Chipper Cash Cuts Staff but Keeps Crypto Operations

Pan-African FinTech Chipper Cash has reportedly laid off more than a third of its staff.

“Friday was a sad day for Chipper Cash, as many talented people were let go,” Stefano Pardi, the company’s vice president of revenue, wrote on LinkedIn.

He was referring to what TechCrunch says was the second round of layoffs at the company, which has now reportedly let go of 150 workers between December and last week.

According to Pardi, the layoffs affected several departments at Chipper Cash, a cross-border payments provider. These include human resources, marketing, recruiting, product, pricing and analytics.

CEO Ham Serunjogi told TechCrunch the job cuts followed a two-year period in which the company’s headcount grew by about 250 to meet an era of rapid growth.

“However, given the macroeconomic climate, we are narrowing our current focus to core markets and products — concentrating our efforts where we know we can thrive,” Serunjogi said, per the report. “With this hyper-focused prioritization, the reality is that we, unfortunately, need a smaller team at Chipper.”

PYMNTS has reached out to Chipper Cash for comment but has not yet received a reply.

Serunjogi told TechCrunch that there is no truth to reports that the company is shuttering its cryptocurrency operation.

“Chipper is one of the largest crypto platforms in Africa today, and it remains one of our fastest-growing products,” he said, per the report. “We are excited about the future of crypto in Africa and continue to invest in the product.”

PYMNTS noted last year that Chipper Cash was one of several African startups with ties to FTX or its sister firm Alameda Research.

The company was valued at $2 billion in 2021 after raising more than $150 million from investors that included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions.

Co-founded in 2018 by Serunjogi and President Maijid Moujaled, the firm specializes in app-based, no-charge, peer-to-peer (P2P), cross-border payments in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

The layoffs follow a boom year for tech startups in Africa, as investors poured $6.5 billion into that sector, according to a January report by venture capital firm Partech.

That report also showed that African firms largely escaped the global funding drought in 2022, with startup investment — across 764 deals — rising 8% compared to 2021.

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