Banking Without Borders: How Toronto’s Loop is Helping Canadian Businesses Expand and Reduce Costs on Cross-Border Transactions

For Canadian businesses expanding beyond domestic markets, financial complexity often becomes an unexpected roadblock. Managing international payments, navigating volatile foreign exchange rates, and dealing with the hidden fees of traditional banking can quickly erode margins and stall growth. While global business has never been more accessible, the infrastructure to support cross-border transactions remains largely outdated, favouring institutions rather than the businesses they serve.

Loop, a Toronto-based financial technology company led by CEO Cato Pastoll, is helping Canadian businesses break free from these inefficiencies. By offering a streamlined platform that simplifies payments, reduces foreign exchange exposure, and provides access to credit for scaling operations, Loop is enabling more Canadian companies to compete internationally without being weighed down by outdated financial processes.

For Propeller Coffee, an independent roastery and café in Toronto, managing cash flow has always been central to its ability to grow. Like many small businesses, its margins depend on careful financial planning, yet traditional banking options often fell short when it came to providing the flexible credit needed to navigate seasonality and expansion. By working with Loop, Propeller Coffee has been able to access fast and efficient credit solutions, ensuring it can invest in sourcing, roasting, and distribution without unnecessary delays or excessive costs.

“Loop gave us the financial flexibility we needed to scale without having to jump through hoops,” says Losel Tethong, Founder and President at Propeller Coffee. “We now have access to the spending power we need, allowing us to focus on what we do best— sourcing, roasting and delivering exceptional coffee.”

While Propeller Coffee required financing solutions, SmartMatchApp, a Canadian award-winning matchmaking, networking and membership management software platform, was looking for a new way to manage their card expenses. Frustrated with the rigid systems and lack of flexibility from big banks, SmartMatchApp struggled to efficiently track and manage their card expenses especially when it comes to multicurrency spend. The one-size-fits-all approach from traditional banks made it difficult to control spending, set limits, and gain real-time insights into transactions. That’s when they turned to Loop to use our customizable card management features, they finally had the power to tailor spending controls, automate expense tracking, and gain full visibility over their finances.

"Loop has been a game-changer for us in managing our multicurrency card spend across USD and CAD,” said Tim Mourtazov, CEO and President of SmartMatchApp. He continues: “Our software focuses on helping communities, matchmakers, networking and membership organizations to match and connect their members all around the world, and Loop platform gives us the international multi-currency flexibility we need to seamlessly control expenses, track transactions in real-time, and optimize our financial operations without the constraints of a traditional bank. With Loop, we finally have a solution that grows with our business."

For brands with international ambitions, financial missteps can be costly. Peace Collective, the Toronto-based apparel company known for its socially conscious designs, faced a common challenge: how to scale globally without losing revenue to FX volatility and excessive transaction fees. With sales expanding into new markets, fluctuating foreign exchange rates and high outgoing transaction costs were cutting into margins. By leveraging Loop’s platform, Peace Collective was able to optimize its currency exchange strategy,and lower international transaction costs, allowing it to reinvest more into product development and market expansion.

“Expanding globally comes with enough challenges—your finances shouldn’t be one of them,” says Yanal Dhailieh, Founder at Peace Collective. “Loop helped us manage our international payments smoothly, which meant we could focus on growing our brand instead of losing revenue to banking inefficiencies.”

While each of these businesses faces unique financial needs, they share a common reality: traditional banking infrastructure is not built for modern, high-growth companies operating across borders. Loop provides a single platform for payments, FX management, and corporate credit cards, helping businesses navigate global markets without the high fees and administrative burdens that have long been considered unavoidable.

“We heard too many stories of businesses spending hours every week manually managing cross-border transactions and losing tens of thousands of dollars every year on bank fees,” says Cato Pastoll, CEO of Loop. “At Loop, we’ve built a platform that makes it easier and more cost-effective for companies to operate globally, ensuring that more of their hard-earned revenue stays where it belongs—with them.”

As more Canadian businesses look beyond national borders, having access to financial infrastructure that supports global growth rather than restricting it will be critical. By removing unnecessary costs, increasing access to credit, and simplifying international transactions, Loop is proving that Canada’s fintech sector is not just catching up with the demands of modern business—it is leading the way in building financial tools that help companies scale smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

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This article is part of CCI’s new “By Canadian Innovators” series, which showcases how members of the Council of Canadian Innovators work with homegrown companies to fuel their growth and make Canada more prosperous. Each story in this series highlights the unique contributions of these companies to building a more prosperous, innovation-driven economy. To learn more about the companies CCI works with to build a more prosperous Canada, visit our member directory.