Tausi Insider

Two more fast-growing Canadian tech startups, TealBook Inc. and Symend Inc., have slashed their workforces in an effort to keep costs in check amid economic uncertainty, the latest cuts in a sector that has shed nearly 128,000 jobs this year. Calgary-based Symend, whose software is used by telecommunications companies and banks to improve collection rates from delinquent customers, laid off 13 per cent of its staff this quarter and now has 234 employees, CEO Hanif Joshanghani said in an interview. The company also said Thursday it had raised US$40-million in fresh capital. Meanwhile, Toronto-based Tealbook this month cut 19 per cent of its workforce, or 34 jobs, less than a year after the supply chain software startup raised US$40-million in its most recent venture capital funding. “The market has changed dramatically,” TealBook CEO Stephany Lapierre said on a blog announcing the cuts. “Access to capital has decreased by a much as 80 per cent and raising additional capital in this en...

Symend's co-founders, chief marketing officer Tiffany Kaminsky and CEO Hanif Joshaghani Handout SYMEND Calgary | Founded 2016 Growth rate: 4,366% You know that feeling you get when the phone rings, invariably just as you’re sitting down for dinner, with a curt–verging-on-aggressive reminder that you’re late paying your phone bill? That feeling akin to...rage? Chances are the call isn’t coming from Symend. The software maker works on behalf of telecom providers, banks, utilities and other companies, using a blend of artificial intelligence, behavioural science and good old-fashioned empathy to nudge customers into paying their overdue bills. Collecting on late payments is a huge problem for companies—not just because they’re missing out on money owed to them, but because if they handle the process poorly, they risk losing customers, which can ultimately be even more expensive. That’s where Symend comes in: It claims its clients get back 10 times their investment from using its pla...