Canadian financial technology pioneer KOHO has raised $130 million CAD in a fresh funding round, elevating the company’s post-money valuation to $1.33 billion CAD and officially granting it unicorn status. The capital injection features a robust mix of institutional powerhouses and prominent industry operators, drawing new backing from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor Mubadala and Savano Capital alongside strategic personal investments from Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lütke and Affirm COO Michael Linford. Existing investors-including Portage Ventures, Drive Capital, BDC Capital, HOOPP, and Eldridge-also participated in the round, which brings KOHO’s total funding to date to $507 million CAD.
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Crucially, this financing provides the baseline capital reserve required to establish a federally regulated bank, marking a major milestones in the company’s ongoing five-year regulatory pursuit of a Schedule 1 banking license in Canada. Beyond fulfilling regulatory requirements, the capital will be used to scale KOHO’s core suite of accessible financial services, which includes spending and savings accounts, credit-building utilities, overdraft protection, and a newly deployed cryptocurrency trading feature. Over the last decade, the Vancouver-founded challenger has grown to serve more than 2.5 million Canadians while aiming to introduce deeper market competition against Canada’s highly concentrated legacy banking sector. Emphasizing the broader market mission of this financing milestone, Daniel Eberhard, CEO and founder of KOHO, stated: “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.”
