Revolut announces redundancy of 60 employees due to coronavirus
Revolut has dismissed roughly 60 employees as part of its “cost savings” strategy during coronavirus.
CEO Nikolay Storonsky told staff about the cuts on 10 May, according to Financial News sources.
The neobank confirmed the news, telling FN it “had to make cost savings, where possible, since the lockdown”.
Storonsky told the FT last week that the fintech was “cash rich”
“We have made every effort to protect every job, with initiatives such as salary sacrifice, but despite these efforts [we] have now had to announce redundancy of around 60 roles across our 2,200 strong workforce globally,” a spokesperson said.
The bank says those it has let go will get a personal letter of recommendation from Storonsky.
Until now, Revolut had managed to avoid dismissing employees, unlike rivals such as Monzo, which shut its Las Vegas office at the beginning of April, laying off 165 employees.
Read more: N26 lays off 10% of New York-based workforce
German neobank N26 made nine employees redundant in its New York office last week.
In April, Revolut offered staff shares in the fintech in return for pay, working out at £1 in pay for every £2 in shares. Co-founders Storonsky and Vladyslav Yatsenko also gave up their salaries for a year.
Despite the current economic downturn, Revolut is still vying for profitability by year end. Storonsky also revealed to the Financial Times just last week that the fintech is looking to spend some of its half a billion-dollar funding round landed in February on acquisitions.
“A lot of travel aggregators are in trouble at the moment — we could probably purchase one and sell flight tickets at cost and be 10-15% cheaper than everyone else,” the CEO told the FT.
“This is not just blue-sky thinking — we’ve just done a fundraising, we’re cash rich.”
But “cash rich” or not, the fintech has still let go of 60 employees. Revolut has not revealed which jobs it made redundant, despite FinTech Futures’ attempts to find out more.
Read next: Revolut seeks acquisitions with struggling travel firms
