African cross-border payments platform Chipper Cash last Friday carried out a second round of layoffs just ten weeks after cutting around 12.5% of its workforce (affecting its engineering team the most).
The company’s VP of Revenue shared the news on LinkedIn, saying “all areas” of Chipper Cash’s markets have been hit this time. “Friday was a sad day for Cash shredderbecause many talented people have been made redundant,” his message read. “For my network: there is an incredibly talented group of people in the US, UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, etc. They are all very experienced in managing teams and projects very complex and multicultural in the fintech space. All areas have been affected, from recruiting, HR, marketing, pricing, products, analytics, user experience, research, legal, etc. .
According to several local outlets, Chipper Cash has relieved nearly a third of its workforce, or around 100 employees. Chipper Cash did not confirm the exact number of affected roles when contacted by TechCrunch, but said the reports were relatively accurate. Thus, in addition to the first wave of layoffsThe five-year-old payments and crypto startup has laid off more than 150 employees in the past three months to cut costs amid a torrid time for private and public tech companies around the world.
“The past two years have been a time of rapid growth and evolution for us as a company and to reflect this our global headcount has grown by approximately 250 people,” CEO Ham Serunjogi said in a statement. at TechCrunch. “However, given the macroeconomic climate, we are restricting our current focus on key markets and products – focusing our efforts where we know we can thrive. With this hyper-focused prioritization, the reality is that we unfortunately need to a smaller team at Chipper.
Additionally, Chipper Cash denied reports that it closed its crypto department, which houses crypto products, one of its three main products, including FX and airtime. “Chipper is one of the biggest crypto platforms in Africa today, and it remains one of our fastest growing products. We are excited about the future of crypto in Africa and continue to invest in the product,” Serunjogi added.
Serunjogi founded Chipper Cash in 2018 with Maijid Moujaled to provide Africans with a peer-to-peer cross-border payment service with no fees. The company claims to have more than 5 million customers in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya – and more recently in the US and UK, where the startup backed by FTX expanded last year to facilitate peer-to-peer movement of money from both countries to parts of Africa.
Last November, the African cross-border payment app announced that it acquires Zambian fintech True to expand into southern Africa. And the following month, following the bankruptcy of FTX, we reported that the African fintech, which has raised over $300m from investors including defunct crypto exchange, SVB Capital and Ribbit Capital, has seen its valuation reduced by $2bn to $1.25bn, according documents showing Alameda’s venture capital portfolio.
Chipper Cash adds to a list of Africa-focused crypto businesses and firms that have laid off employees in recent months, including Jumia (900 employees), Yoco (15% of its workforce, according to sources), and moon (35% of its workforce).