When the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America in March, the first thing Toronto-based fintech Boss Insights did was guarantee all of its employees six months’ pay. The second thing it did was offer its technology for free to any financial institution providing relief programs to help businesses. 

By April, the three-year-old startup had adapted its lending and insights API with “bank-level security” into a platform that could automate the processing of COVID-19 loan applications “from months to minutes.” It’s working with six U.S. community banks and counting, but has no partners in Canada. CEO Keren Moynihan hopes Canadian banks are watching to learn “how the U.S. has risen to the challenge to work with fintechs.”