Irish tech unicorn firm, Wayflyer has announced that it is to cut 40 per cent of its global workforce with the loss of 200 jobs.
The company on Wednesday confirmed that 70 layoffs will take place in Ireland where the company currently employs 220 people.
The 200 jobs cuts at Wayflyer will bring its total headcount back to where it was ten months ago — around 300 people.
The company is planning to relocate 10 roles from the US to their Dublin headquarters so the net reduction in Ireland will be around 60.
On the lay-offs, co-founder and CEO of Wayflyer Aidan Corbett said: “We tried to scale our organisation very aggressively over the past 15 months, and in hindsight, we tried to do too much, too soon.”
He said: “We are sorry to be losing many great colleagues, who have helped Wayflyer become a market leader in revenue based finance. However, we are now facing a challenging macroeconomic environment and this change will put the company in a stronger financial position to execute its plans for 2023 and beyond.
“We have notified the appropriate government officials and will soon enter into a consultation period for roles at risk of redundancy this month. We are providing transition and benefits packages with the goal of making the transition as supportive as possible for impacted teammates,” he added.
The job losses at Wayflyer are the latest to hit the tech sector in Dublin where Stripe, and the owner of Facebook, Meta, have already confirmed job losses.
The job cuts at Wayflyer come only nine months after the company became Ireland’s sixth unicorn, after raising $150 million in funding to achieve a $1.6 billion valuation, and doing so in just two-and-a-half years.
Wayflyer provides revenue-based financing and marketing analytics for online businesses, and the job losses follow Wayflyer’s Irish unit recording post-tax losses of €22.28 million in 2021 arising from expansion costs.
Numbers employed at the Dublin based Wayflyer Ltd last year increased more than five-fold from 15 to 85, as staff costs soared from €1.7 million to €9.4 million including share based payments of €842,788.
The firm didn’t respond to a request for comment on Tuesday on the impact the current round of tech losses might be having on the company’s prospects.
Staff were briefed at 9am on Wednesday by Mr Corbett and co-founder Jack Pierse on the job cuts.
Wayflyer said on Tuesday that the firm has enjoyed substantial growth in 2022.
Already this year, the company has secured over $550 million worth of debt from world-leading financial players including J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse, while also expanding into several new European markets.
