Clay Financial Named a Winning UpLink Venture by WEF – UpLink

We are proud to share that Clay Financial has been selected as one of 10 winning UpLink Ventures in the Shaping Canada’s Longevity Advantage Challenge, led by World Economic Forum – UpLink in collaboration with Manulife’s Longevity Institute and the World Economic Forum’s Longevity Economy Initiative.

This year, Canada officially became a super-aged nation, with one in five Canadians now aged 65 or older. Canadian seniors hold a collective $1.9 trillion in home equity, and over 80% want to age in place in the homes and communities they love. Yet many remain cash-constrained in their daily lives because their largest asset is highly illiquid and, until recently, tapping into it meant choosing between downsizing or taking on new debt.

We launched Canada’s first Home Equity Sharing Agreement (HESA) in 2024 to give homeowners a debt-free third option: unlocking a portion of their home equity as a tax-free lump sum with no monthly payments, no interest rates, and industry-leading consumer guardrails. In exchange, we share in the future change in value of their home, partnering with homeowners for the ups and downs for up to 25 years.

Improving Financial Resilience

Open to innovators from Canada and around the world, the Shaping Canada’s Longevity Advantage Challenge sought practical, near-term solutions that improve health, financial resilience, and social connectedness for Canadians across multi-stage lives.

We are deeply grateful to our team for bringing this vision to life, to the homeowners who have trusted us, and to WEF – UpLink and Manulife for recognizing the vital role that home equity plays in Canada’s longevity economy. You can read Manulife’s press release announcing the 10 winning innovations here.

We look forward to collaborating with our ecosystem partners across policy, aging advocacy, financial planning and capital markets to advance the financial resilience of Canadian seniors.

Congratulations as well to our fellow cohort winners: Amical, Childfree Trust, Cosm Medical, Idem, LINK Plans, MIMOSA Diagnostics, Myant Health, Pontosense, and PragmaClin.