Toronto-based FinTech firm Questrade Financial Group has revealed a suite of new investment offerings as it looks to pick up the pace on product development and double down on advanced retail traders, the most engaged segment of its customer base.
“Many of you told us that we need to do more, faster. I hear you, and I agree.”
The 14 new tools include a browser-based advanced trading platform, custom indexing and portfolio rebalancing, cash-secured puts, educational offerings, balance sheet and cash flow tracking, and moves into gold investing and private markets (ahead of an eventual expansion into cryptocurrency).
For Questrade, they come as part of a push to keep up with competitors and provide Canadians with a better user experience, more tools, and low-cost, diversified digital investment options. The newly minted bank plans to share more details about how banking fits into that vision in the near future.
Questrade shared the news today from the company’s first product showcase at Toronto’s Design Exchange, which it dubbed “The Dawn of Investing.” This marks the first event of this kind that Questrade has ever held.
In an exclusive interview with BetaKit ahead of the event, Questrade chief product officer Hwan Kim said that the company had been planning this showcase for some time, as it responds to feedback from customers who want the company “to do more for them faster.” Kim said Questrade intends to host similar events on a regular basis going forward, with the next edition set to take place in Vancouver in the coming months.
“Many of you told us that we need to do more, faster,” Questrade founder and CEO Edward Kholodenko said on stage. “I hear you, and I agree.”
Questrade’s new product announcements include offerings geared towards helping more sophisticated, active traders do more, as well as ones intended to make investing more accessible for the less experienced. “We really want to focus on customers who are putting in a lot of effort and time to build a better financial future,” Kim said. “To me, that’s a mindset.”
Kim said on stage that Questrade clients have been asking for some of these products and features for years, adding, “Our journey to become your best partner started with catching up.”
Decades-old firm faces new competition
Established in 1999 by founder and CEO Edward Kholodenko, Questrade was one of Canada’s earliest FinTech companies and one of the first to offer a digital investing platform. Since then, Questrade has rolled out more sophisticated digital investing tools, but the space has become more crowded and competitive, featuring Canada’s big banks on one side and other domestic and foreign FinTech players on the other.
During this time, Questrade has also expanded from an online brokerage to a company that offers banking, consumer lending, and real estate products and services, thanks to a slew of acquisitions it made over the past six years.
Rob Galaski,
“Questrade has a history of being very quiet, very reserved, you might even say reclusive.”
Questrade
Today, Questrade and its 2,000-person team caters to millions of Canadians and holds over $85 billion CAD in total assets under administration (AUA) and assets under management (AUM), up from approximately $9 billion back in 2019. Self-funded through retained earnings, Questrade is profitable. The Globe and Mail reported late last year that Questrade was generating over $300 million USD in annual revenue. While Questrade president Rob Galaski did not share the firm’s current yearly sales with BetaKit, he claimed that they are “substantially greater” than that amount.
During a media preview BetaKit attended last week, Galaski argued that the 26-year-old firm was an initial leader in Canadian FinTech innovation but said there were some years when Questrade “probably could have and should have done a lot more.”
“Questrade has a history of being very quiet, very reserved, you might even say reclusive,” Galaski added. But he emphasized that Questrade is now ready to build a deeper relationship with its customers, something that the company hopes to achieve through events, existing media, and an in-house publication.
Galaski referred to today’s showcase as an introduction to the “new, revitalized version of Questrade,” calling it “just the beginning.” He indicated that Questrade has been putting in the work to back this up with product development, claiming that the company has released more products in 2025 than in the previous seven years combined. “Inside our house, the pace that we work at is furious,” Galaski said.
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This year, Questrade has already introduced zero-commission pricing for online trades of Canadian and US equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), fractional shares, a dividend reinvestment plan, overnight trading, and cash-secured puts.
These moves come amid increasing pressure from Toronto FinTech and online trading competitor Wealthsimple, which began hosting its own product showcases earlier this year, just hit $100-billion CAD in AUA, and recently announced a $750-million financing at a $10-billion valuation. American peer Robinhood is also looking to move into Canada through its acquisition of Toronto cryptocurrency firm WonderFi.
Galaski told BetaKit that he sees room for both Questrade and Wealthsimple and believes that it is a good thing that both are challenging Canada’s big banks.
Kim echoed that sentiment. “I do appreciate that we have a good competitor,” he said. “I think having a pacemaker in any race is an awesome thing … It’s a great thing for Canadians.”
Reaping the rewards of retail investing
Retail investing has been on the rise over the past decade, and more Canadians have been looking to manage their own savings and retirement planning. This has benefited both Questrade and Wealthsimple. Questrade, which has carved out a strong presence among advanced traders, hopes to “double down” on investors who are looking to become more sophisticated.
Questrade Pro, which the company plans to begin rolling out in beta to waitlist registrants in the next two weeks and received the largest cheer from attendees, gives advanced traders modern charting, advanced visualization, new options capabilities, and artificial intelligence (AI) analysis tools. This December, Questrade will launch gold-buying. These come in addition to cheaper, volume-based options pricing. The company is also making its trade support desk available to more active investors.
“If you’re an active trader, there is no better platform in Canada than Questrade in your quest to maximize your performance,” Kim argued on stage.
“If you’re an active trader, there is no better platform in Canada than Questrade.”
Hwan Kim, Questrade
Questrade plans to follow this up in early 2026 by launching custom indexing and portfolio rebalancing capabilities. (Custom indexing lets investors build personalized ETF-like portfolios of individual stocks to mirror market indices.) The firm also intends to offer clients access to private equity, private credit, and pre-initial public offering investment opportunities next year.
As Questrade rolls out these products and services, Galaski argued that Questrade is looking to build from a strong foundation. “There’s more serious trading that happens on a per-client basis on our platform than any other competitor in the country, and last year, our clients generated more than $12 billion CAD in net gains due to our pricing, our features, and our performance,” he said. “Those are the types of statistics that we care about when we talk about making Canadians more financially successful and secure.”
For new investors and traders who are looking to level up, Questrade also intends to make bite-sized learning modules available through Trade School to help them learn more about the world of investing.
“We do want to make sure, regardless of where you fall on [your investing] journey, we are doing the right things for you,” Kim said.
Disclosure: Wealthsimple vice-president of payments strategy and chief compliance officer, Hanna Zaidi, sits on BetaKit’s board of directors.
Feature image courtesy Questrade.