Toronto company led by Dragon's Den star lays off a ton of staff

A Toronto-based company led by a Dragon's Den star is experiencing deep job cuts that similarly continue to plague the tech world. 

Canadian tech entrepreneur Michele Romanow is the co-founder and CEO of Clearco (f0rmerly Clearbanc), an e-commerce investor providing equity free capital solutions to e-commerce businesses. 

Romanow joined the cast of Dragon's Den in season 10, after founding Clearco in 2015 along with Andrew D'Souza, Charlie Feng, and Ivan Gritsiniak. 

Back in July, Clearco (or CFT Clear Finance Technology Corp.) cut 125 jobs or 25 per cent of its workforce. 

On Monday, another 50 people or 26 per cent were laid off, bringing the tech company's workforce down to 140 people. Job cuts affected all areas and levels, and represented a sharp contract to the 500-person-workforce the company boasted just last year. 

Romanow has decided to resign and become co-executive chair along with D'Souza. 

American finance-industry executive Andrew Curtis has been named as Clearco's new CEO, after taking on an advisory role in July 2022. Curtis has previously worked at major investment banks in New York including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lazard Frères. 

Back in 2021, Clearco achieved a valuation around US$2 billion, amid plummeting tech valuations and rising interest rates. 

Job cuts aggregators Layoffs.fyi found that over 1,000 global tech companies laid off over 150,000 employees in 2022. Two weeks into January, it has calculated another 104 companies making over 25,000 cuts.