Neo Financial ranks first for the second year in a row in LinkedIn’s sixth annual list of the top 15 startups in Canada as FinTech and AI startups dominate.
The list, revealed on Wednesday, returns Neo Financial to its previous spot at the top while Float, founded in 2021, debuts in second place.
First cracking the rankings at fourth place in 2021, Neo Financial has held steady at first place for two years now. After a year of gathering numerous corporate partnerships through its bet on embedded finance, Neo joins fellow FinTech startup Wealthsimple as the only companies to place first on the list more than once.
To compile the list, LinkedIn says it takes data across four pillars: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement within the company and its employees; and how well startups pull talent from the LinkedIn top companies list.
LinkedIn adjusted its eligibility requirements for this year’s list, lowering the age criteria from seven years to five years or younger in order to feature more companies in their earlier, venture stages of growth.
In its blog post, LinkedIn highlighted difficulties faced by startups this year, such as venture capital deals in Canada dropping by 71 percent on an annual basis in the first quarter, higher interest rates, and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
Despite that, the list reflects the resilience of FinTech and artificial intelligence (AI) startups, with just over half of the ranked startups involved in either of those sectors.
Float, debuting at second place this year, announced a “2.0” corporate credit card in May. Like Neo, Float also looked to corporate partnerships to power through the economic downturn.
Nesto, a digital mortgage brokerage founded in 2018, just cracked the list at 15th in the last year it possibly could as LinkedIn’s new definition will no longer consider it “a startup” going forward.
The third place Cohere was one of Canada’s busiest companies in 2023 and no stranger to high ranks. Positioned as a rival to OpenAI, this year it secured a $270 million USD Series C and was the highest-ranking Canadian startup on Bessemer Venture Partners’ list of top 100 “deep technology” companies.
AltaML, ODAIA, and SantuaryAI are also all notable Canadian AI startups that made this year’s list.
LinkedIn’s full 2023 ranking of Canadian startups can be seen below:
1. Neo Financial
2. Float
3. Cohere
4. Fable
5. ODAIA
6. Felix
7. AltaML
8. PurposeMed
9. Novisto
10. Vessi
11. Conquest Planning
12. Summit Nanotech
13. Sanctuary AI
14. Makeship
15. Nesto
Feature image courtesy Neo Financial