Endeavor Canada Welcomes Canada’s Largest Digital Mortgage Lender as its Fourth Selected Company of 2024.
Endeavor Canada is thrilled to welcome three new entrepreneurs to the network, Malik Yacoubi (CEO), Karim Benabdallah (CTO) and Damien Charbonneau (COO), co-founders of nesto. Nesto becomes the sixth Canadian company to join the Endeavor community since 2022 alongside Symend, Certn, SRTX, KOHO Financial, and Busbud. Together, these companies employ over 2,200 staff, generate over $500M in annual revenue and have raised over $1.9B in equity and debt financing.
Founded in 2018, nesto is transforming property financing in Canada with its digital mortgage platform that streamlines the mortgage process for both borrowers and financial institutions. To date, nesto has served over 400,000 customers and processes billions in mortgage volume annually. The company has raised several hundred million dollars, fueling the development of its proprietary tech platform and contributing to the June 2024 acquisition of CMLS Group, Canada’s third-largest non-bank lender at the time.
Starting as a brokerage in 2019, nesto quickly expanded nationwide and became Canada’s first Digital Mortgage Lender in 2020. By 2022, nesto had evolved into a fully integrated platform that manages every step of the mortgage journey, from origination to funding and servicing. The efficiencies generated by its platform allows nesto to pass on savings customers via competitive rates. With an $80M Series C funding round in late 2022, the team expanded their product offering by introducing the nesto Mortgage Cloud—a B2B solution designed to empower other mortgage industry players. Last year in 2023, in recognition of its innovative solutions and impressive growth rate, nesto was awarded the Canadian Mortgage Lender of the Year and earned a place in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50™. Nesto has been supported by key investors including IGM Financial, National Bank of Canada, and BMO, and continues to be a trailblazer in the Canadian B2B and D2C mortgage industry segments. In February 2024, nesto acquired Vancouver-based CMLS Group– a longstanding Canadian mortgage lender multiple times its size– emphasizing the founders’ bold leadership and commitment to creating the mortgage ecosystem of the future.
"As Canada’s newest Endeavor Entrepreneurs, Malik, Damien, and Karim bring tremendous experience and ambitious vision to the fintech landscape. Our team is thrilled to leverage Endeavor’s exceptional global network of fintech leaders to support nesto's continued growth while also enabling these talented founders to give back. Their decades of knowledge and insights will be invaluable for Canada’s scaleup ecosystem, inspiring and guiding the next generation of Canadian entrepreneurs in fintech innovation. "
Kristjan Sigurdson
Managing Director, Endeavor Canada
Malik Yacoubi (CEO) and Karim Benabdallah (CTO) founded their first venture together 24 years ago, kicking off their entrepreneurial journey as students at Université Laval where they developed a retirement home portal and later a web hosting business. In 2004, they co-founded Mobilito, one of Canada’s first mobile marketing firms, followed by Paymentpin, a leader in mobile carrier billing, which was acquired by Boku in 2012.
Damien Charbonneau (COO), an industrial engineer from École Polytechnique de Montréal, joined Malik and Karim after starting his career in management consulting at McKinsey & Company and later joining Diagram Ventures. Damien met Malik and Karim through Diagram and in 2018 he joined the nesto team as a full-time co-founder to launch Canada’s first digital mortgage platform. In making their decision, the Endeavor panelists responsible for nesto’s selection noted the complementarity of the team and their excitement for the company’s potential to win over the Canadian market.
"The nesto entrepreneurs are serially successful, they've been successful in this venture too that is now at an inflection point with a large transformative acquisition and has ambitious plans to grow - in particular in mortgage servicing, which is a massive opportunity for them given the high concentration in the market and the low tech level of the incumbent players. I'm enthusiastic about supporting nesto as an Endeavor company."
Martín Escobari, 48th Virtual ISP Panelist
Co-President and Managing Director, General Atlantic
Over the course of nesto’s selection journey, the founders were connected with Endeavor’s Canadian and global support networks, participating in curated dinners and meeting with peer entrepreneurs. The journey culminated on October 23rd at Endeavor’s 48th Virtual International Selection Panel, where Malik, Karim, and Damien presented their vision for the company and received unanimous approval to join the Endeavor network. Our gratitude goes to all Endeavor network members who supported nesto throughout this process, including:
Susan Anderson of Cannonball Capital, Dennis Bennie of XDL Capital Group, Paul Desmarais III of Sagard, Jim Estill of Danby Appliances, Chen Fong of PureWeb Inc., Chris Huskilson of Algonquin, and Mike Mannix of Band Venture Partners. They also received feedback from Endeavor’s global network, including Endeavor Global Board Member Martín Escobari of General Atlantic; Endeavor Co-Founder & CEO Linda Rottenberg; Endeavor mentors Erin Renzas of EBB Strategic, Francesca Carlesi of Molo Finance, Shari Loessberg of MIT, and Joanna Lambert of Olo; and Endeavor Entrepreneurs Santiago Botero Jaramillo and Juan Manuel Puerto of Finsocial, Adetayo Bamiduro of MAX, and Vincent Tjendra of ASTRO.
Endeavor Canada is immensely proud to add Malik, Karim, and Damien to its growing community of growth-stage founders in Canada.
