Xendit lays off 5% of employees in Indonesia and the Philippines

Termination of employment aka layoffs again pursued by Indonesian startups. This time from Xendit, the startup that won the title unicorn last year. This decision was taken by the company because of the uncertain macroeconomic situation, which forced the company to do rightsizing team structure and resources.

“Xendit always tries to prepare the best business plan, but the current uncertain macroeconomic situation forces us to do rightsizing team structure and resources. This is based on a progressive business strategy looking at the situation ahead, and has gone through comprehensive considerations to ensure that we are ready to face the challenges and opportunities in the future," said Xendit Co-Founder & COO Tessa Wijaya in an official statement.

He continued, doing rightsizing team is a very difficult decision, but it must be taken to optimize the company's position in the short and long term. 5% of Xendit employees in Indonesia and the Philippines were affected by the decision.

Quote from RevoU report, Based on data from LinkedIn Premium Insights, last year Xendit was ranked 9th out of 10 Indonesian technology companies with the highest number of new employees, namely 307 people. Xendit hired 307 new employees with a growth percentage of 104,78% compared to the previous year. This figure certainly does not count the number of new employees Xendit in the Philippines.

Xendit expressed his commitment to assist affected employees during this transition period. They will receive compensation and the process is carried out in accordance with the laws and regulations. Tessa's compensation was not specified.

"We also provide other additional benefits for the affected team to help them, such as an extension of the health insurance period, psychological assistance assistance and will also curate the list of Xendit alumni to help the affected team find jobs faster."

Tessa also made sure that despite doing rightsizing, has no impact on Xendit's business continuity. The company remains a digital payment company in Indonesia and the Philippines, and is committed to continuing to build payment infrastructure in Southeast Asia.

“Xendit has grown well in recent years through the contributions of various parties, especially from our dedicated team who have contributed to building Xendit to where it is today. We really appreciate all the efforts in making Xendit what it is today," he concluded.

Series D . Funding

Earlier in May 2022, the company closed series D pendanaan funding $300 million led by Coatue and Insight Partners, with participation from Accel, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins, EV Growth, Amasia, Intudo and Goat Capital. It is estimated that the company's valuation soared to more than $2 billion following this funding.

Since embracing the label unicorn the company is actively developing business outside the payment gateway business. Among other things, announcing an investment in Bank Sahabat Sampoerna and offering services banking-as-a-service (BaaS). Next, enter the MSME segment by releasing a SaaS solution to help business actors manage product inventory; there is also an "Online Store" business application to facilitate activities social commerce.

Although this fintech service has great opportunities in the midst of increasingly massive business digitization, to win the market a platform must have a strong value proposition. In the payment gateway service, Xendit is dealing directly with a number of players. Among them, there is Midtrans which is currently under the auspices of the GoTo Financial group. There are also DOKU, Fazz, Faspay, Duitku, and several others.