The Victoria Tech Community Awards showcase the community of 1,000 companies and 17,000 workers who push innovation forward, and drive the city’s $4 billion tech economy. Our spotlight series highlights award finalists and winners so you can get to know them a little bit better. Read about other community members here.

Today, we’re featuring Justin Passalaqua, country director, Canada of Worldine.

Describe your company:

Worldline is the technology partner of choice for software providers across over 60 industries. Worldline in North America offers online payment processing, full service or gateway processing, recurring billing, and access to a robust set of APIs. Headquartered in Victoria, BC, Worldline has 150+ employees across Canada and the USA. Known in the industry for bringing the human aspect into payments by offering best-in-class service and support, Worldline is here to help you grow.

What problem is your company solving and how is it solving it?

As the payment industry grows, many find receiving high-quality and personalized help has been lost. Worldline addresses this problem by humanizing payments – we provide our partners with several teams to help them grow their businesses. No more talking to a chat box – we pride ourselves on in-house teams of payment experts ready to assist both our partners and their customers with any issue. Account management, integration specialists, and customer care are just a few of the teams that cater to our partners.

What’s a recent milestone or breakthrough your company is proud of?

Our company has reached many milestones this past year. One of the greatest is that we joined the Worldline group of global payment companies and have rebranded as “Worldline North America,” departing from our well-known “Bambora” brand. While our look has been updated, our new unified brand supports the same priorities – to bring trust to every payment and be a growth engine for our partners through our best-in-class service team.

Other than our rebranding, we are also proud to have been certified as a Great Place to Work for the past 2 years in a row. This recognition highlights our strong culture and is a great display of increased employee satisfaction and engagement for both our US and Canadian teams.

What makes Victoria a great place to build a technology business?

The community here is absolutely the greatest part of Victoria. The tech community is supportive, excited, and enthusiastic about the booming technology scene here. Within that, there is this incredible culture of both innovation and mentorship. Folks are encouraged to go beyond limits and indulge in their biggest ideas. Those new to the industry, such as students or those from other sectors, are welcomed with plenty of mentorship opportunities. All these attributes of our community provide an opportunity for diversity – in both people and ideas!

What is Victoria tech’s biggest hidden secret?

It seems some may overlook this “big town’s” capabilities. There are incredible innovations happening here – medical, software, and sustainability stand out particularly. Similar to the previous question, diversity is our competitive advantage!

What is your number one Victoria tech prediction for 2023?

Victoria has always been at the forefront of sustainability, but we think businesses will hone in even more on this in 2023. Technology for social improvements will likely be a top priority, for example, solutions for the housing market, environmental issues, and supporting the unhoused.

What local tech company or product excites you the most right now?

We love Inqli! Their platform allows users to connect and answer questions brought forth by other community members. Folks get “matched” with questions based on their unique backgrounds. Essentially, they are solving the problem of not knowing who to ask for advice and mentorship from. We can’t wait to see how the company grows!