Vlad Tenev, CEO of stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood, said the firm is laying off 9% of its employees — roughly 350 people — as the company’s stock plunges.
According to a blog post, this decision had to be made due to changing customer behavior. The company monitors how its clients invest in the face of global conflict, economic uncertainty and high inflation. According to TradingView, the company’s shares are down 38% in the past 30 days.
However, Tenev said the firm is putting a lot of emphasis on automating workflows wherever possible. In addition, there are many positions in the company that overlap each other’s responsibilities.
According to the head of Robinhood, from 2020 to 2021, the company experienced a stage of rapid growth: its revenue increased to $1.8 billion, and the number of employees increased from 700 to 3,800. Tenev emphasized that this was largely due to the pandemic and low interest rates.
Now, as restrictions ease and the world begins to recover, pandemic-related growth is slowing. The company’s total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2021 was only $363 million, which is significantly lower than in the second and third quarters.
However, the company does not plan to cancel any projects – on the contrary, this year Robinhood is going to introduce its “key products” in the field of brokerage services and cryptocurrencies.
Last week, the company acquired UK-based licensed cryptocurrency service provider Ziglu to further its global expansion ambitions.
