Neo Financial lays off roughly 10 percent of its staff. Calgary-based FinTech cut 102 employees to create a "simpler and faster team." Neo Financial has laid off more than 100 employees. In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday morning, the Calgary-based FinTech company shared that it had made the decision to "say goodbye" to 102 of its employees, who accounted for roughly 10 percent of its team across "nearly every part of Neo." The statement was drafted by Neo co-founder and CEO Andrew Chau, and was a verbatim copy of an internal memo circulated to the company's remaining employee base, Jeff Adamson, the company's chief commercial officer and other co-founder, told BetaKit in an email In the statement, Neo said the company has grown rapidly over the years, allowing complexity to creep in and ultimately slow operations down. The company said parting ways with so many employees was a difficult decision made in the interest of serving its overarching mission. "Today is not about shrinking our ambition. It's about being laser-focused on delivering what Canadians need," the statement reads. "We're going to operate as a simpler and faster team with the utmost clarity of direction. We're going to build fewer things faster, and build them exceptionally well." Laid off employees will receive severance pay, extended benefits coverage, and a waived equity cliff, according to Neo. The company said it will also provide career transition support for any employees who want it. Neo Financial has raised more than $650 million CAD, including debt and equity, and was valued at more than $1 billion CAD as of its Series C deal in May 2022. However, its November 2024 Series D raise - reportedly led by Chinese investor Tencent - reduced its valuation to $510 million USD ($703 million CAD) post-money, according to The Globe and Mail. The company also has locations in Winnipeg and Toronto. This is a developing story. Check back for more updates soon. BetaKit's Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta. Feature image courtesy Neo Financial.

Neo Financial says it is cutting 102 positions, amounting to about 10% of its staff. Neo Financial trims jobs. The Canadian Press - Sep 8, 2026 / 2:54 pm | Story: 630627 The Neo Financial office building is shown in Calgary in a company handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Neo Financial Neo Financial says it is laying off 102 of its employees, amounting to about 10 per cent of its workforce. The Calgary-based financial technology firm announced the move in a post on LinkedIn, sharing a message that was sent to employees. The company says the cuts are taking place across nearly every part of the business. The message says the company grew quickly over the years, ultimately slowing down operations. Neo Financial says it will now look to "operate as a simpler and faster team." CEO Andrew Chau described the move in a LinkedIn post as the "hardest day" the company has had.

Canadian FinTech braces for US competition. Plus: Was OpenAI's rogue agent unstoppable? For years, Canadian FinTech leaders have called for competition. They're finally getting their wish, but perhaps not how they thought. What once felt like an occasional stray shot of competition in Canadian FinTech became a full-on firefight this week. Wealthsimple relished its "biggest quarter ever," claiming nearly a quarter of Canadians between the ages of 18 and 40 use its products, the same day that Questrade announced it will become the first in Canada to offer agentic finance. Hanging over all of this is the entry of international competitors to the Canadian market. While Robinhood is currently limited to crypto, the company has said it will "slowly expand" its product. That would bring a well-established digital finance option to Canadians - one that already introduced "firsts" like agentic finance to the US market months ago. Corporate expense management giant Ramp also entered Canada this week. With over $1 billion USD in revenue, it will likely compete with Canadian offerings like Venn and Float. Also lurking on the consumer side is Revolut, one of the world's largest neobanks and another possible competitor for the likes of Koho and Neo Financial, which has been evaluating a Canadian return since December. As foreign FinTech giants aim towards Canada, domestic firms are staring down the barrel. Perhaps that's why they're willing to take on risks like agentic finance - even as polls indicate people don't trust AI with their money - or opening the door to a controversial product like prediction markets. Wealthsimple Predict pushes the envelope further by teasing markets that are not yet legal in Canada, like betting on the outcome of upcoming US elections. Canadian FinTech companies have been begging for a competitive battlefield, even though they were likely picturing their opponents as the Big Six Banks, not these new challengers. In any