Expense management fintech Pleo has laid off around 50 of its staff, according to reports.
Last week’s job cuts mostly affected those with engineering and data roles, including senior level staff, sources told Tech.eu.
Laid off employees were based in Pleo’s home market Denmark, as well as the UK and Germany, the site reported.
The cuts were across the fintech’s “offering” team, which includes product, tech, design and data roles and housed about 300 people before the cuts.
A spokesperson for Pleo says the company has been undergoing “significant” transformation over the past year.
“The proposed changes to our offering teams recently announced are part of this transformation,” the spokesperson says.
“They are designed to strengthen focus, simplify decision-making, and accelerate product delivery for customers, while reflecting the increasing role of new technologies in how product and technology teams operate.”
In September last year, Pleo’s CTO of business expense solution Meri Williams told Sifted AI would not replace junior engineers.
“I’m certainly not waving goodbye to half my engineers and hoping that AI will replace them,” she said. “I'm trying to make sure that they keep up and use it when it makes sense.”
The Copenhagen-based startup also laid off about 100 employees in its commercial team in November last year and 15% of its workforce in 2022.
Founded in 2015, Pleo offers company cards with spending limits for individuals and teams as well as automated expense reports for employees.
The fintech became a unicorn in 2021 when it raised $150m at a $1.7bn valuation, becoming Denmark's eighth unicorn and reaching the milestone faster than any of the others, in just six years.
