Clearco CEO Romanow steps down as firm slashes jobs
BNN Bloomberg
Canadian fintech Clearco – once a high-flier in this country’s high-tech sector – is undertaking another major round of layoffs and will replace the company’s co-founder Michele Romanow as CEO.
Clearco plans to reduce its workforce by another 25%-- just six months after a similar layoff at the company saw 125 employees let go. Romanow, who started the company in 2015 with four other founders and became CEO less than a year ago, will become Executive co-Chair and remain on the board. She is expected to be replaced as CEO by Andrew Curtis, who has been working as an advisor with the company for the past 6 months.
Toronto-based Clearco, whose official name is CFT Clear Finance Technology, lends money to people and companies based on revenue rather than assets.
The company is coming off a tumultuous year. Two years ago, Clearco embarked on an ambitious international expansion. But by the end of last August, the company announced it was exiting all international markets. At the time, the company blamed a combination of rising interest rates, inflation, currency swings and an overall slowdown in e-commerce, as well as supply chain constraints the companies it lends to were dealing with.
