Partior, a Singaporean blockchain fintech firm, is the newest startup backed by state-owned Temasek Holdings to be hit by job cuts and staff exits.
Tech in Asia reported that the startup had lowered its headcount in July, going from over 130 to now 90 staff members. This comes after the termination of round 30 workers and the exit of some from the management staff.
A big a part of this layoff may very well be attributed to Partior’s buyers, who made it clear that their help would solely be given “under the condition of a tighter and more focused use of the investment”.
It is a assertion included within the termination letter issued to axed workers, which Tech in Asia reportedly reviewed. The layoffs primarily affected workers in Singapore, the place the startup relies.
In an interview with Tech in Asia, Partior identified that the corporate’s “cost structure by far exceeds the income generated, which is unsustainable”.
These layoffs, although unlucky, had been “difficult but necessary decisions to best gear the company to realise scale and grow volume,” Partior added within the interview. It’s a part of the corporate’s efforts to maneuver from a startup to “a full-fledged scaleup”.
Is there an even bigger concern at hand?
Whereas we now have not personally reviewed the termination letter, Tech in Asia shared one other piece of data.
Within the termination letter, Partior talked about having encountered “greater challenges than initially anticipated in onboarding banks” and a transition of volumes to their platform that has taken longer than anticipated.
For context, Partior is an interbank community supporting multi-currency funds. What this implies is it allows monetary companies gamers (like banks) to entry interbank rails for real-time, cross-border, and multi-currency clearing and settlement.
Merely put, it makes cross-border transactions sooner with using blockchain expertise.
A part of the termination letter introduced up how Partior confronted “unforeseen technical hurdles” whereas navigating an unspecified new course of. Therefore, the startup wants time to resolve these points.
It’s unclear whether or not these technical hurdles are associated to the layoffs and worker exits, but it surely’s attention-grabbing to notice that they arrive not lengthy after the appointment of a brand new CEO.
Again in January, Partior’s then-CEO Jason Thompson abruptly left the fintech startup and was succeeded by Humphrey Valenbreder in Might. Humphrey was beforehand the COO of Bunq, a neobank based mostly within the Netherlands.
We discovered that some workers (or ex-employees) of Partior have posted un-raving critiques of the corporate on Glassdoor. Just a few of them really cited the brand new CEO’s entry as a “con”.
Some suggestions that they had included:
“New CEO lacking strong vision and strategy for the company.”
“The hard-built [company] culture will be gone with the new CEO.”
“No leadership and lack of management.”
New funds for brand new development
Collectively, this information is slightly surprising contemplating that Partior simply raised round US$60 million throughout its Collection B spherical in mid-July.
Primarily based on its press launch, the funds will allow the development of recent capabilities like intraday FX swaps, cross-currency repos, programmable enterprise liquidity administration, and just-in-time multi-bank funds.
“The investment will significantly support Partior’s international network growth and the integration of additional currencies, including AED, AUD, BRL, CAD, CNH, GBP, JPY, MYR, QAR, and SAR, into its network. Partior is currently live with USD, EUR, and SGD,” it mentioned.
The funding spherical was led by Peak XV Companions (previously Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and joined by Valor Capital Group and Bounce Buying and selling Group.
The Financial Authority of Singapore (MAS) performed a hand within the creation of Partior. It was a part of an experiment launched again in 2016 known as “Project Ubin” to discover using distributed ledger expertise.
Dictionary time: Distributed ledger expertise is a digital system for recording the transaction of belongings during which the transactions and their particulars are recorded in a number of locations on the identical time. Not like conventional databases, distributed ledgers haven’t any central information retailer or administration performance.
Tech Goal
Contemplating all of this, it’s not far-fetched to say that rather a lot is driving on Partior changing into successful. Whether or not or not the fintech startup rises to satisfy these expectations remains to be to be seen.
Be taught extra about Partior right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written about Singaporean startups right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Partior
