It seems that yet another Nigerian tech startup has fallen victim to the ongoing wave of layoffs. Quidax, a cryptocurrency startup, in a statement to its community, just laid off 20% of its staff.
Following this, is the recent 30% reduction in employee salaries, with team leaders seeing a 50% decrease, with the understanding that the reduction would only last for three months.
While some have attributed the company’s crisis to its partnership with BigBrother Naija, the Nigerian startup, in a message to its community on the changes at Quidax, said, “Following the economic downturn around the world, we have had to make some tough decisions at Quidax. We had to say goodbye to 20% of our exceptionally talented people. We deeply value our people and it has not been an easy decision to make.”
There were also speculations (I believe on social media) that the reduction in staff strength was because FTX filed for bankruptcy. To this, Quidax has said, “We have no financial relationship with FTX. All customer funds are safe and insured through an insurance cover from our custody partner. We are not going anywhere, anytime soon.”
Quidax is not leaving the affected employees to their woes. Below are the following it wishes to give as support in their transition;
- A severance package for each affected employee.
- Health insurance for affected employees and their families.
- Salary In-lieu of notice – Affected employees will be paid for the notice period they would have had to give if they had resigned.
Interestingly, the management at Quidax is ready to connect affected employees to other companies “within the fintech space”. ‘If you would like to hire some of these amazing people, please reach out to us at alumni@quidax.com,” said Quidax.
African entrepreneurs Buchi Okoro (CEO), Morris Ebieroma (CIO), and Uzo Awili (CTO) established the cryptocurrency exchange Quidax to facilitate the buying, selling, storing, and sending of digital currencies.
In less than three years, the company has processed $3.2 billion in transactions as of May 2021. With the release of the QDX platform, the company also secured $3 million in funding.
It was one of the main sponsors of BBNaija: Level Up, the seventh season, and recently introduced popular Nigerian record producer Don Jazzy as its brand ambassador.
