Flinks co-founder Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf at its Montreal offices in 2019. He and fellow co-founder Frédérick Lavoie left the company in 2024 after it was acquired by National Bank of Canada.Christinne Muschi
The founders of a Montreal-based startup say a lawsuit launched by National Bank of Canada NA-T and financial technology company Flinks is an attempt to discourage investors from providing financing.
The data aggregation startup Deck Software Inc. made the claim in a legal reply filed Tuesday in the Superior Court of Quebec. National in 2021 bought a majority stake in Flinks, which was run by co-founders Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf and Frédérick Lavoie.
But more than a year after they departed in 2024 to focus on Deck, National filed a $5.7-million lawsuit against the pair and their new startup, alleging they violated a non-competition agreement.
In the court filing, Flinks co-founders Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Lavoie allege the lawsuit by National and Flinks is “frivolous” and “abusive,” and its purpose is to harm Deck’s reputation and business, “in particular by deterring potential investors.”
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Deck creates software that allows users to grant permission for third parties to access data from any online portal, including utility bills and payroll platforms. It builds AI agents that act on behalf of a user in login-protected websites. Unlike chatbots, which perform simple tasks, agents autonomously perform multistep jobs.
The filing claims that Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Lavoie – who resigned from Flinks in June, 2024 – were transparent with the bank and the fintech about their plans and that the companies accepted Deck’s activities. Deck alleges that National had approved an investment in the startup in the spring of 2024. Deck has not yet received any funding from the bank, according to Mr. Leboeuf.
“With the level of transparency we’ve acted on since day one, such as sharing the pitch deck that addresses all of the use cases we would envision, we don’t think there’s any ground to their claim,” Mr. Leboeuf said in an interview.
Last year, Deck raised US$12-million following a US$4.5-million in seed-money round in 2024.
Flinks’ managers in 2018: Frédérick Lavoie, then-chief operating officer; Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf, then-chief executive officer; and Julien Dubé-Cousineau, then-chief technology officer.submitted photo
Mr. Leboeuf said others in the fintech community have expressed their support for Deck since National and Flinks filed the lawsuit. The court filing includes a letter from Martin Leclair, an employee of Wealthsimple Technologies Inc., saying that he does not perceive Deck as a competitor to Flinks or other financial data aggregators. In an e-mail, a Wealthsimple spokesperson said the opinion does not express the views of the company.
National spokesperson Alexandre Guay said the bank would not comment as the matter is before the courts.
National acquired a majority stake in Flinks – which provides the technology that connects fintechs to banking data – as part of its open banking strategy. Open banking is a term for a new set of rules that would enable financial institutions to exchange information more efficiently and securely, and provide consumers with more control over how they share their financial data.
In December, National and Flinks filed a lawsuit against Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Lavoie, claiming they gradually abandoned Flinks to launch a competing startup. While National allowed Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Lavoie to engage in other projects, the bank said the pair presented Deck as a data aggregation company in sustainable development.
The co-founders registered the new company in 2021 and gradually disengaged from Flinks from 2023 to 2024, according to the lawsuit. When Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Lavoie left Flinks in 2024, Deck started offering financial data aggregation services, going beyond the scope they previously disclosed to National Bank, the lawsuit alleges.
National and Flinks also asked the courts to order the startup to stop any business that involves financial data aggregation.
None of the claims in the filings have been proven in court.
This article has been updated to include a statement from Wealthsimple noting that the opinion expressed in the letter included in the defense filing was submitted by a Wealthsimple employee but does not express the views of the company.