Nigeria-based embedded finance startup OnePipe is the latest African startup to conduct layoffs.
According to sources close to the company, at least 20% of the company’s 38 employees were laid off last week as a result of what CEO Ope Adeoye described as “macroeconomic factors”.
Affected employees will receive two months of severance pay, per the terms of their contract. Adeoye, in an email confirming the layoffs to TechCabal, also revealed that the startup’s leadership team will be taking salary cuts.
OnePipe is one of the African startups that held deposits in the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). While US regulators have announced that all depositors will be reimbursed, sources close to OnePipe said the situation prompted more urgency within the company. Adeoye said the company will now focus on specific initiatives and “cut back several experimental projects”.
Meanwhile, the company recently closed a $4.8 million credit line from pan-African investment firm, TLG Capital. The deal, which had been in the works since the third quarter of last year, will power the startup’s inventory finance solution for small businesses.
“[We received] a revolving line [credit] specifically required to fund inventory finance for small shops via the FMCG distributors that work with us and the terms do not give us the latitude to use it for anything else,” Adeoye said.
OnePipe hopes to leverage the investment by TLG Capital to expand operations and become a premier provider of financial services to Nigeria’s informal sector in Nigeria.
