The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that some of Canada's largest institutional investors are backing Neo Financial Technologies as the digital bank prepares its first loan securitization program. The Globe's Jameson Berkow writes that Calgary-based Neo said Tuesday more than 100 Canadian investors, including Alberta pension giant AIMCo, have purchased $68.5-million of its equity. That pushes the total amount Neo has raised since the company was founded in 2019 beyond $700-million. The money will go toward a loan securitization program that Neo believes to be a first for the Canadian fintech industry. Securitization involves pooling together assets that cannot be easily traded as investments and converting them into tradeable, interest-bearing investments. Securitization is a common funding strategy for large banks. They often pool together assets such as residential mortgages and sell them as securities to remove them from their balance sheets, which frees up more money for lending. Neo will pool together its credit card balances for its securitization plan. Neo has previously won investments from U.S. billionaire Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, Shopify's Tobi Lütke and Slack's Stewart Butterfield.