Fintech Platform Tickertape Sacks 30% Workforce In Restructuring Exercise

Fintech startup Tickertape has sacked nearly 30% of its workforce, or 29 employees, as part of an internal restructuring exercise.

“Today was one of the most difficult days for me professionally – we at Tickertape had to let go 29 of our colleagues as part of a restructuring exercise,” Tickertape founder and CEO Ujjwal Ankur said in a tweet.

As per the startup’s LinkedIn page, it has a workforce of 100 people. 

Without mentioning the teams impacted by the layoffs, Ankur said that the 29 employees are immediately available to join other companies across multiple verticals. He also reached out to fellow cofounders online for hiring the impacted employees.

Ankur termed the retrenchments an ‘unfortunate but necessary’ step in the company’s path to become financially sustainable.

“An emotional day today, but the future is promising and time heals all wounds,” added the fintech startup’s CEO. 

Founded in 2015, Tickertape is an investment-focused content and analytics platform. It offers a one-stop-platform for tools and services that enable investors to delve deeper into stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. It operated as an entity of fintech startup Smallcase till November 2021 when it raised a funding of $5 Mn. Later, it was spun off as a separate entity in the same year. 

The layoffs are likely the result of mounting losses and the ongoing funding winter in the Indian startup ecosystem. Tickertape raked up a loss of INR 16.4 Cr in FY22, while its revenue stood at INR 3.01 Cr. 

With the layoffs, Tickertape has joined a growing list of fintech startups that have fired employees in the past few months. Last week, neobanking platform OPEN fired 47 employees while buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) soonicorn Simpl dished out pink slips to 120-150 employees.

Teen-focused fintech platform FamPay also witnessed multiple top-level exits while it also culled its workforce by 50. Fintech ZestMoney was also said to be laying off nearly 30% of its workforce as part of a cost-cutting exercise after its planned acquisition deal with PhonePe fell through.

While fintech continues to be the choice of sector for investors, global macroeconomic headwinds, coupled with adverse market conditions, have dried up funding. In a bid to consolidate operations and focus on profitability, many fintechs have resorted to mass layoffs and shelving expansion plans.

Despite the hurdles, fintech startups raised the highest amount of capital in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 even as funding during the period declined 75% YoY to $3 Bn.