Andela is being reported to have done another round of layoffs as the company grapples with the recent economic downturn. They have laid off 135 of their staff across 4 locations.
The company’s CEO apparently led a company-wide video conference call attended by the over 1300 staff in the US, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Egypt. “While our customer base has held up better than most, the majority have still been impacted by the economic downturn,” Mr. Johnson said.
They confirmed to TechCabal that 50% of their partners are at risk due to the economic downturn. Andela apparently expects to see a decline in new customers this year due to the economic uncertainty.
This is their third round of layoffs that started in September of last year. In this round of layoffs, only Rwanda and Ghana were spared.
The laid off employees will receive a comprehensive severance package and 4 months of health coverage.
Apparently, no engineers were affected by the layoffs, but every other department was affected. This is due to the recognition by the CEO that the technology team is integral to the company’s strategic investments.
In addition to the layoffs, the company is also considering salary cuts across the board and freezing future hires. Apparently directors are taking cuts ranging from 10% to 30% depending on seniority. They’ll also cut down on operational costs to save $25 million, which adds to the $5 million they will save from the layoffs.
Last year on September, Andela let go of 420 junior engineers in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya where they attributed this move on focusing on senior and more experienced talent. At the time, Andela said that they had significantly more junior talent than they were able to place and that is why they were letting them go. In addition, at the beginning of this year, an unspecified number of employees were let go from Andela.
Andela was founded almost 6 years ago with the aim of overcoming the shortage of skilled software developers. In 2016, it made headlines where it received a $24 million investment from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, and in 2017, they received a $40 million Series C funding to fuel its expansion in Africa. In 2019, they received $100 million in a Series D funding round in January.