case, may the best app win. Your unclaimed credit has an exact dollar figure Conservative R&D tax credit claims feel safe, but that comfort has a price you pay every year. Companies afraid of audits claim less than they're owed, when the real protection is evidence: Every hour traced to Jira, GitHub, and payroll, made defensible before anyone asks. That's how Boast finds 10 to 20 percent more than accounting firms do across SR&ED, IDMTC and CDAE-IA, on under five hours of your team's time on average. Twenty minutes puts a dollar figure on yours. Claim aggressively. Defend confidently. Top stories from BetaKit. Indomitable agents Both OpenAI and Anthropic have recently revealed that their internal AI agents broke containment and hacked external companies. Canadian cybersecurity company leaders tell BetaKit that there currently is no catch-all solution to prevent this type of attack. Sovereign silicon Canada has an AI strategy. What it doesn't have is a strategy for building the hardware that AI runs on. As for what that could look like, Canada's Semiconductor Council has some ideas. Going nuclear Alberta is aggressively pursuing data centre development, and data centres require a lot of power. BetaKit sat down with ICTC to discuss the role nuclear power could play in that transformation, and how building a nuclear industry might be easier said than done. Primed for disaster Amazon recently opened its first disaster relief hub in Canada. BetaKit dug into the context behind the e-commerce giant's apparent departure from its business goals. Canadian startups put AI first Canadian AI-native startups are outperforming global peers on revenue growth; that success, AWS says, speaks to Canada's decades of investment in the technology. Sponsored stories. How an Australian AI scribe won over Canada's doctors Heidi's AI scribe is reshaping the daily workflows for Canadian clinicians nationwide. By saving doctors 13 minutes per patient, Canadian physicians can shift their focus to providing high-quality patient care. Taking code to the road: How GM Canada and the country's top universities are engineering the future of driving GM Canada is developing its talent pipeline advancing academic research, and shaping the future for software-defined and autonomous vehicles. How AI is changing the agency model With Chrono Innovation's new Launchpad platform, founders can leverage its reliable AI-coding agents to drastically speed up Deals and dollars. Who cashed in, or out, this week: * The defunct Sonder brand was bought out of bankruptcy and turned into an affiliate lodging booking site by TravelAI. (Vancouver) * Y Combinator grad Terminal raised $20 million USD as it shifts its focus to growth. (Toronto) * RBC said it extended its AI development partnership with Vector Institute through 2032. (Toronto) * Vena Solutions agreed to acquire Morpheo AI to push agentic capabilities in operational planning. (Toronto) * Voice-to-text dictation app Superwhisper now supports Cohere's open-source transcription model. (Toronto) * Lightspeed's stock sank despite solid Q1 earnings, as it revealed a three-percent workforce cut. (Montréal) * Tenor raised $2.5 million USD to build out its blockchain-based lending platform. (Québec City) Main character. "Anybody who's stuck in the old ways and doesn't want to change - you're probably not going to do much work with us anymore." Alberta technology minister Nate Glubish, on how AI has changed his government's approach to procurement. The refresh. Out of the fog The Globe and Mail writes that St. John's, home to companies like CoLab, Kraken Robotics, and Mysa, has become an unlikely tech hub. It's a success story that might hold lessons for the rest of the country. Applications Are Now Open: Investment Bootcamp The Black Entrepreneurship Alliance is accepting applications for its fully funded, four-month Investment Bootcamp. Designed for Black-led tech founders, the program helps strengthen your capital strategy and fuel growth. Selected founders receive 1:1 mentorship, expert-led workshops, and specialized support in finance, legal, and marketing. You also gain dedicated co-working space, a 3-month YSpace membership, investor connections, and the chance to pitch at a Demo Day for up to $20K in prizes. Two streams available: Pre-revenue with a validated MVP Post-revenue ($1K+ MRR) Only 10 ventures selected. Applications close on August 30. Apply here. BetaKit Podcast · July 27 "I am Tron-pilled: I fight for the user. I want people to be in charge of their technology, not the other way around." Cory Doctorow joins to discuss healthy ways people can be assisted by AI rather than conscripted in service to the tech, and pitches jailbreaking Canada to reclaim digital sovereignty. Watch now" Contributors: Alex Riehl (Ottawa staff writer), Douglas Soltys (editor in chief), Sarah Rieger (managing editor), Trevor Nichols (web editor). Feature image courtsy Questrade.