VanFUNDING 2016 Brings 50 Industry FinTech and Crowdfunding Leaders to Vancouver on Oct 18th

VANCOUVER, Oct. 11, 2016 /CNW/ - In one week, the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA) will host VanFUNDING 2016, (#VanFUNDING) the second annual Fintech and Crowdfunding conference. This year's event, held at The Imperial in downtown Vancouver, has expanded to an interactive full day format.

Enterprise conference partners including PayPal Canada, IBM, Vancity, Fasken Martineau and others are gathering with 300 investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts to 'Launch, Connect and Grow' emerging Fintech Crowdfunding markets across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest via powerful education, pitching and networking opportunities.  With over 50 speaking participants and a long list of hot topics across 30 sessions, #VanFUNDING is a not to be missed Fintech and Venture Funding conference for professionals, vendors, startups, scaleups, ecosystem supporters and emerging industry players. Register Now to ensure your spot!

Featuring Leading Global Crowdfunding, Fintech and Alternative Finance Experts

A Who's Who of 50+ venture funding experts with keynote addresses and presentations to include:

• Shirley Vickers, CEO of BC Innovation Council officially opens VanFUNDING 2016
• Bundeep Rangar, Finequia CEO on "The Rise of Fintech and Its Potential Impact on Public and Private Markets"
• Caroline Ong, IBM Canada, Partner, Global Business Services, Analytics and Cognitive Leader on "IBM Fintech Innovations and Growing the Canadian Landscape"
• Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss, Crowdfund Capital Advisors/Venture Fund on "Global Data Analysis & crowdfunding trends: Roadmap for Innovation and Economic Growth"
• Barbara Gray, Author of Ubernomics and Analyst and Strategy Consultant, Brady Cap Research on "How to Create Economic Abundance and Rise above the Competition"

Hot Fintech, Crowdsourcing and Investor Perspectives:

• We built this city: Fintech Innovators from Lendified, Katipult, RentMoola and Wealthbar, along with Bill Tam, BCTIA CEO, talk innovation and the Future of financial services
• Bernd Petak of Finstripe highlights Key lessons from The DAO, a $146M decentralized crowdfunding experiment
• P2P lenders Cato Pastoll of Lending Loop, Chantel Chapman of Mogo, and others discuss Marketplace and 'instant lending' trends: Bank reactions & 360 perspectives
• Learn about the highs and lows of investing in Crowdfunding markets with Brenda Irwin and Simon Whitfield of Relentless Pursuit Partners
• Christian Cotichini of HeroX and Daryl Hatton of FundRazr break it down fireside to talk about "The unlimited potential of Crowdsourcing and incentives"

'Not to be missed' Raising Capital Sessions:

• Corey Herscu of Herscu & Goldsilver delivers invaluable insight to ventures on getting media attention with "How to guarantee the media opens your pitch emails"
• Crowdfinance FrontFundr lead, Peter-Paul Van Hoeken will answer the question, "Is Canada keeping up with the Joneses?"
• Elliot Mak from the BC Securities Commission will deliver a workshop on the 'Mechanics of Securities Crowdfunding – What you need to know'
• Alixe Cormick, President of Venture Law Corp and Jennifer Lucas, Managing Partner of Evans and Evans Inc. on Capital raising options for start-ups and scale-ups?
• Looking into Cross-border crowdfinancing options in the United States? George Georgiades, President of AltFinEsq and Bob Poole, Principal of Davidson and Company discuss opportunities for Canadian issuers to tap larger markets in the US using via Reg A/+
• R2Crowd executives Amar Nijjar and Chad Gemmell will educate investors on How to access commercial real estate deals and leverage tech to bolster 12-24 per cent ROI

Outstanding Line-up of Ventures Selected for Pitching

The lineup of innovative ventures competing in the Pitching Showcase includes: ChatterHigh, Copypants, Glance Pay, Hitch Planet, Keela, Mode, My Green Space, Reach and Starling.  These hot startups and growth ventures will be vying for valuable educational, mentorship and promotional prizes.  The pitching showcases will be hosted and led by Launch Academy, Wavefront and Kereitsu.

Also featuring three industry 'Pitch & Meet' pitches on the main stage to investors and the crowd are 'on the move' ventures currently in funding rounds: Quidni Estate Winery, FrontFundr and FundingNomad.

#VanFUNDING 2016 is proudly brought to you by: Title: Finequia; Pre-Event VIP Networking: PayPal Canada; Diamond:  AltFinEsQ and Zyber; Gold: R²Crowd, Vancity, Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Fasken Martineau and Quidni Estate Winery; and Silver: Blockchain Canada, Katipult, Frontfundr, FundingNomad and Hero^x.

For a complete list of conference participants, speakers and event schedule visit the VanFUNDING conference website. 

About the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada non-profit actively engaged with both social and investment crowdfunding stakeholders across the country.  NCFA Canada provides education, research, leadership, support and networking opportunities to over 1300+ members and works closely with industry, government, academia, and community and eco-system partners and affiliates to create a strong and vibrant crowdfunding industry in Canada. For more information please visit: www.ncfacanada.org.

SOURCE National Crowdfunding Association of Canada

Image with caption: "In one week, the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA) will host VanFUNDING 2016, (#VanFUNDING) the second annual Fintech and Crowdfunding conference. This year’s event, held at The Imperial in downtown Vancouver, has expanded to an interactive full day format. (CNW Group/National Crowdfunding Association of Canada)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161011_C6659_PHOTO_EN_793358.jpg

Image with caption: "Enterprise conference partners including PayPal Canada, IBM, Vancity, Fasken Martineau and others are gathering with 300 investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts to 'Launch, Connect and Grow' emerging Fintech Crowdfunding markets across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest via powerful education, pitching and networking opportunities. (CNW Group/National Crowdfunding Association of Canada)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20161011_C6659_PHOTO_EN_793356.jpg

Media Contact: Craig Asano, Executive Director, [email protected], 416 618 0254, @NCFAcanada