Float secures nearly $100 million in debt to expand credit products for Canadian businesses

Toronto-based Float Financial has secured nearly $100 million CAD in debt as it hopes to expand the scope and flexibility of its financial products for Canadian small businesses.

“We all want the Canadian economy to win.”
Rob Khazzam
Float

Float said the new funds, which the company announced today, will allow it to continue offering four-percent interest on client deposits, and scale its interest-free credit product for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients. The FinTech startup raised the debt through two facilities—$75 million from Silicon Valley Bank, which is now a division of Raleigh, NC-based First Citizens Bank, and $20 million from an undisclosed Canadian Schedule I bank.

“The capital is not for Float’s coffers,” Float co-founder and CEO Rob Khazzam said in an interview with BetaKit on Friday. “It’s capital that we enable our businesses to deploy and spend.”

Founded in 2019, Float offers a suite of products designed to simplify expense management for SMEs, including corporate cards, accounting services, and expense-tracking software. In September, the company launched chequing-style business accounts, hinting at its broader ambitions of tackling banking services for SMEs, many of whom have reported feeling underserved by traditional banks in Canada, according to a Float report.

More than 5,000 Canadian businesses, including fellow startups Cohere, Neo, and Jane Software, are Float customers, the company says. Float is registered as a money services business with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

Float is framing its new funding as a mechanism to help its Canadian SMEs clients get more flexible with their spending. According to its State of Canadian Business Report released last week, which draws on data from thousands of Float customers, average revenue for businesses grew in 2025—but so did the cost of goods and operating expenses. Fewer Canadian companies are investing in growth, the report said, and profitability metrics are taking a hit.

Float’s attention to the needs of Canadian businesses has been paying off, Khazzam said. He claimed the startup’s customer base grew by 60 percent year over year, and that its revenue grew by roughly 70 percent. Khazzam claimed that the introduction of its chequing-style business accounts, giving customers an alternative to big banks, was a “huge accelerant” for customer growth.

According to Khazzam, businesses are looking for saving time and money through automation, accessing the best interest rates, and accessing the most capital.

SVB has been a long-term partner for Float, before and after the bank’s collapse in March 2023. First Citizens purchased much of SVB’s business, while National Bank acquired SVB’s Canadian loan book. After securing $10 million in debt from SVB as part of its Series A round in 2021, Float raised a $50-million credit facility in 2024, which Khazzam said was a “huge success.” Float is again using the funds to expand its Charge product, an interest-free credit facility with no personal guarantee required that allows businesses to spend then repay on 15-day or month-long timelines. The demand for the product has grown, Khazzam said, and the debt will allow Float to onboard more customers and raise credit limits for existing ones.

With the new funds also comes an opportunity to expand the team. Float currently has roughly 150 employees, and Khazzam said it’s hoping to hire 50 to 60 more over the next year in product engineering, data, and design roles. Following apparent layoffs on the partnerships team at e-commerce giant Shopify this week, Khazzam posted on LinkedIn inviting those who lost their jobs to reach out about operations roles at Float.

The news comes as corporate spend management competitors eye Canada as an expansion market. US-based Ramp, which was valued at $32 billion USD in November, appears to be making moves into Canada, based on LinkedIn hiring posts.

Instead of looking elsewhere, Float is doubling down on a distinctly Canadian approach, with no plans to expand into the US or other jurisdictions anytime soon.

“We all want the Canadian economy to win,” Khazzam said.

Feature image courtesy Nicole Richard from Wax Pencil Imagery.