St. Catharines university grad’s biz scores $500K boost on Dragons’ Den TV show
Published February 23, 2022 at 3:40 pm
Just two years after graduating, a Brock University alumni scored big when one of the celebrity investors on CBC’s Dragons’ Den TV show gave him $500,000 to sink into his company.
Tefari Bailey, a 2019 graduate of the university’s entrepreneurship program, caught the attention of Den’s investor Wes Hall with his online-only financial tech company, Hutsy.
Online-only means no bricks-and-mortar banks are involved. However, added Bailey, with no physical banks comes no unnecessary banking fees.
“There are many Canadians living paycheque to paycheque, and this is causing them to spend their money on unnecessary banking fees. With Hutsy, we want to eliminate this,” Bailey told campus paper Brock News.
Bailey added that people with low credit scores have no options when money is needed, turning to high interest payday loan businesses which just sink them further into debt.
He said Hutsy offers easy banking solutions with no transaction or cash advance fees. Going one further, the app even has a credit-building program for those struggling to make ends meet.
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With all the advance investor wooing done, including that big boost from Dragons’ Den, Bailey said he can now complete the necessary technology to turn his dream into reality and expects the app up and running sometime between April and June.
His goal is to have more than 10,000 Hutsy users in the near future and eventually a Canada-wide integration of the company’s app.
“We know this is not a race, it’s a marathon,” Bailey told Brock News. “We are taking things one step at a time to reach our ultimate goal of helping Canadians build and establish credit, while educating them on financial topics to help our users save money.”
If you’re curious about Hutsy, check out: http://hutsy.ca
Tefari Bailey pitches his online banking app, Hutsy, to the celebrity investors on CBC’s “Dragons’ Den.” One of them is taking a $500,000 chance on the Brock graduate’s business. (Photo: CBC)