Engineers leave Indonesian fintech unicorn Xendit

Xendit office / Photo credit: Xendit

At least 18 engineers have left Xendit since September, according to several sources, with the bulk of departures happening this month and last.

This comes after the fintech company confirmed in August that it laid off a “small number” of staff from its product team.

The latest wave of exits cuts across roles, including senior employees and managers in the software engineering team. Most of them are based in Singapore, and some are in Indonesia.

Tech in Asia has reached out to Xendit, but the company declined to comment. The firm, however, appears to be hiring, having posted 42 job openings on LinkedIn as of the time of writing.

Xendit’s layoff in August was part of a restructuring “to ensure faster delivery of product, change how silos interact, and lower the amount of communication overhead,” the firm said at that time.

The company also stated that the move had less to do with revenue or cost reduction and more about improving the speed of software development and generating “accountability within engineering processes.”

Last year, the payment gateway firm also laid off 5% of its employees in Indonesia and the Philippines due to an “uncertain macroeconomic situation.”

According to LinkedIn data, Xendit’s headcount peaked around the second half of last year.

The startup last raised funding in May 2022, when it secured US$300 million in a series D round led by Coatue and Insight Partners.

Xendit, which has been a unicorn since 2021, has raised a total of around US$500 million since its inception, according to Tech in Asia data.

In the past two years, it has been expanding its services in Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, the company entered the Malaysian market and invested in local player Payex. It is also eyeing Thailand and Vietnam as potential new markets.

See also: New unicorn Xendit, rivals double down on regional play