Pender Financial started corporate life as a resource company. In 1998, the company changed its name to Safeguard BioMetric Corp., and invested US$5,000,000 in Biometric Identification Inc., ("BII"), a Los Angeles based company in the business of developing, manufacturing and marketing finger print recognition technology.
In 2000, Safeguard and the other owners of BII sold, on a share exchange basis, all of their interest in BII to Bioscrypt Inc., a Toronto based biometric company, whose shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In September 2001, the company began disposing of its shares in Bioscrypt. In January 2002, the company held an Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the sale of the remaining shares of Bioscrypt and its transformation into a merchant bank. Shortly afterwards, Devon announced its new strategy to focus exclusively on the Vancouver technology market.
In June 2004, Devon Ventures Corporation changed its name to Pender Financial Group to align its corporate identity with its fund management company, PenderFund Capital Management Ltd., and venture capital fund, Pender Growth Fund.