While we’re (hopefully) past the worst when it comes to fintech layoffs, we can expect more to come in 2024. The latest example comes from $12bn valued spending management platform Brex, which hired names from some big financial institutions and is now letting them go.
The fintech, which says it grew too quickly, is firing 20% of its ‘brexlings’ or around 282 of its employees. It’s also organized an alumni list, showing who’s out.
Some of those on the list joined Brex from hedge funds. Eugenie Li was a quantitative researcher at Balyasny, as well as California based fund Cerebellum Capital before joining Brex as a data scientist in 2021. Another Cerebellum alumnus, is manager of credit science, Lisa Borland. She left the fund for real estate fintech Zillow in 2021 and joined Brex a year later. Brex also hired graduates who had other options, like Kevin Li, who had internships at both Jane Street and Hudson River Trading, but chose Brex instead.
It appears the layoffs were sudden for many. Juhan Song, a product marketer, said he was left “Scrambling to hand off my work in the hour we had [and] missed the chance for a proper goodbye…” People and culture leader Tara Shelley said it “stung [her] ego” as she felt “entrenched” in the organization and “was receiving positive feedback.”
Brex’s last valuation was $12bn all the way back in 2021 and some industry experts are highly doubtful of that figure now. Yuechen Zhao, partner at VC firm GSR Ventures, estimates Brex’s value as “$800m, a 93% decrease from its peak.”
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