This Week in Canadian Money: Questrade launched a media company

+ Wealthsimple has a new partnership; a pension deal in Australia, and more.

Apr 17, 2026

Hey, welcome back.

Before I get into the news this week, I want to highlight something nice: I wrote about Fiscal.ai’s back-to-back-to-back partnerships last week and the company’s Head of Sales, Mark Ramsay, reposted me:

Thanks Mark!

Now let’s get into it. Here are five things that caught my eye this week in Canadian money:

1. Wealthsimple partnered with X (formerly Twitter) for a new feature

You can now click a stock ticker on X and go directly into the Wealthsimple app to start trading.

I’ve got to say, a Wealthsimple x X partnership was not on my bingo card.

2. Wygo raised a $1.56M pre-seed round

Wygo is a platform for building in-person communities.

You might be wondering, “Wygo invest in a community-building startup like Wygo when you could go invest in data centres, energy, AI…?”

Fair question.

My take: there are a few issues nowadays

We spend too much time in front of our screens (but not you! Keep reading this newsletter on your lovely screen)
We don’t spend enough time in real life with other people
In some cases, people are in such need of connection that they’re turning to AI chatbots as a substitute

Because of these issues, I think we’re seeing the pendulum swing back to analog. Even minor things like vinyl, stationery, and Mahjong are all making comebacks or getting popular with young people. Events too.

People want IRL not URL. And that seems to be the rationale behind this funding round.

3. La Caisse announced a $1B deal with an Australian data centre company

La Caisse is the big pension in Quebec, with over $500B (FYI for the CIBC folks in Toronto reading this: La Caisse co-owns CIBC Square).

In March, La Caisse signed onto the Canadian-Australian Pension Funds Investment Initiative (really rolls off the tongue, eh)
↳ The goal is to increase investments between 🇨🇦 and 🇦🇺

Both countries are experienced in mining and energy, so bringing them closer together could lead to significant knowledge sharing and cross-border…
[don’t say it]
[don’t say it]
[don’t say it]
… ⚡️synergy⚡️

4. Common Wealth raised $12M for its Series A

Common Wealth provides group retirement benefits to employers and employees (RRSPs, TFSAs, etc).

I find the company and this news interesting for three reasons:

Expands access to retirement benefits
- Important for millions of Canadians who don’t currently get retirement benefits from their employer
The company has been around since 2015 and is now raising its Series A
- Goes to show that building things takes time. Just like building a retirement portfolio!
Employers view benefits as an important way to attract and retain talent
- Several other companies have popped up in the employer benefit space, including Alan for health insurance (which I explain in this post) and Kindly for elder caregiving.
- What this potentially means for you and me: new and better benefits

5. Questrade is getting into media

Two things are new here:

Questrade started a media company called QuestMedia
Questrade started a publication about money and finances called The Margin

As I write this, the company has yet to make official announcements about them, and I don’t see any news articles either.1 So, putting on my detective hat, here’s what I’ve pieced together:

Back in January, they had a job posting that described “a modern digital newsroom launched by Questrade,” called QuestMedia.
For The Margin, the connection to Questrade is not obvious (no Q or the word “Quest” in the name, and the articles don’t at all mention or link to Questrade).
But right at the bottom of The Margin website, it says, “2026 QuestMedia Inc.” So that confirms to me that this is from Questrade.

Screenshot of the website homepage. Source: themargin.news

The footer of the website where it says, “2026 QuestMedia Inc.” Annotation my own

In my opinion, this news is important because:

Exploring new avenues
For a long time, the company was mostly in the investing space (they briefly flirted with mortgages, but stopped). Now they’re expanding into:
(a) Banking → they recently secured approval to start Questbank
(b) Media → QuestMedia and The Margin

It’s worth keeping an eye on the different directions the company goes. Maybe a credit card is next? Call it QuestCard? Or would it be QuestQard?

Content as a funnel
A good model for this is Wealthsimple, which has produced content for many years. For example, this article from 2016 gave tips on managing money when you have kids, and at the end of it there’s a call-to-action to convert readers into clients: “… we believe the best thing you can do to plan for your financial future (with or without the kids) is to open an account at Wealthsimple. What are you waiting for? Get started!”

The format is smart and simple: Let us explain {investment account / money concept / etc}, and, oh by the way, if you want to {open an account / invest / etc}, you can do that with us.

Questrade is probably following a similar path with The Margin. While the publication doesn’t currently link to Questrade and its offerings, I’m sure we’ll eventually see short sentences like, “to get started with investing, visit Questrade.” Something to nudge people to their platform.

The bottom line:

As a business move, this is interesting
For readers, I could see this being useful. But frankly, Wygo read The Margin when you can read this illustrious newsletter right in front of you?

Hey, thanks for reading! Before you go: