Also:

• 🔥The great layoff

• 😓 Norwegian fintech is struggling financially

• 🇸🇪 Stacc goes to Sweden

• ❌ Modalz modalz modalz

🔥 The great Layoff

2022 is becoming the year of layoffs. Fintech companies are under pressure to reduce expenses due to rising interest rates, concerns about an impending recession, and a sudden drop in venture investment. This is causing layoffs at many fintech firms, including some of the industry's most prominent players:

• Klarna laid off 700 people this spring

• Coinbase cut 1 100 jobs (18%) in June and 60 in recruitment last week

• Stripe has announced that they are laying off 14% of its workers, impacting around 1 120

• Robinhood has scaled down by firing 713 employees just three months after it reduced its headcount by 9%.

• Meta is laying off more than 11 000 employees (13%)

• Twitter laid off half the company's 7 500 full-time employees on November 4 and cut thousands of contractors last weekend.

On Layoffs.fyi you can follow all tech layoffs since COVID-19. The data is compiled from public reports and shows that in 2022, 850 tech companies have laid off 136 989 employees.

In a press release, Stripes founders say: “We were much too optimistic about the internet economy's near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown."

In this context, I find Jason Fried’s essay on company size rather fitting: «Building complex, large organizations is a choice, not a requirement.» He compares his company, Basecamp, with 80 employees, to their competitors, which have from 1 500 to 3 000 employees to deliver more or less the same product.

I’m sorry for all the people that have lost their job, but when you hear stories about people being “Overemployed”, and juggling multiple jobs in the companies above, it was only a question of time before something drastic happened.

😓 Norwegian fintech is struggling financially

The Finance Sector Union of Norway together with Ontogeny Group have taken a closer look at both economic development and the various segments within the Norwegian Fintech market from 2020-21. Some of the key findings that stood out:

• Very few companies make a profit and few companies grow large

• The overall value creation from Norwegian fintech decreased by over NOK 100 million from 2020 to 2021

• None of the Fintech categories made money in 2021

• Blockchain companies are growing, but have significant losses

• Almost half of the operating losses in total come from a few companies: Among others: Vipps, Zwipe, Kron, Neonomics, NBX, and Eedenbull.

• The 10 largest companies measured by revenue drive 82% of the fintech companies' total operating revenue. (Among them Stacc 😉)

You can read the whole report here

🇸🇪 Stacc goes to Sweden

But all is not dark: This week we announced that we have entered the Swedish market and acquired The Farm Interactive AB:

Geir Nordrik, CEO of the Stacc group.

❌ Modalz modalz modalz

To end this week on a happier note: Here is a beautiful one-pager explaining why you should reconsider using modals, and how you can use modals right if you first use them:

We use too many damn modals. — modalzmodalzmodalz.com

All the reasons you don't need a modal — and what to use instead.

That's it for this week 👋

Remember, if you’re enjoying this content, please tell all your (fintech) friends to hit the subscribe button! If you have some feedback, you can always just hit reply!

Marius Hauken, partner Stacc X