Afrigather Cowrywise, the YC-backed Nigerian fintech app that aggregates mutual funds for retail clients to spend money on, has laid off 5 folks throughout its advertising and marketing, engineering and buyer success groups.
“The corporate mentioned the terminated roles now not aligned with the corporate’s path,” one particular person acquainted with Cowrywise’s enterprise advised TechCabal. “Inner restructuring and evolving enterprise wants had been the explanation for the layoffs.”
Cowrywise, which employs 50 folks, confirmed that 5 roles had been terminated following an annual efficiency overview however insists there have been no layoffs.
“Lay-offs are often resulting from financial/enterprise efficiency causes, and this was not the case,” the corporate mentioned in an e mail to TechCabal.
Not less than one particular person with direct information of the enterprise painted an image of an organization that’s evolving. “Cowrywise shall be a completely totally different firm within the coming years and shall be extra of a finance firm than a fintech firm,” mentioned the particular person, who requested to not be named as a result of they weren’t authorised to talk on the matter.
Affected workers had been paid three months’ salaries as a substitute of 1 month’s wage dictated by their contract as a part of their exit packages, an uncommon transfer for folks fired for efficiency causes.
Based in 2017 by Edward Popoola and Razaq Ahmed, Cowrywise, a member of the YC’s Summer 2018 batch, has grown from launching with a financial savings characteristic to offering a number of funding alternatives to customers in Nigeria. Per TechCrunch, the startup has over 220,000 customers and raised a $3 million pre-Series A funding spherical led by Quona Capital in Jan 2021.
In 2021, it received a license to function as a fund supervisor from Nigeria’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC). In accordance with its web site, the corporate has 19 SEC-licensed mutual funds buyers can select from, and at the least 20% of the overall mutual funds within the nation are listed on its platform.
Cowrywise’s layoffs happen throughout the context of financial uncertainty throughout the Nigerian tech sector. A number of different tech firms have undertaken related measures in current months, highlighting the challenges of working a startup within the nation’s present macroeconomic circumstances.
