For the second time this year, Robinhood is cutting workers. The company announced it would lay off 23 percent of its workforce. According to CEO Vlad Tenev, this will affect every part of Robinhood’s business but will mostly target “operations, marketing and program management functions.”
Tenev blamed a deteriorating macro environment, pointing to record inflation and the cryptocurrency crash as the primary reasons for the company’s recent troubles. He also acknowledged that the company overhired last year, assuming that retail investors would continue trading stocks and crypto assets at the rate they had during the early days of the pandemic. Before April when Robinhood laid off nine percent of its workforce, the company had about 3,800 people. “As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory – this is on me,” he said.
Robinhood also announced its Q2 results a day ahead of schedule, reporting a net loss of $295 million after revenue dropped by 44 percent year-on-year to $318 million.
In a letter to employees, Tenev said that Robinhood would transition to an organizational model where general managers would oversee broad areas of the company’s business. “This change will flatten hierarchies, reduce cross-functional dependencies, and remove redundant roles and positions,” he said. Tenev added that affected employees will be notified via Slack and email.
Source Engadget
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