Calgary-based payments company Helcim has raised C$53 million ($38 million) in a Series C funding round led by BDC Capital’s Growth Venture Fund, lifting its valuation to C$250 million as it seeks to capture growing demand from small and mid-sized businesses.
The round included new investors Curql Collective, a strategic investment fund backed by more than 160 North American credit unions, and Gold House Ventures.
Existing investors Headline, Aquiline, Information Venture Partners, Vesey Ventures, Clocktower Ventures and Alberta Accelerate Fund also participated.
The financing brings Helcim’s total equity raised since its 2022 Series A to C$100 million and more than doubles its valuation from C$97 million at its Series B in 2024.
Helcim said it has crossed C$150 million in annual recurring revenue and expanded to more than 22,000 active businesses across Canada and the United States.
The company, which employs about 200 people, is on track to process nearly C$10 billion in annual payment volume.
The funding comes as several large Canadian banks have sold or outsourced their merchant services businesses, creating an opening for payment providers targeting small and mid-sized companies.
“There’s a real void in the market right now – merchants are coming to Helcim faster than ever, looking for a modern alternative,” founder and CEO Nic Beique said.
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.
Helcim, which launched as its own payments company in 2020, built its end-to-end infrastructure rather than reselling another processor’s technology.
Its platform offers in-person and online payments alongside volume-based interchange-plus pricing.
In January, Helcim launched an AI-powered Payment Extension that allows merchants to integrate its payment processing into software they already use rather than being locked into a single embedded-payments provider.
Jack Fraser, partner at BDC Capital’s Growth Venture Fund, said Helcim was “growing fast and building a real advantage in the market,” pointing to the AI-powered integration tool as an example of its innovation.
Helcim plans to invest the fresh capital in its payments platform, expand into additional financial services and deepen partnerships with regional banks and credit unions seeking alternatives to traditional payments providers.