Shakepay Inc.

To usher in the Bitcoin golden age and give every Canadian their fair shake.

Since 2015, Shakepay has grown to serve over 1.5 million Canadians through its mobile app that makes buying, selling, and earning Bitcoin straightforward. The Montreal-based company launched the Shakepay Card in 2022, letting users earn Bitcoin rewards when they shop. Beyond basic crypto trading, Shakepay offers features like daily "shaking" rewards (earn free Bitcoin by shaking your phone), direct deposit, and Bitcoin-backed lending. The company is regulated across all Canadian provinces and territories and became a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) in 2025. With over $15 billion in total transaction volume processed, Shakepay positions itself as helping Canadians build long-term wealth through Bitcoin rather than just facilitating trades.

Products

The core Shakepay app lets users buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum commission-free, plus hold USDC. The Shakepay Visa prepaid card offers up to 2% Bitcoin cashback on purchases, with both virtual and physical versions available. Users can earn free Bitcoin daily through the "ShakingSats" feature by shaking their phones, set up recurring buys, and receive direct deposits. Shakepay for Business provides treasury management and payment solutions for companies. The platform also offers Shakepay Interest (up to 3.75% on cash balances) and Bitcoin-backed lending, making it the first Canadian crypto platform to offer borrowing against Bitcoin holdings.

Funding

Shakepay raised $44 million CAD in a Series A round in January 2022, led by QED Investors with participation from Boost VC, BoxOne Ventures, Golden Ventures, and Broadhaven Capital Partners. The round also included angel investors from Shopify's product team. Prior to this, the company raised roughly $1 million CAD in a seed round in February 2018. The Series A funding came after significant user growth, with the platform expanding from around 900,000 to over 1.5 million users.

Recent news

On April 21, 2026, Shakepay officially launched Bitcoin-backed loans for Canadian users after receiving a three-year exemptive relief decision from Quebec's Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). This feature allows customers to borrow up to $50,000 CAD against their Bitcoin holdings at a 9.5% APR without selling their assets, helping them avoid taxable events.

Technology

The engineering team works primarily in Go, Python, and JavaScript, with React Native for mobile apps and Vue.js for web interfaces. Infrastructure runs on AWS using Kubernetes and Docker for orchestration. The platform follows infrastructure-as-code and GitOps practices with Terraform, ArgoCD, and Helm managing deployments. PostgreSQL handles data storage while Kafka manages event streaming. Datadog provides monitoring and observability across the stack. The team is actively building AI-powered internal tools and agentic workflows to automate development tasks and improve productivity.

Benefits

Base salaries start at $210,000+ CAD for senior roles, with stock options for all employees and the option to receive part of your salary in Bitcoin. The company is remote-friendly across Canada with optional offices in Montreal and Toronto, covering travel for team visits. Health and dental coverage is fully covered, plus wellness spending accounts. You get 20 days of vacation with a $1,000 bonus if you use it all, and parental leave is topped up to 100% salary for 18 weeks. There's a $2,000 annual learning budget, unlimited AI token budget, yearly salary assessments, and quarterly team offsites. The culture emphasizes shipping fast, winning as a team, and doing work that matters.