Mark Lenhard, CEO of the British transfer platform Zepz.
Lukas Schulze | Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images
LONDON – The British digital transfer company Zepz dismisses dozens of IT employees and is the closing of business units in Poland and Kenya.
About 200 employees will be taken by the redundancy measures, told two employees who were made superfluous to CNBC and asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the case.
From January, Zepz-previously known as Worlddremit-one worldwide known as a worldwide workforce of 1,000 people, which means that the dismissals will affect around 20% of his total workforce.
The dismissals influence various IT functions at the company, including database administration, development activities and software engineering, the former employees said.
ZEPZ confirmed to CNBC that it reduced the workforce to “sustainably support the next phase of long -term strategic goals”. The company refused to comment on the number of employees affected by the dismissals, explaining a spokesperson that the redundancy process was underway.
“After the successful completion of the replatforming efforts, reinforced by advanced automation and AI, ZEPZ started a strategic initiative to optimize activities throughout the organization,” a ZEPZ spokesperson told CNBC per e -mail.
“This transformation has strengthened the Technology Foundation and reduces the need for certain operational and technical capacities, which led to a proposed reduction of roles as part of the general plan,” the spokesperson added.
Zepz has been advertised as one of the fintech treasures of Great -Britain. The company was founded by Ismail Ahmed, a British entrepreneur born in Somalia who fled the country during the Somali civil war. Ahmed serves today as a non-executive chairman of the company.
The group was renamed ZEPZ after the takeover of money transfer platform Sendwave in 2020, in which the brand and Worlddremit came under one parent company.
‘Difficult choice’
CNBC obtained a company memo in which the cost -saving measures were announced internally in January by Zepz CEO Mark Lenhard.
“Today we announce a very difficult decision – proposed reductions in our team in all head office functions, and most regions. And in particular we put the closure of our Kenya and Poles employed by entities,” Lenhard said in the Memo .
Zepz Touts himself as a “remote employer”, with regional offices in Kenya and Poland.
“This is a difficult choice that influences the lives of our colleagues and friends. This is also a choice that is crucial for the success of our mission to serve immigrants everywhere. Both facts are at the same time,” Lenhard said.
“To be clear, this is not a change in strategy. We double our mission in an attempt to expand our impact faster,” he added. “In some places this means that we have to continue to prioritize ruthless priority. In others we will become more efficient. In many cases it will mean that today we reconsider how we do things.”
The spokesperson for ZEPZ insisted that the IT employee’s dismissal “will not have any influence on customers in a region or market”, and added that the company “is committed to his migrants to serve worldwide, stimulate innovation And to deliver meaningful financial solutions to millions worldwide. “
This is not the first time that Zepz has cut a wave of roles to save on costs. In 2023, Zepz fired 420 employees, who at the time were approximately 26% of his global workforce. Later that year, Zepz cut another 30 roles for his people and marketing functions.
ZEPZ has long been advertised as a potential IPO candidate, but a timeline for this is unclear. Counting the will of Accel, TCV and Leapfrog as investors, the startup was valued at $ 5 billion in 2021. The company announced a financing round of $ 267 million last year.
ZEPZ is confronted with competition from various remarkable players of digital payments, including PayPal” WiseRevolut and Remtly.
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