Koho Financial Inc.: Facing a New Banking Era

Name: Koho Financial Inc.: Facing a New Banking Era (English version)
SKU: 9B21N002

Lei Chen; Xin (Shane) Wang; Emily Yau;Jun Hyun (Joseph) Ryoo

Product #:9B21N002

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:Finance

Details:Case (PDF) • 11 pages • 2021-02-16

Subjects:

Fintech Big data Analytics and data science Finance and investing

Industries:

Financial service sector

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$9.71

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Toronto-based financial technology (fintech) start-up Koho Financial Inc. (Koho) offered millennial consumers a new way to manage their money with no fees. Koho challenged traditional banking institutions by providing typical banking services digitally. In November 2019, the company had recently secured its series B funding round, bringing the total amount raised to US$57.5 million. Now, with expectations from its investors and growing competition, Koho had to develop new strategies to ensure its leading position. Should Koho continue competing directly with traditional banks, or should the company invest in new technologies and compete with other fintech start-ups? How could Koho acquire more customers? How would the changing fintech regulatory environment affect Koho’s strategy?

Learning Objectives

The case is ideal for an introductory- or undergraduate-level fintech course that requires students to analyze typical fintech business models and calculate their return on investment. The case can also be used to discuss marketing by leveraging big data. The case illustrates the challenges faced by a fintech start-up and highlights the opportunities and risks involved with various technologies. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

Describe Koho’s business model, fintech innovation, and use of open banking.
Analyze Koho’s branding and marketing strategies.
Identify the wants and needs of Koho’s key stakeholders.
Define open banking, and identify its benefits and risks.
Describe the changing open-banking regulatory environment in Canada, and compare this with the scenario in other geographic regions.
Understand and ideate how fintech companies can protect users’ financial data and privacy.
Examine Koho’s competitors and determine Koho’s competitive advantage.
Calculate and analyze the return on investment of various fintech business models.