Canada seems to be all for financial services at present. After Paytm’s announcement that it was launching its service in Canada, the country is set to play host to a brand new startup called Koho. The company has been gathering all the news of late due to its hassle free registration service and its focus upon the millennials.
Koho is making its debut with an iOS app (no surprises there) and plans to follow up with applications for Android and the Apple Watch. The startup has partnered up with Canadian bank the Peoples Trust Company in a bid to offer a slew of services, such as a “smart spending account”, a mobile app, and a Koho Visa Card to its customers.
The company was founded by Vancouver based entrepreneur Daniel Eberhard. Eberhard had backing from the likes of David Tedman (Hootsuit), Shopify co-founder Scott Lake, Power Corporation of Canada and VCs Gil Penchina and Stanley Park Ventures. The company set out to make payments easier and smarter with almost 2.6 million Canadian dollars from the aforementioned investors.
The company will be operating in a market with a relatively small population but one of the highest banking fees per capita in the world. This is exactly where Koho is looking to make its move by offering a one stop service for the millennial population looking for financial options. Koho’s services for instance, allow users to deposit money and track the amount you are spending in real time. And of course, you can transfer money to friends and family by using electronic transfer.
Interestingly, Koho professes to stay free for life. The company hopes that by staying free, it will be able to entice people to use its cards for shopping as compared to some other service that charges a fees. The company will make its profit by charging a commission over the purchase of items.
That is a pretty novel approach to finance and we will be keeping an interested eye over the company to see if its method works
