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Francois Cote

Fig is Canada’s first completely digital personal loan provider on a mission to simplify the borrowing process. Its online portal provides Canadians with loan approvals in just 10 seconds and enables them to complete the entire application in under 10 minutes.

Tell us about yourself?

I’ve worked in the personal loans space across both Canada and the United States for 20 years. While I’ve seen some advancements in other financial products, Canadians still lacked a fully digital option for personal loans for many years.

Leveraging our founding team’s collective experience leading digital strategies at Canada’s leading financial institutions, such as Fairstone and Citibank, we decided to fill that gap and offer the first fully digital lending platform, focusing on the prime lending market.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back in time a year or two, the piece of advice I would give myself is to trust my experience and remain focused on our core mission.

There have been moments of uncertainty and pressure to pivot or diversify, but staying true to our expertise and vision has been crucial. Focusing on building the best possible personal loan solution for Canadians while leveraging our team’s deep industry knowledge has proven to be the right path. Trusting in our strategy and maintaining a clear focus on our goals has been key to overcoming challenges and achieving success.

Fig Financial

What problem does your business solve?

We believe personal loans are an excellent financial product for mainstream Canadians, but the current offerings from traditional banks have not seen innovation for decades.

Most avenues for securing a personal loan “digitally” are not truly 100 per cent online. While browsing different loan options takes place on their website, the process still often requires a call with an agent or an in-person meeting at a bank.

Fig’s platform requires no human intervention. Borrowers can apply within seconds, get approved, and receive funds in 24 to 28 hours.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

What inspired us to build Fig’s platform was to offer a solution that made personal loans more accessible to the prime market. We believed that the offerings that predated Fig were subpar and lacked innovation.

Our user-friendly platform makes browsing and securing personal loans more efficient as part of our broader goal to help Canadians consolidate expensive debt with mountain-high interest rates into manageable monthly payments so they can reach their financial goals faster.

What is your magic sauce?

We believe that the quality of our customer experience sets us apart. Lending is a multi-step and fragmented process, but we have automated many back-office activities that were traditionally outsourced to manual labour. This automation enables us to pass significant savings on to our customers. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our Net Promoter Score (NPS), which consistently exceeds 70.

Moreover, our team is a key differentiator. Our leadership team includes experts from the fintech community, with experience from companies like Wealthsimple, as well as industry experts who have a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape.

Fig Financial

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

As we continue to enhance the lending experience for Canadians, our goal is to become a household name in the next five or so years.

While we want to continue offering our personal loans to Canadians directly, we’re continuing to expand our presence by partnering with well-known brands that are committed to serving Canadians with the same exceptional service we subscribe to, such as Borrowell, Credit Karma, and ClearScore.

Notably, we are also partnering with Neo Financial to make our personal loans accessible to their customers.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced so far is navigating the complexities of building a personal loan lender in the current macroeconomic environment.

With fluctuating interest rates, economic uncertainty, and evolving regulatory landscapes, we’ve had to be exceptionally agile and innovative. Balancing the need for rigorous risk management with our commitment to providing affordable and accessible loans to Canadians has required us to continuously adapt our strategies and leverage advanced technology to stay ahead.

How can people get involved?

Discover how Fig can transform your personal lending experience today, visit www.fig.ca.