Partior’s tough breakup with staff

IN FOCUS

In today’s newsletter, we look at:

• Temasek-backed Partior laid off staffers following fresh funding 
• Blockchain’s new use case in the world of AI

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Hi there,

I’ve recently been replaying the video game Frostpunk. For those unfamiliar, it’s a city-building survival game that forces you to make tough, often heart-wrenching decisions.

As the leader of a community of survivors in a frozen wasteland, your every move could mean the difference between life and death for your fellow citizens. Should you impose longer work hours to keep the generator running or prioritize their health at the risk of freezing?

The dilemmas are brutal, and the consequences are immediate. But this kind of high-stakes decision-making obviously isn’t exclusive to video games.

In our Big Story this week, we dive into the recent layoffs at Temasek-backed blockchain startup Partior. The company, much like the survivors in Frostpunk, found itself backed into a corner, forced to cut costs just after securing a conditional series B funding round.

It’s a reminder that in both games and real life, survival often demands uncomfortable trade-offs.

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Temasek blockchain startup trims team amid technical troubles

Singapore-based Partior terminated around 30 employees in July, significantly reducing its headcount. This was followed by the resignation of several more staff, including key members of its leadership team.

The three-year-old startup has faced “greater challenges” than it had anticipated in onboarding banks despite being backed by major financial firms such as JPMorgan, DBS, and Standard Chartered. Meanwhile, its losses have continued to balloon as it attempts to scale. But the problems don’t seem to stop there.

Blockchain adoption gets a boost from AI

Having jointly founded Partior themselves, it’s easy for JPMorgan and DBS to quickly get on board with Partior’s solutions. JPMorgan, in particular, has been leading the charge in adopting blockchain technology.

The US bank has been running its own private blockchain network, called Onyx, since 2020. In a recent interview, its CEO Jamie Dimon claimed that the bank is very likely to be one of the biggest actual users of blockchain technology.

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