VFIntel
Replace paper with proof.One financial record of the money, the insurance and the identity behind every lease, written when the rent actually moves.

Company

Built by people who have run regulated financial companies before.

VFIntel is the financial system of record for the rental economy: one connected record of money, insurance and identity behind every lease, that every side of a rental can trust and act on. It verifies the renter once, then keeps verifying every month. It collects the rent by bank transfer and splits one payment to the landlord, the insurer and the utility. It puts the required insurance in place at signing. With the renter's permission it reports the rent, so it builds credit. It keeps the rules by province and state. And when an outside system asks, it answers with permission, and says no with the reason. Nobody had the regulated standing to sit in the middle and connect the renter, the landlord, the insurer and the credit system. VFIntel was formed to be that company. Art of Pay Inc., trading as VFIntel, Canada and the United States.

A workbench with glass pipe fittings joining a small house to a bank

The team

Five operators who have built regulated finance before.

Robert Elensky

Founder and CEO

Founder of Carta Worldwide, and of Mint, the first mobile payments company in North America, which issued the first prepaid contactless Mastercards anywhere and put the first smart cards with mobile features into people's hands. CEO, North America at OpenWay, and co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at HPS. Banks, card processors and payment networks around the world run their card and payment operations on those platforms. Five companies founded, multiple exits, 25 years in payments and financial technology, two digital banks among them.

Parth Bhavsar

COO

Operations executive with hands-on experience inside four global financial institutions. Owns integrations, compliance operations and partner onboarding.

Nick Seelert

CTO

Builds regulated data systems for financial institutions. Designs how VFIntel is put together and how it connects to property management systems.

Joan Baron

VP Insurance

Insurance executive with deep carrier and distribution experience, including Co-operators Life. Leads carrier and broker partnerships and the insurance products.

Danielle Graffunder

Compliance and Banking

President of NeverHere Consulting. Owns the bank agreements, card issuing and acquiring compliance, and processor oversight.

Board and advisers

People who have built this before, standing beside us. Every one of them invested.

Mike Doughty

Director, adviser and investor

Former CEO of Manulife Canada and John Hancock, former Chairman of CLHIA. Advises on carrier strategy and institutional distribution. The investment is his own.

Sean Gilday

Adviser and investor

VP and Head of Network at Manchester Story, and before that at the life reinsurer RGA. Advises on go to market structure and early stage capital. The investment is his own, not his firm's.

Noam Edell

Board member, lead early investor

President and founder of Clanton Capital, the lead investor in the first round. Brings direct access to a real estate network, one of the most direct ways to reach buildings.

Chris Albinson

Independent director and investor

Managing Partner of True North Fund. Co-founder of C100 and former CEO of Communitech, Canada's technology hub. An early investor in his own name, not his firm's.

Igor Ryabenkiy

Adviser and investor

Founder and Managing Partner of AltaIR Capital, a venture fund that backs financial technology across markets. AltaIR invested in VFIntel and Igor advises the company.

Who has invested

Backed by the people who run the industries we connect.

Two funds have invested. The others invested personally. Where a person is named, their firm is there to tell you who they are, not because the firm is an investor.

Clanton CapitalClanton Capital, real estate. Lead investor in the first round.
AltaIR CapitalAltaIR Capital, venture. Igor Ryabenkiy, founder and managing partner.
Chris Albinson, Managing Partner of True North Fund, co-founder of C100 and former CEO of Communitech. Invested in his own name.
Mike Doughty, former CEO of Manulife Canada and John Hancock, in his own name.
Sean Gilday, formerly of the life reinsurer RGA, now VP and Head of Network at Manchester Story. Invested in his own name.

How we build

Experience is the multiplier.

  • Senior operators, not a headcount plan. Insurance, payments, credit and compliance are each owned by someone who has run that area inside a regulated institution.
  • One operator, a department's output. Modern tools let a small senior team do the work that used to take several teams, without losing the judgment a regulator wants to see.
  • Judgment is still the scarce part. Building got cheaper. Knowing what to build, and standing behind it, still takes decades in the trade.
Three sheets of frosted glass stacked like layers of a drawing

Timing

Three things happening at once.

  • Fraud broke the old checks. AI-made pay stubs and fake identities get past a one-time document check in under a minute. The defence is checking continuously, from real payments.
  • Insurance at the point of purchase works elsewhere. Cars, homes, travel. The lease, where insurance is often required by law, is the largest moment nobody has used, and about 55 percent of US renters still carry none (Insurance Information Institute, 2024).
  • Credit has an opening. About 87 percent of rent goes unreported to any credit bureau (TransUnion, 2025), the largest bill that counts for nothing.
A glass hourglass with three coloured currents meeting in the neck

Contact

Fifteen minutes. A direct answer.

Bring your one most important question about how your company connects to what we are building.

info@vfintel.com
Toronto area, Canada. Operating across Canada and the United States.

Book a call

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