Amsterdam-based neo-broker BUX has laid off roughly 40% of its workforce amid a funding drought in the fintech sector.
Backed by Tencent, BUX provides brokerage services across Europe and the UK. The firm raised $80m in April 2021 in a funding round that included Tencent, ABN Amro Ventures and Prosus Ventures.
Amid 2021’s meme-stock hype, interest in BUX soared. However, things started going downhill in 2022 and left its CEO Yorick Naeff with no choice but to cut jobs and restructure, he said.
“There was a lot of focus on growth, so we positioned ourselves accordingly by hiring people in the growth team. But in 2022, we noticed that raising capital was becoming difficult so we had to take difficult decisions,” Naeff told Financial News.
“The biggest change that we had to go through was to let go a lot of personnel. In total, we have laid off around 40% of our workforce since December,” he said.
Naeff said that the job cuts were part of the firm’s broader restructuring plan, which includes exiting cash-burning regions, including the UK where it has around…
