Helcim is positioning itself to capture a significant market opening created by major North American banks divesting or outsourcing their merchant services divisions. The Calgary-based payments firm has closed a $53 million CAD Series C funding round led by Business Development Bank’s (BDC) Growth Venture Fund. This infusion of capital brings Helcim's total equity raised to $100 million since its 2022 Series A and elevates the company's valuation to $250 million CAD, a substantial increase from its $97 million CAD Series B valuation in 2024. The round also attracted participation from Curql, Gold House Ventures, and several existing investors, including Headline and Aquiline. This capital injection arrives as the company scales its infrastructure to support a growing merchant base and an increasing annual payment volume.
Helcim Scaling Infrastructure and Market Reach
The $53 million CAD Series C round serves as a catalyst for Helcim to expand its platform capabilities and transition further up-market. The company is currently managing more than 22,000 active businesses across Canada and the United States, having recently surpassed $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). With an annual payment volume approaching $10 billion, Helcim is utilizing this new capital to invest in its core payments platform and explore expansion into additional financial services for its merchant clients.
A critical component of Helcim's technical strategy involves its end-to-end infrastructure, which the company built internally rather than reselling third-party processing technology. This architecture allows the firm to offer volume-based interchange plus pricing, a model the company distinguishes from the flat-rate fee structures common among many competitors. Furthermore, the company is leaning into automation through its AI-powered Payment Extension, released in January 2026. This tool is designed to allow merchants to self-integrate Helcim’s processing into existing software, theoretically reducing vendor lock-in. By moving up-market, Helcim aims to ensure its service offerings can scale alongside the growing complexity of its mid-market client base, while simultaneously growing its workforce, which currently stands at 200 employees.
Strategic Partnerships with Credit Unions and Regional Banks
Helcim is actively targeting a specific institutional gap by forming partnerships with regional banks and credit unions that are moving away from traditional merchant service providers. As large-scale financial institutions exit the merchant services space, credit unions face increased pressure to provide modern digital tools to remain competitive and retain deposits. Helcim is positioning its "payment hub" as a robust alternative for these institutions, seeking to provide their small business members with more sophisticated payment options.
The involvement of Curql, a strategic investment fund backed by more than 160 North American credit unions, underscores this institutional alignment. Nick Evens, President and CEO at Curql, suggested that Helcim’s value proposition for credit unions is more robust than current market offerings. This partnership strategy indicates that Helcim is not merely competing for individual merchants but is also attempting to integrate itself into the broader financial infrastructure of community-based lenders. By providing a modern platform for credit unions, Helcim aims to help these institutions upgrade their product offerings for small business members, thereby addressing the "void" left by larger banks that have recently outsourced or sold off their merchant-facing business units.
Key Takeaways
- Helcim closed a $53 million CAD Series C led by BDC’s Growth Venture Fund, raising its valuation to $250 million CAD.
- The company has surpassed $150 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and is on track to process nearly $10 billion in annual payment volume.
- Helcim is targeting the market vacuum left by large banks divesting merchant services by partnering with credit unions and regional banks.
FinanceInsyte's Take
In our view, Helcim’s Series C is a calculated move to exploit the structural retreat of Tier-1 banks from the merchant services sector. By building its own end-to-end infrastructure rather than acting as a mere reseller, Helcim has secured the margin flexibility necessary to compete on pricing—specifically through volume-based interchange plus models. This technical independence is the foundation of their ability to target the mid-market. Furthermore, the strategic pivot toward credit unions via Curql is a sophisticated play for institutional scale. Rather than fighting for every individual merchant through high customer acquisition costs, Helcim is attempting to "piggyback" on the existing trust and deposit bases of regional lenders. If Helcim can successfully integrate its AI-powered tools into the workflows of these credit unions, it could establish a highly defensible moat within the North American mid-market payments ecosystem.
Questions & Answers
How does Helcim's technical infrastructure impact its pricing model for merchants?
Helcim built its end-to-end infrastructure from the ground up rather than reselling another processor's technology. This allows the company to offer volume-based interchange plus pricing, which the company suggests is an alternative to the inflated flat-rate fees used by many other providers.
What specific market opportunity is Helcim targeting with this new funding?
Helcim is targeting the "void" created by large Canadian and United States banks that have recently sold off or outsourced their merchant services businesses. The company is positioning itself to serve the small and mid-sized businesses that require a modern alternative to these departing traditional providers.
How is Helcim utilizing AI to facilitate merchant integration?
In January 2026, Helcim released an AI-powered Payment Extension. This tool is designed to let merchants self-integrate Helcim's payments processing into the software they already use, which the company claims gives merchants the freedom to choose their processor rather than being locked into a single embedded-payments provider.
What role do credit unions play in Helcim's growth strategy?
Helcim is expanding partnerships with regional banks and credit unions that are moving away from traditional providers. Through investors like Curql, which represents over 160 credit unions, Helcim aims to provide these institutions with a modern payments platform to help them remain relevant and retain deposits among their small business members.
Source: Businesswire
