Oriente staff decry abrupt dismissal, unpaid salaries as Vietnam and Indonesia units shutter

Hong Kong-headquartered Oriente has shut down its Vietnam operations and wound down its business unit in Indonesia significantly.

Faced with a funding crunch, the fintech firm, which runs multiple subsidiaries in Southeast Asia including Cashalo in the Philippines and Finmas in Indonesia, laid off dozens of employees between June to December 2022.

Many of these axed workers are still owed salaries.

Skype and Oriente co-founder Geoffrey Prentice / Photo credit: RISE (cc2.0)

Despite raising US$20 million in debt financing to grow its loan book in the Philippines in March 2020 and another US$50 million in a series B round a month later, Oriente has struggled to bounce back after its offline lending business was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the startup has tried to launch new products and business lines since, fundraising difficulties had shortened its runway and drove its new leadership team to drastically slash costs, multiple sources told Tech in Asia on the condition of anonymity.

The startup was established in 2017 by Geoffrey Prentice, a co-founder of communications app Skype; Lawrence Chu, founder of investment firm BlackPine Private Equity; and Hubert Tai, founding member of online lending platform Lu.com.

In 2021, about a year after major layoffs at the firm, Oriente appointed William Zee as president. Tai, who was also Oriente’s CEO, stepped down from his role in 2022.

Terminated staff owed salary

In Vietnam, around 20 workers at Slash, a buy now, pay later service that was rolled out in 2021, were left jobless after the business was abruptly shuttered in July 2022.

Employees were informed that Oriente had “run out of money” to sustain Slash’s operations and that they would be paid as soon as the parent company secures funding.

Staff in Vietnam were notified about the closure last May and forced to terminate their employment contracts, according to a source familiar with the matter. They are owed between 1.5 to 2.5 months’ worth of salary, including their severance.

Oriente had promised to disburse the money by September 2022, but employees have yet to receive their pay.

In Indonesia, the staff cuts took place in December 2022, though Tech in Asia understands that Oriente employees who were laid off had received their salaries and severance.

According to LinkedIn, Finmas employs 126 people. But as of December 2022, just three employees remain across the legal, human resources, and general affairs team, according to several sources who know the situation.

Long Covid

“Too many things at once”

Holding out for hope