Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all startup layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic.
In case you missed it, our new Layoffs.fyi Severance Tracker tracks the details of severance packages offered by startups that have done layoffs. You can see how much each company gave in severance pay and healthcare coverage, whether they made any adjustments to employee stock options, and more.
On the whole, our analysis shows that the severance packages in COVID-19 layoffs have been more generous than in a typical employee termination — with some offering as much as 20 weeks of pay!
🏢 PaisaBazaar ∙ 🌎 Gurugram ∙ 👩 1,500 employees (50%) ∙ 🔗Source
- India’s largest online marketplace for lending products, PaisaBazaar’s layoff mostly affected its operations and business acquisitions teams. Paisabazaar has seen demand for new loans drop by almost 90% in some segments. Lenders have become more selective about who they approve, leading to fewer new loans originated. U.S.-based Credit Sesame and LendingClub have suffered from a similar trend here.
🏢 Grab ∙ 🌎 Singapore ∙ 👩 360 employees (5%) ∙ 🔗Source
- The largest ride-hailing startup in Southeast Asia, Grab is the latest in the category to cut staff, following layoffs at Uber (U.S.), Lyft (U.S.), Ola (India), and Careem (Middle East). Grab mentioned it would also be sunsetting non-core projects and redeploying staff to focus on its delivery business.
🏢 SynapseFI ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area∙ 👩 63 employees (48%) ∙ 🔗Source
- A startup that provides banking infrastructure to other fintech companies, SynapseFI also said it was shifting its customer-facing operations to San Antonio. Additionally, the company plans to move upmarket to serve larger enterprises, suggesting that its customer base of smaller startups proved to be too risky amid the coronavirus pandemic. In December, the company and its CEO were sued for gender and age discrimination.