Andrew Chau & Jeff Adamson: From Skipthedishes to Neo

Andrew Chau and Jeff Adamson, co-founders of Neo Financial, transformed a fintech idea into a Canadian unicorn valued over $1 billion by leveraging their entrepreneurial experience, timing, and bold execution. After selling SkipThe-Dishes for $200 million in 2016, these guys launched Neo in July 2019 from Calgary with a singular mission to take on Canada's stagnant banking sector with a digital-first approach. Chau, as CEO, envisioned a user-friendly platform that has high-interest savings accounts, fee-free credit cards, and cash punishments. Meanwhile, Adamson, heading partnerships, secured key alliances such as Hudson's Bay and Tim Hortons.

Their strategy emphasized aggressive growth in a rapidly changing market. As a result of starting out with a small core team, Neo would grow quickly to over one million customers in 2022. They were spurred on by a new $185 million Series C round that elevated the company to at a valuation of 1 billion dollars and above. It was no surprise that investors such as Valar Ventures, Peter Thiel's venture fund, saw potential in this disruptive model. Profoundly, but avoiding industry groupthink, Chau's reason to build in Calgary was to remain radically innovative. Adamson extended Neo's reach to 11,000 merchants by building retail partnerships.

Neo hit 650 employees by 2022, mirroring the SkipTheDishes playbook with hiring the product launching, and focusing on customer value, all within record time. Come 2024, a $360 million Series D, led by Shopify's Tobi Lutke and Slack's Stewart Butterfield, would highlight this momentum. Chau and Adamson's mixture of vision and agility with partnership prowess has created Neo as a contender for an entire generation in fintech that world-class tech can be viable outside the hubs of finance in Canada.