By Pepper Parr
July 16th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The dream, at least a part of it, came true for HalTech and Tech Place, when RBC announced the acquisition of WayPay, a cloud-based payments fintech from Burlington, Ontario that offers business clients a best-in-class solution for accounts payable automation and payment optimization.
By seamlessly connecting to leading accounting platforms, WayPay specializes in helping companies reduce their payables pain points by improving the reconciliation and approvals process, creating significant time and cost savings.
In a statement RBC said: “This acquisition enables us to expand our portfolio of digitally-enabled capabilities and advice for our business clients and further strengthens RBC’s position as a digital leader in the market,” says Greg Grice, Executive Vice-President of Business Financial Services at RBC.
“By integrating WayPay’s innovative payment solution, we’re able to provide clients with a secure, simple and automated payables and payments solution as part of RBC’s comprehensive suite of business offerings to help them manage and grow their business with greater ease and efficiency.”
“Many businesses are already planning the transition from paper cheques as manual reconciliation is a time-sensitive process prone to errors. The acquisition of WayPay will add new capabilities for RBC to bring all payment types together onto one platform, providing clients with a more comprehensive view of their accounts while facilitating the shift from manual, paper-based processes to digital payments.
“WayPay was built to allow businesses to automate their payables process regardless of their accounting software and how many, what type, or where in the world they wish to send a payment. We are helping businesses spend less time approving and reconciling their payables and providing greater visibility so they can focus on building and growing their business,” says Robert Bast, Co-Founder at WayPay. “We are thrilled to join the RBC team where we see incredible synergies which will create even more value and ensure many more business owners benefit from the power of automated reconciliation and digital payments.”
Anita Cassidy, Acting Executive Director at Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) is thrilled with the announcement. “Since its launch in 2014, WayPay has been an innovation ecosystem leader in Burlington,” she said. “Our team has had the opportunity to get to know the leadership team at WayPay and witness firsthand their dedication and enthusiasm for what they do. We are incredibly excited for them because being acquired by a larger company is an incredible achievement for a start-up. WayPay was founded with the goal to scale, and so being acquired by RBC demonstrates the value in their technology.”
WayPay will continue to be an agnostic solution which means users can benefit even if they wish to use products from other financial institutions on the platform. Learn more at www.waypay.ca.
Burlington’s approach to economic development has been, in part, to focus on the small, start up tech sector which was the rationale for the creation of Tech Place located on the North Service Road and dedicated to the start up tech community.
That approach is being reviewed by the city. Mayor Marianne Meed Ward heard Rob Burton Mayor of Oakville tell an audience that Oakville lost interest in shelling out tonnes of cash but not having the deciding vote on the direction taken by the economic development people.
That didn’t hurt the interest the Mayor has in bringing that work in house – after a thorough review is done.
What added to the discomfort within city hall was the news that Tech Place is a high rent rate over the six year period they are in the space. They got a year of free rent to get them into the space they occupy on the North Service Road.
Expect to see some changes in the way economic development is handled in the city once everyone is back from summer vacation.
” an innovation ecosystem leader” or in Orwellian Newspeak “doubleplusclever”