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Putra Muskita · · 4 min readHappyFresh in limbo with delayed salaries and ‘inactive’ top execs
Jofie Yordan contributed reporting to this story.
Indonesia-based regional e-grocery startup HappyFresh has reportedly appointed a turnaround firm to review its troubled finances. The news comes just over a year after the company raised US$65 million in a series D round co-led by Naver and Gafina.
On one hand, this may come as a surprise, considering the rise of the e-grocery segment thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A HappyFresh personal shopper / Photo credit: HappyFresh
However, according to current and former employees Tech in Asia spoke to, there have been whispers of problems over the last few months that have since led to concrete measures. August salaries are currently on hold for some employees, and there is little visibility on whether September salaries would be paid out.
Meanwhile, management announced during a September 2 town hall that CEO Guillem Segarra, COO Christoph Krauss, and senior vice president for finance and people Frederic Verin had become temporarily “inactive” in their roles. HappyFresh also confirmed with Bloomberg that some senior executives “have stepped aside from active duty pending further clarity.”
DealStreetAsia has also reported that the company is laying off staff, though it’s unclear how many employees are affected.
Tech in Asia has reached out to HappyFresh for comment.
Delayed salaries, hiring freeze
Tech in Asia understands that managers were asked to start reducing costs in late June due to worsening global macroeconomic conditions. This includes a freeze on hiring contractors as well as recruiting new team members for the first half of 2022.
On August 15, the company formally announced in an all-hands meeting that it would let go of all contractors and that it was facing financial issues.
Guillem Segarra, CEO of HappyFresh / Photo credit: HappyFresh
On August 23, the company organized another all-hands meeting, where management announced that August salaries were on hold indefinitely.
According to our sources, leaders had originally planned to announce whether HappyFresh would have to cease operations or not on August 26, but that meeting was canceled.
Vertical-wide woes
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The news comes just over a year after the company raised US$65 million in a series D round.
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