Singapore robo adviser StashAway has laid off 14% of its staff but two of its major rivals say they are not planning to follow suit.
A spokesperson for StashAway confirmed to Asia Asset Management (AAM) that the firm laid off 31 employees over the last two months, but didn’t immediately respond to further questions.
The five-year-old firm, which secured US$25 million of Series D funding from a group of investors led by US venture capital firm Sequoia in April 2021, recently set up shop in Hong Kong after expanding to Malaysia and Thailand over the last three years.
The selloff in global technology stocks has seen companies in the sector, both large and small, cut staff as markets are battered by concerns over rising inflation and rate hikes, continued supply chain constraints, and fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Endowus and Syfe, two other independent robo advisers in Singapore, say they haven’t reduced headcount.
Sebastian Sieber, Syfe’s chief marketing officer, acknowledged that current market conditions make it a challenging time for investors.
But “wealth accumulation is a long-term commitment and we continue to believe in the importance of building a platform where individuals access high quality solutions to grow money efficiently and affordably”, he tells AAM.
Endowus is still hiring “selectively”, according to Chief Executive Officer Gregory Van, who says there is “greater fluidity in terms of talent movement right now – either from downsizing activities by other companies or the talent’s self-driven desire to explore new opportunities” and therefore “we are confident that we would be able to fill most of the roles”.
“We are selectively hiring for roles in tech and engineering, product, client experience, marketing and more,” he tells AAM, without providing specific details of the current and planned headcount.
Launched in 2019, Endowus has over S$1.5 billion (US$1.08 billion) of assets under advice as of end-2021. Syfe, which is also set up in 2019, has 100,000 customers in Singapore as of first quarter this year.
StashAway, which was launched in 2017, has over $1 billion of assets under advice.
