Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Program in Canada

Deadline: 13-Jan-23

The Intuit Prosperity Accelerator™: Toronto, powered by Highline Beta is an equity-free challenge-based program focused on advancing financial prosperity.

The Intuit Prosperity Accelerator™: Toronto is a 4-month program designed to support GTA tech startups in their efforts to advance innovation and improve the financial prosperity of Canadian consumers and small businesses.

The 2023 Cohort Challenges

• Consumers
  • Help Canadians adapt to an elevated interest rate environment (MORTGAGE & RENT COSTS)
    • Rising interest rates are quickly increasing the cost of living and financial-related stress of Canadians.
    • Assist in finding affordable mortgages with the highly competitive rates
    • Assist in offering affordable rentals or homes
    • Assist in accessing alternative mortgage / property buying approaches – e.g. rent to own programs, co-ownership models, distributorship ownership models, etc.
  • Help Canadians better manage savings and investment (Savings & Investment)
    • 50% of Canadians are concerned about their finances – from funding retirement, building a rainy day fund, or saving for a major purchase.
    • Reduce expenses by accessing better prices for utilities, gas, food and everyday expenditures
    • Provide accessible, individualized and automated savings plans
    • Provide access to financial literacy programs
  • Empower Canadians to become debt-free faster (Debt & Income Stability)
    • Under the current economic backdrop, nearly half of Canadians are concerned about the stability of their income and being able to pay off their debt.
    • Assist with providing proactive and affordable repayment plans
    • Find insurance solutions that mitigate employment loss
    • Support transition from unemployment to self-employment or small business ownership
• Small Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals
  • Help small businesses manage disruption and rising costs
    • Under the current economic backdrop, nearly half of Canadians are concerned about the stability of their income and being able to pay off their debt.
    • Assist with providing proactive and affordable repayment plans
    • Find insurance solutions that mitigate employment loss
    • Support transition from unemployment to self-employment or small business ownership
  • Help small businesses win the war for talent (Attracting & Retaining Labor)
    • 50% of Canadian small businesses have limited growth opportunities due to challenges with attracting, hiring and retaining a skilled workforce.
    • Distribute employee incentivisation programs and benefits or introduce new ways for employees to get paid
    • Deliver training and tools to enable small businesses to develop best in class cultures
  • Help self-employed Canadians manage multiple businesses (Juggling Multiple Businesses)
    • Since the onset of COVID-19, many self-employed Canadians have been running multiple businesses or selling across multiple customer channels.
    • Provide productivity and tools for multi-business management, freelancers and gig workers.
    • Provide simplified and highly available access to professional advice

Eligibility Criteria

• They are looking for applications from high-potential seed-stage tech startups located in the Greater Toronto Area who have solutions in market. Applications from pre-seed or later-stage companies will also be considered based on alignment with program challenges.
• Startups will be selected from Toronto’s burgeoning tech ecosystem and will have access to a corporate and investor mentorship network and dedicated coaching.
• Dedicated to supporting tech startups to advance innovation and fundability, while solving financial prosperity challenges in Canada
• Four (4) months of hybrid (in-person and virtual) programming
• Tailored content and dedicated coaching to help grow your business by using Intuit’s customer-centric Design for Delight (D4D) methodology
• Access to a large variety of expertise through subject matter experts, business mentors and a vibrant alumni startup community
• Opportunity for follow-on investment from Highline Beta

Success Criteria

• Seed-stage startup with a product in market (but also open to earlier and later stage companies)
• Open to Canadian startups (preferably within the GTA region, who can easily benefit from regular in-person programming in Toronto)
• Cross-functional team with in-house technological capabilities
• Driven, coachable, and collaborative leadership team that is ‘customer-obsessed’
• Alignment with Intuit’s mission and values

For more information, visit Intuit.