After the hype years of 2020 and 2021, BNPL provider Klarna is struggling badly. After the massive down-round and mass layoffs, the Swedish unicorn has to report today a pretty tough first half of 2022. As a result, the operating loss has tripled compared to last year's period.
US-based Argyle (website), which aims to help businesses and institutions access employment data, has laid off several employees across all departments. The figure cited by Argyle does not include contractors who may be affected by the layoff. The startup raised a $20 million Series A in October 2020 and announced that it was processing 10 million user employment records per month.
At the beginning of July, the Hamburg fintech Rubarb had surprisingly filed for insolvency. Behind the company are Fabian Scholz and Jakob Scholz, the nephews of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. In the past, the two founders had repeatedly used their relationship with the SPD politician for marketing purposes.
At the beginning of June, Berlin-based fintech Vantik had to file for insolvency. The fintech launched in 2018 with mobile savings accounts for young adults and put paid-in amounts into its own fund, from where the capital is invested in a globally diversified ETF portfolio. Vantik announced that the investment fintechs Evergreen and Vivid are taking over its clients' securities accounts.
While the global tech industry is reeling from massive layoffs as startup funding declines, the U.K.'s largest unicorn is bucking the trend and going on a hiring spree. Revolut is increasing its workforce by 20%, including in the division of its digital assets, which has continued to grow despite the general market downturn. Business slowed after the Covid-19 pandemics, but Revolut still saw a 30% increase between July 2021 and July 2022.
Silicon Valley-based online broker Robinhood has laid off 23% of its workforce, just three months after the fintech platform cut its workforce by 9% amid global economic turmoil. The latest layoff wave would mean that about 713 employees would be let go, leaving nearly 2,400 employe
Berlin-based neobank Vivid Money has closed its staffed Moscow office. "We have more or less stopped office operations in Moscow," stated co-founder Alex Emeshev "We also can no longer fund the office from outside." Founded by former managers of Russian Tinkoff bank, Vivid had a large team in Moscow, with many developers based in the Russian capital. Because of the Ukraine war, fintech has moved employees out of the country.
Swedish payment service Klarna also feels declining investor interest in fast-growing and loss-making fintech companies. The company said in Stockholm on Monday it had secured $800 million in new financing, equivalent to a valuation of $6.7 billion. That means the company has lost about 85% of its value in a year.
