Calgary-based Helcim raised fresh financing and reported more than $150 million CAD in annual revenue as it looks to fill a new vacuum within Canada’s payments infrastructure.

The context: The market shift is part of a changing landscape for payments in Canada, as the Big Five banks have gradually sold off their payment processing divisions. Last year, TD sold part of its merchant solutions business to Fiserv, and this month, BMO- and RBC-owned Moneris announced its sale to a US private equity firm.

Beique said the Moneris sale and related worries about sovereignty coincided with a boost in inbound calls for Helcim. But it was already growing quickly before then: the company said it crossed $150 million in annual recurring revenue last year.

Final thought: Helcim has been banging the drum about “walled-off” payment systems, which is when a platform or ecosystem restricts access to external payment workflows, promoting its built-in services as the only option. With the new funding, Helcim said it will build on its payment extension add-on, which the company says will give merchants more flexibility and, ideally, reduce costs.