Wayflyer became Ireland’s sixth unicorn earlier this year following a meteoric rise. It also recently increased its Dublin staff fivefold.
Months after achieving a $1.6bn valuation in February, Irish e-commerce company Wayflyer has made the decision to layoff 200 of its staff worldwide, including 70 in Ireland.
Wayflyer currently employs around 220 people in Ireland. The layoffs will bring its total global headcount back to where it was 10 months ago at 300 people.
As part of the restructuring, 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.
Aidan Corbett, co-founder and CEO of Wayflyer, 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.”
“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.”
Corbett added that the company has notified appropriate government officials and will enter into a consultation period for roles at risk of redundancy.
“We are providing transition and benefits packages with the goal of making the transition as supportive as possible for impacted teammates,” he said.
In the past few years Wayflyer has experienced record levels of growth, making it one of a handful of Irish unicorns, or companies with a valuation of greater than $1bn.
The unwelcome news about layoffs comes following a major increase in headcount at Wayflyer, with the company increasing its Dublin staff by more than fivefold in the past year.
In September, Wayflyer secured $253m in debt financing from Credit Suisse which it said at the time it intended to use to grow its business further.
In May, the company secured $300m in debt financing from JP Morgan.
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Source by www.siliconrepublic.com
