London fintech unicorn latest to cut staff, except in one team
As banks and tech firms continued their cuts, fintech layoffs hit a bit of a lull in recent months, that is, until $2.1bn valued London payments firm GoCardless announced it was cutting 15% of its headcount, approximately 135 people. These cuts will encompass 25% of the senior leadership team.
While the UK, US and Asia-Pacific teams will be in danger, GoCardless has explicitly stated its aim to protect its French team. It's not just been keeping its French incumbents safe, it's been hiring consistently in 2023 too.
GoCardless has been adding junior salespeople in France this year. Clara Anifrani, Marina Desplanches, Salvador Arguello and Fanta Diaby all arrived and are less than three years out of university.
The account executive team in France has grown too. Axel Mouterde joined from HR consultancy Combo and Hicham Bouzernidj arrived from legal solutions firm DiliTrust. Other French hires include demand generation manager Carolina Villegas and customer success manager Poppy Newell.
Interestingly, there appears to be a distinct lack of technical and engineering staff in France. Instead, GoCardless is also moving a number of roles to Latvia, where tech pay in particular is much lower. A level 4 software engineer on Levels.fyi in Riga reported a compensation of $53k this January; in London, the average level 3 engineer is $114.1k in 2023.
GoCardless' severance package also appears somewhat underwhelming compared to industry peers like Coinbase. However, two months pay, equity until leaving date and eligible bonuses is still far better than what some banks offer now.
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