Flutterwave Lays Off 24 Employees Amid Strategic Restructuring
Flutterwave, a leading player in the fintech industry, has announced a significant workforce reduction, laying off 24 employees, which represents 3% of its total staff.
The announcement, made recently, is part of a broader strategic restructuring aimed at focusing the company’s efforts on its core enterprise payments and remittance businesses.This move by Flutterwave aligns with a global trend of tech layoffs that began last year and has continued into the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s CEO, Olugbenga Agboola, emphasized that the decision was data-driven and aimed at optimizing resources towards core business operations.
“We have rebuilt the teams to more efficiently utilize the opportunities in these markets,” Agboola said.
“Consequently, we’ve made the difficult decision to support the transition of 24 Wavers, accounting for 3% of our workforce.”
To mitigate the impact of the layoffs on affected employees, Agboola outlined a comprehensive severance package. This includes a minimum of three months’ gross salary, monetization of unused leave days, and access to professional development resources for up to a year.
Additionally, employees will receive three months of free healthcare and continued access to mental health and career coaching services for three months post-transitioning. For those with stock options, an additional vesting period of six months will be provided.
“We hope this softens the impact this sudden transition has on you personally and professionally,” Agboola added.
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For the remaining employees, Flutterwave announced a company-wide compensation review. This includes a market-aligned base salary increase for most employees and a new performance-based bonus structure tied to individual and team performance metrics.
Agboola stated that these changes were made in response to recent employee feedback and a thorough analysis of market trends, positioning the company competitively within the industry.
“A thorough market analysis was conducted to ensure that we are competitive within our industry and so a majority of you will see an upward adjustment to your base compensation,” Agboola explained.
“The new discretionary bonus structure will tie directly to individual and team performance and will be based on specific, measurable KPIs that align with our strategic goals.”
Flutterwave’s new compensation structure aims to place junior employees at the 95th percentile and senior employees at the 85th percentile in the market.
Despite the layoffs, Flutterwave is expanding its reach and capabilities. In May, the company received approval in principle for a payment aggregator license from the Bank of Mozambique, allowing it to extend its operations into southern Africa.
Additionally, Flutterwave recently partnered with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to build a state-of-the-art Cybercrime Research Center.
The company is also actively hiring for key positions in risk, compliance, engineering, data, and finance to bolster its core operations and is expanding its remittance service, Sendwave, to new markets. Flutterwave remains committed to personalizing its enterprise payment solutions to drive growth and innovation.
