Hi Finance and Embark partner to help students claim the Canada Learning Bond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hi Finance is announcing a new partnership with Embark that will help students from low-income households earn up to $2,000 in grant funding for educational costs like textbooks and tuition.

Approximately 1 in 3 Canadian students do not have a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP). Because federal benefits like the Canada Learning Bond (CLB) require an RESP, eligible students can't receive that funding. In 2025, reporting from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) identified that over 500,000 eligible beneficiaries had not received the CLB, making it one of Canada's most underclaimed grants.

This new partnership addresses the problem by enabling students to open an RESP in their own name instead of relying on a parent or guardian to have already opened one. Hi Finance, a start-up founded by students from the University of Alberta, helps students find out whether they're eligible for the CLB. Embark, one of Canada's leading RESP providers, then opens a sole beneficiary RESP and submits the application for funding.

"Claiming a federal education grant shouldn't require decoding a government program. The Canada Learning Bond is one of the most powerful tools available to Canadian students, no contribution required, just an RESP. Together with Hi Finance, we're removing the friction that has kept it out of reach for many. We're making it something you can check your eligibility for in seconds and act on in minutes."
Andrew Lo, Embark CEO

The CLB is an income-based federal grant for students from modest-income families. Eligible students can receive up to $2,000 total, including $500 for the first year they qualify and $100 for each additional year, up to age 15. Eligibility is based on adjusted family net income, with a threshold of approximately $57,375 for families with up to three children in the 2025-2026 benefit year. Students born in 2004 or later can apply until the day before their 21st birthday, and the grant is retroactive, so those who qualified in earlier years can claim funds from past years. Not all students will qualify, and eligibility is determined by the Government of Canada.

Unlike the Canada Education Savings Grant, which provides funding by matching a portion of contributions, the CLB has no matching requirement. Once an account is opened, students can receive funding without making contributions to their RESP.

"Many students aren't missing out on funding because they can't find what to apply for, they're missing out because applying is too complicated. If you're busy cramming for midterms, it's easy for a grant application to fall down the list of priorities. This problem is even larger for the CLB as it traditionally required navigating complex government forms and spending time at a bank opening an investment account. Our partnership with Embark is not only making it easy for a student to see if they qualify, but also provides a process that a student will actually want to use."
Zach Prusko, Hi Finance CEO and Founder

About Hi Finance

Hi Finance is a start-up helping students fund their tuition. The student-founded company was built with support from the University of Alberta's entrepreneurship accelerator (eHub), Startup TNT, and the University of Calgary's Social Impact Fund (uCeed). Through their app, Hi Finance has helped over 3,000 students earn $4M in grants they otherwise would have missed. After expanding across Alberta's largest post-secondaries last year, Hi Finance is launching at campuses across Ontario this fall.

About Embark

Embark is Canada's education savings and planning company. Managing RESPs for more than 600,000 students, Embark helps approximately 60,000 Canadians attend post-secondary school each year and has paid out approximately $8.1 billion to students as part of their education savings since its inception. Registered as a Scholarship Plan Dealer across Canada, Embark is committed to empowering families along their post-secondary journeys.

Media contact

Zach Prusko
CEO and Founder, Hi Finance
zach@hifinance.ca