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.

Payments Canada welcomes Neo Financial as a new payment service provider member. May 5, 2026 Payments Canada announced today the membership approval of Neo Financial Technologies Inc. ("Neo Financial"), which provides digital-first financial solutions. Payments Canada continues to expand its membership following federal changes to the Canadian Payments Act that expanded membership eligibility to include payment service providers (PSPs) supervised under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA). Neo Financial is a leading Canadian fintech company offering digital-first credit cards, chequing, high-interest savings accounts and mortgages and is the latest PSP to obtain Payments Canada membership. "As we continue to expand our member base, we're proud to welcome Neo Financial as part of the next wave of innovative Canadian companies working to modernize our payment landscape," said Donna Kinoshita, Chief Payments Officer at Payments Canada. "The continued addition of diverse perspectives from payment service providers like Neo into our member base will, alongside our existing members, allow us to ensure Canada's payment ecosystem evolves to remain inclusive and prioritize choice for Canadian consumers and businesses." "Payments Canada membership marks another significant step in Neo's evolution as a key player in Canadian financial services infrastructure," said Jeff Adamson, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Neo Financial. "Having a direct voice in shaping how it evolves puts us in a position to be in direct control of our roadmap to build better and faster for the Canadians we serve. We're proud to help modernize the systems that power the payments that touches every Canadian." Payments Canada members are able to have a direct voice in policies and rules that shape the Canadian economy. With the expanded eligibility to Payments Canada membership, new PSP members are also eligible to apply to participate in Canada's national payment infrastructure. All members that apply for participation on its systems must meet rigorous technical, operational and security requirements in order to ensure the continued safety and resilience of these systems. Eligible organizations are welcome to explore the benefits of membership and contact Payments Canada at [email protected] for more information. About Payments Canada. Payments Canada enables prosperity, productivity and safety for Canada through trusted, critical national payment infrastructure. As a public-purpose, not-for-profit organization, Payments Canada own and operate Canada's critical national payment systems: Lynx, its high-value payment system; the Automated Clearing Settlement System (ACSS), its retail batch payment system; and the forthcoming Real-Time Rail (RTR). Payments Canada establish the by-laws, rules and standards that govern these systems, which cleared and settled $103 trillion in 2025 - more than $411 billion every business day. Transactions that pass through its systems include debit card payments, pre-authorized debits, direct deposits, bill payments, wire payments and cheques. In collaboration with its diverse membership, Payments Canada continue to modernize Canada's payment ecosystem to promote innovation, competition and deliver efficiencies that power a modern economy. For media inquiries, please visit Payments Canada's media centre.

Neo Financial has completed a $150 million inaugural credit card securitization with BMO Capital Markets and SAF Group, marking its first entry into institutional capital markets. The transaction provides committed capital to support the continued growth of Neo's credit card portfolio. The deal brings together two Calgary-based companies: Neo Financial, a technology firm building consumer financial products, and SAF Group, one of Canada's leading private credit firms. BMO Capital Markets structured the facility to meet Neo's specific needs. Founded in 2019, Neo Financial has raised over $650 million in funding and serves more than one million customers across Canada. The company offers credit cards, savings accounts, investing, mortgages and financial solutions for over 10,000 business partners nationwide.