Fintech Start-Up Helps Businesses Embrace Digitization
Canadian start-up DivDot – winner of a Douglas 10 To Watch Award for 2020 – received a major boost for its operation last week. Despite an overall decline in venture capital investment and a challenging pandemic-affected economy, DivDot not only closed their second pre-seed funding round but oversubscribed it to a total of $500,000 — co-led by Sprout Fund, WUTIF Capital, E-Fund, Hello Ventures and Local Angels.
“This investment enables us to solidify the progress we’ve made so far and properly handle the level of growth we have experienced over the last months. We are looking forward to expanding our team which will help us to accelerate product development and increase our marketing and sales operations,” says DivDot co-founder and CEO Matthew Smith.
DivDot steps into solve a specific problem
DivDot is an online payment processing provider that enables businesses to securely send and receive no-limit payments for a flat fee. With DivDot, companies can collect payment from customers, pay suppliers, set-up subscriptions and move money between internal accounts from one single dashboard, which is accessible through a web application or API.
Founded by Matthew Smith (CEO), Nick Addison (CTO) and James Davidson (COO), the company launched in September 2019 and is now a registered money services business, processing millions of dollars in transactions for Canadian businesses.
Since launching the beta version of their payment software in September 2019, DivDot has demonstrated remarkable growth rates in both value and number of transactions processed and this Spring was one of the top 16 companies in round three of the New Ventures BC competition.
Pandemic sparks interest in payments digitization
Since COVID-19 closed brick and mortar stores and offices, DivDot saw a significant increase in new customers as businesses experienced an urgent need to move online.
“We are seeing a significant trend towards digitization and demand for contactless in the payments environment. The pandemic has sparked a change in payment habits that will transform the way consumers and businesses process transactions in the long run,” notes Matthew Smith.
Tech company’s success supported by home town community
Smith says their success proves that “you can build a high-growth tech company out of a small city like Victoria. Especially during these difficult times, it is a great sign of success for Victoria’s thriving tech community.
We believe that the preference for a living plays an important role. Victoria is a beautiful city that attracts and retains top talent from all of Canada and around the world. Moreover, it offers a very supportive, close-knit community for new ventures. We have strongly benefited from the city’s network and connections with important players like the Capital Investment Network or Angel Forum.”
Mark Benning, Managing Partner at Sprout Fund says DivDot is helping fuel business success in a specific way. “[They are] fulfilling a crucial need [and] their product solution is highly relevant for small and mid-size businesses today.”
Smith says DivDot is excited about a limitless future and a global impact. “It is our vision to become the go-to solution for digital payment operations.”
