Progressa Shifts Lending Operations to Capitalize on Toronto Fintech Cluster

Significant Growth Opportunity Targeted With GTA-Focused Model


VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - July 29, 2016) - Progressa, Canada's fastest growing financial technology company focused on helping non-prime and near-prime Canadians, announced today a restructuring that moves the entire lending operations to the recently established Greater Toronto-area office. This decision was made based on the company's long term expansion goals combined with attractive initial feedback from the GTA market, as well as recognition of the large and highly skilled group of talent in the financial services industry.

Recently opened in June of this year, the Toronto based operations of Progressa has seen significant growth with 20 employees hired from over 1500 applications fielded from some of the brightest minds in finance and technology. With such encouraging initial results, the decision was made to move the lending operations closer to Canada's biggest financial centre, and into the same time zone as a large customer cohort, allowing for more efficient client service and increased hiring capacity. Progressa will also benefit from invaluable peer support from organizations such as MaRS located in the immediate vicinity of the new offices.

"We are very encouraged with the growth of the Toronto operation and saw significant growth opportunity in moving our lending operations East," said Progressa CEO, Ali Pourdad. "There are some difficult decisions to be made in business and unfortunately we had to say goodbye to seventeen dedicated team members in the Vancouver office as we shifted our lending focus towards growth in Toronto. We are incredibly grateful for their contributions and loyalty to the company and are sad to see them go. We are doing everything we can to provide support to our former employees during this transition period."

Under the new structure, all lending operations will operate out of Toronto while management oversight and non-lending services remain in the original Vancouver office. This provides Progressa room in Vancouver to grow the equally vital data science, software development, and marketing teams while it continues to expand its loan origination exponentially.

About Progressa

Progressa is Canada's fastest growing financial technology company focused on helping non-prime and near-prime Canadians seeking to improve their financial health. Progressa serves over three million Canadians who have had their credit rating impacted by overdue bills and items that have gone to collections. With the help of advanced data science and analytics, Progressa effectively evaluates credit risk and provides loan opportunities where traditional institutions cannot.

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