The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Apr 2023

Yield Exchange operates a digital marketplace that lets wholesale depositors—municipalities, universities, non-profits, strata corporations and others—find, compare and negotiate guaranteed investment certificate (GIC) rates with Canadian financial institutions. The platform digitizes a traditionally manual, time-consuming process through a bidding system that increases transparency and efficiency for depositors and banks. Founded by three veterans of the traditional banking industry, the company positions itself within the roughly $750B Canadian wholesale GIC market. Yield Exchange plans national expansion across Canada, with Ontario specifically mentioned as a target market. The startup also intends to broaden its product suite beyond wholesale GICs to include retail GICs, overnight rates and bonds. It has shown early traction and completed a pre-seed raise that was oversubscribed despite the challenging fundraising climate.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2022

PeopleHedge is a financial technology company led by CEO Damon Magnuski that focuses on enhancing non-interest income for community banks and credit unions. Its SmartRoute technology creates a real-time auction for foreign-exchange payments, compressing pricing and making banks more competitive with fintech rivals. The company raised $1.4M in seed funding and intends to use the proceeds to grow market share. PeopleHedge is pursuing a longer-term plan to form a digital correspondent bank. Subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals, PeopleHedge Corp is in the process of becoming Acceleron Bank, a digital correspondent bank in formation. The company is based in Vermont, Illinois.