to-Koho transfers, spending insights, live in-app support, and more.

The new funds will enable Koho to scale its technology platform, expand its engineering and operations team at its new Toronto headquarters, and bring to more Canadian consumers a broad ecosystem of financial services products that may have historically been harder to access .

“We are excited to support Koho’s ambition of reimagining how Canadians can be better served in their daily financial lives,” said Adam Felesky, President of Portag3 Ventures. “Providing access, transparency and low costs in partnership with financial institutions are core pillars of the Koho platform and if successful, we believe Koho can build lifelong relationships with their customers.”

“Since launching Koho earlier this year, we’ve experienced tremendous growth,” said Daniel Eberhard, CEO and founder of Koho. “Our growth comes on the back of tangible customer benefits; helping people save money and providing them more financial control. It’s the reason people use our app five times more than traditional finance apps.”

“We’re thrilled to support this promising fintech company. We look forward to working with Daniel and the Koho team to bring Canadians more inclusion, transparency and access to great financial services,” said Paul Desmarais III, Senior Vice-President at Power Financial Corporation and Executive Chairman of Portag3.

photo credit: Koho Financial