Honestbee says CEO resigned

Honestbee CEO Joel Sng has just resigned, the embattled grocery delivery startup told employees today. The update followed rumors among staff and in the media that he had been fired.

Brian Koo, chairman of Honestbee’s board whose venture capital firm Formation Group is a major shareholder, will step in as interim CEO of the Singapore-headquartered firm.

Sng is “taking full accountability as CEO for the state of the company. That’s the main reason for stepping down,” Varian Lim, an Honestbee executive, told Tech in Asia.

CEO Joel Sng is stepping down.

Lim acknowledged the organizational issues that led to today’s state of affairs.

“We have grown very significantly in a little over three years. For a lot of organizations – from a structural, processes, standpoint – they’re always trying to catch up with the growth of the organization. We’re not dissimilar in that sense. It’s this gap that’s resulting in some of these problems,” he said.

“In light of the recent events, what really hit home was that there are problems in the organization that need to be worked on. And it shows up across different areas. Whether it’s to do with our business, our customers, our partners, and our employees.”

To address that issue, Honestbee will be setting up an executive team, co-founder Jonathan Low told us. “We’re moving from a single executive setup to a proper C-suite setup to improve from a transparency standpoint, culture standpoint, and engagement between the board and the team.”

Lim added: “We’re building towards having more openness and transparency, establishing very clear objectives and targets that will allow us as a company to share that from the top down to individual employees.”

Honestbee declined to share more details about the conversation that led to the resignation. “The discussions were between the board and him, we have no visibility there,” Low said.

If a company is heading in the wrong direction and the CEO needs to be replaced, it’s common for the board to ask the chief executive to resign because firing the person would be the last resort.

Honestbee added that the transition plan was put in place through a discussion involving Sng.

He is “pretty aligned to working with the board and the team to making sure there’s the best outcome for the company,” said Low. “It’s not as if there’s strong resistance or whatsoever. It’s all through a discussion. At the end of the day, it’s what’s best for the company. We’re aligned, we’ll do it. Everyone has to sign off on that.”

Moving forward, Roger Koh will step in as the chief financial officer. He previously headed legal and finance. Victor Chow will be the chief operating officer, Lim will report to the CEO as the chief of staff, and Low will be the chief technology officer.

The disclosure came a few days after constant speculation among employees regarding the fate of the CEO and company, which is laying off 10% of its workforce after a spate of resignations.

Sng’s office had been vacated over a period of a few days, sources told Tech in Asia. He was not seen at a townhall meeting on April 30, during which it was announced that new investment had come in and employees would be paid on time. The official explanation was that Sng was traveling.

After news of the alleged firing spread online, Sng sent an email to the team decrying it as “fake news.”

“I am not an abandon ship person and I will never leave the company to be rudderless,” he wrote.

The company was also in discussions with Grab and Go-Jek. Honestbee had earlier rejected a deal from Grab, and a source close to the discussions told Tech in Asia that a new deal both parties is unlikely.

The interim leadership team is conducting a strategic review of the business. Once that is done, it will “take the opportunity to articulate a clear vision for the future of honestbee,” Koo said in a media statement.