BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Popular challenger bank, Kuda, based in Nigeria and the U.K., has joined the ranks of tech companies in Africa that are laying off some of its workforce.
The news of the layoffs was confirmed by Kuda via email, saying it laid off less than 5% of its 450-strong workforce, or about 23 people.
The company’s numbers are small compared to other layoffs that have taken place within the African tech ecosystem over the past few months, especially among startups that have raised vast sums of venture capital within the last year or two.
Other African tech companies that have laid off staff include: Swvl, which laid off 400 of its workforce; Wave which pruned approximately 300 staff; 54gene sacked 95 and Vezeeta relieved 50 of its staff from their duties.
It could be recalled that in July, Kuda went on a hiring spree for designers, but the company held a town hall meeting last month, and cut down seemingly redundant roles and dismissed non-performing staff to reduce costs.
Meanwhile, it was just last August that the digital bank, which provides zero to minimal fees on cards, account maintenance and transfers and is one of Africa’s soonicorns, raised $55 million which it planned to use to not only double down on new services for Nigeria but also to prepare its launch into more countries such as Ghana and Uganda, in a Series B round that saw it valued at $500 million.
The company, having raised more than $90 million in total from investors such as Valar Ventures and Target Global, is also planning an expansion outside Africa to Pakistan.
It recently hired Pavel Khristolubov, an ex-Tinkoff executive, as its global chief operating officer and Elena Lavezzi, a former Revolut executive in Europe, as chief strategy officer, to oversee efforts in this regard and also grow its over 4 million customer base.
