Flutterwave, Africa’s payments technology company, has announced the layoff of approximately 30 employees, representing about 3% of its workforce.
Focusing on a strategic transition to bolster its core revenue drivers — enterprise payments and remittances, the layoffs were communicated to employees during a company-wide town hall meeting on Monday.
In a statement, CEO and Founder Gbenga Agboola explained the rationale behind the decision: “At Flutterwave, we’ve continued to build solutions that enable us to be the bridge between Africa’s payments landscape and the rest of the world, helping multinationals across the world drive growth in Africa and African businesses take flight across the world. By the end of 2023, we made a data-backed decision to recommit resources to our core business; enterprise payments. We also committed to doing more with our growing remittance segment; Send App.”
The company confirmed that the layoffs were necessary to align its resources with its strategic priorities. “After a thorough analysis of our strategic priorities, including a renewed focus on enterprise customers and remittances, we came to the conclusion that some roles within the organization are redundant.”
Employees impacted by the layoffs are associated with products that the company is no longer pursuing. Flutterwave has committed to providing substantial support to the affected employees during this transition.
“We will pay an average of 3 months gross salary, depending on the country where the employee is based. We will also be monetising their unutilised accrued leave days,” the company stated.
Additionally, Flutterwave is offering several benefits to ease the transition for departing employees. These include continued access to professional training platforms for 12 months, free outplacement services for 3 months, an additional 6-month vesting period for stock options, and 3 months of free healthcare and mental health support.
Agboola stated his gratitude towards the departing employees, acknowledging their contributions to the company. “Thank you for joining us on this journey. I need you to know that we’ve got your back and will give you a smooth transition.”
The layoffs follow a reshuffling of Flutterwave’s C-suite in 2024 and the closure of its consumer-facing product, Barter, in March.
These changes are part of Flutterwave’s broader strategy to simplify operations and improve operational efficiency as it prepares for a potential public listing. “Since our founding eight years ago, we have not had to implement a workforce reduction plan, but it became a necessary step in this instance in order to align our current resources with our go-forward strategy and improve our operational efficiency,” the company said.
In an interview with Semafor in April 2024, Agboola highlighted Flutterwave’s long-term goals: “Right now our goal is to be IPO-ready, ensuring we have the right corporate governance in place, making sure we are operating well. We want to be a long-term company in Africa, for Africa – and so the goal is building the right infrastructure to be here for the next ten-plus years.”
Despite the layoffs, Flutterwave is actively hiring for key senior roles in risk, compliance, engineering, data, and finance to bolster its renewed focus on enterprise payments and remittances.
The company is also working on operationalizing additional licenses for its remittance service, SendApp, to expand its reach to more countries for both senders and receivers.
Agboola concluded with a message to the remaining employees: “Some of your friends, colleagues and team members are leaving and we understand how difficult it is to process this news. While we will continue to adapt to the data-driven needs of our business, we understand that you make things happen and you are Flutterwave.”
He also announced a comprehensive compensation review, with upward adjustments to base pay and a new performance-based bonus structure.
