Chipper Cash, the pan-African fintech that became Africa’s seventh unicorn in 2021, has confirmed that several employees were laid off at the end of last week. The cross-border payments platform conducted a round of layoffs approximately ten weeks ago when it reduced part of the engineering team.
According to a LinkedIn post from Stefano Pardi, the company’s V.P. of revenue, all areas across Chipper Cash’s markets were impacted this time.
“Friday was a sad day for Chipper Cash, as many talented people were let go. For my network: there is an incredibly talented pool of individuals across the U.S., U.K., South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and more.”
“They are all highly experienced in managing very complex, multicultural teams and projects in fintech. All areas have been impacted, from Recruiting, HR, Marketing, Pricing, Product, Analytics, UX, Research, Legal, and more.”
“If you are recruiting: look out for the Chipper Cash folks, you might have the opportunity of a lifetime to hire competent, passionate, and driven people into your team. They are all battle-scarred and experienced in scaling a business!”
“For my Chipper family, my network is open to you. Reach out/connect if you need help! I have been honored to work with many of you and I am here to support as I can.”
Read also: Layoff rocks ChipperCash as it fires a “significant amount” of IT and engineering staff
Chipper Cash didn’t confirm the exact number of roles affected. However, the CEO Ham Serunjogi hinted the local reports that claim that about 100 employees were let go are correct in a statement to TechCrunch.
Why Chipper Cash needs a smaller team
In the last three months, Chipper Cash has let go of over 150 employees as it concentrates on areas where it can thrive despite the unfavourable macroeconomic conditions that have plagued the global tech ecosystem.
“The last two years were a period of rapid growth and scaling for us as a business and, to reflect this, our global headcount grew by around 250 people,” said CEO Ham Serunjogi in a statement to TechCrunch.
“However, given the macroeconomic climate, we are narrowing our current focus to core markets and products – concentrating our efforts where we know we can thrive. With this hyper-focused prioritization, the reality is that we, unfortunately, need a smaller team at Chipper.”
Since last year, Jumia, Luno, Yoco, Meta, Twitter, Nestcoin, and several African-focused tech companies have terminated the contracts of several staff.
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