Staff departures, write-offs at Temasek startups uncover deeper issues

Three years after Temasek began its journey into venture building, it seems to have hit some hurdles with three of its startups: GoodWorker, Trustana, and Affinidi.

Trustana appears to have lost over 40% of its staff this year, while over one-third of Affinidi’s staff apparently exited the company, according to Linkedin data, which isn’t always precise but does signal trends.

Documents seen by Tech in Asia show that Affinidi offered a voluntary separation scheme (VSS) around June to July to employees.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

In addition, the staff count of LemmaTree – the parent firm of these three startups – has dropped by roughly 50% to 16 people, with departures mainly from the HR and other compliance teams, Linkedin data shows. The few that remain in LemmaTree are largely working in its investment team.

LemmaTree group CEO Glenn Gore and Trustana CEO Rebecca Xing didn’t respond to Tech in Asia’s questions.

However, the company has issued a statement that this was part of a “strategic reorganization of Affinidi, Trustana, and GoodWorker this year,” and that as a group, they “have been committed to supporting our staff that were impacted by the reorganization and will continue to ensure everyone is treated fairly and respectfully.”

The layoffs and exits may have resulted from deeper issues plaguing these Temasek startups, as losses mount and some struggle to find product-market fit.

GoodWorker shuts for good

In March, GoodWorker, which ran a blue-collar job platform, laid off nearly 90% of its employees and the remaining 10% were absorbed into Affinidi, a blockchain startup that creates verifiable digital identities.

Glenn Gore, group CEO of LemmaTree and CEO of Affinidi / Photo credit: Affinidi

Tech in Asia has observed that the website of GoodWorker Technologies – a joint venture (JV) between GoodWorker, Indian edtech firm SchoolNet, and Bollywood actor Sonu Sood – had been taken down.

Proceedings to wind down the startup have begun, according to LemmaTree’s 2022 filings on Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority website. Temasek wrote off its investment in the JV firm and recorded an impairment loss of US$17.6 million in 2022.

(Impairment loss is the drastic reduction in the recoverable amount that a company can get from an asset.)

Troubles at Trustana

The last branch of LemmaTree

Still some arrows in the quiver