Canadian fintech KOHO has raised $130 million CAD at a $1.33 billion valuation, and the company is using the fresh capital to push forward on its bid for a federal banking licence.
The funding round brings in some notable new names. Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund managing over $385 billion USD in assets, is joining as a new institutional investor alongside Savano Capital. On the operator side, Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke and Affirm COO Michael Linford also put money in. Existing investors Portage Ventures, Drive Capital, BDC Capital, HOOPP, and Eldridge all participated as well.
KOHO CEO and founder Daniel Eberhard framed the raise as more than just a funding milestone. “This raise reflects the conviction — from our team, our users, and now some of the world’s most credible investors — that Canada’s financial system needs to work better for more people,” Eberhard said. “The next great Canadian bank needs to be built differently, and that KOHO is the team to build it.”
The banking licence pursuit is the big story here. With this round closed, KOHO says it now has the capital base to make a substantive move toward securing a federally regulated banking charter, subject to ministerial approval. That would allow the company to offer lower costs, more product flexibility, and stronger consumer protections than it can as a fintech.
KOHO has been around since 2014 and now serves more than 2.5 million Canadians, with $507 million CAD raised in total to date. Its core products include spending and savings accounts, credit-building tools, overdraft protection, and a recently launched crypto offering.
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