Helcim Raises $38 Million to Fill Small Business Banking Void

Helcim, a Calgary-based payments company focused on Canadian small and medium-sized businesses, has raised $38 million in new funding.

The Series C round will help the company invest in its platform at a time when many of Canada’s biggest banks are selling or outsourcing their merchant services operations, Helcim said in a Friday news release.

“There’s a real void in the market right now – merchants are coming to Helcim faster than ever, looking for a modern alternative,” said Nic Beique, Helcim’s founder and CEO. “This round lets us act on this at scale: expanding our platform, growing our team, and moving up-market so no business outgrows what we can offer them.”

The release added that Helcim is also expanding partnerships with regional banks and credit unions that are themselves shifting away from traditional providers. Those institutions are “in search of a modern payments platform” for their small business customers, the company said.

“Credit unions need to continue to upgrade their product offering for their small business members in the communities they serve if they want to remain relevant, compete and retain deposits,” said Nick Evens, president and CEO of Curql, which invested in the round. “Helcim’s payment hub is the best we have seen, and their value proposition for the CUs is far more robust than what is currently in market.”

Separate research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Velera, published this month, shows that 75% of small to medium-sized businesses say they would use at least one artificial intelligence feature offered by their financial institution within the next two years. Among businesses with more than $1 million in annual revenue, that share climbs to 83%.

The research found that SMB demand for AI is not chiefly for autonomous agents that move money or make decisions without human intervention. Business owners want tools that help them understand their financial position, lower administrative complexity and make better decisions, the report said.

“That distinction gives credit unions a more practical AI strategy,” PYMNTS wrote. “Rather than trying to leap directly into autonomous banking, they can begin with advisory tools that make members more capable before attempting to make banking more automated.”

When asked about their priorities, SMBs named AI-powered expense tracking (31%) and assistance with budgeting, cash-flow management, supplier discovery and financial-product comparisons (22%).

“These are not moonshot applications,” the report added. “They are digital extensions of the financial guidance business owners already expect from a trusted banking relationship.”