Anthemis Group is present process a restructuring that resulted in its letting go of 16 staff, or about 28% of its staff, earlier this yr, the fintech-focused enterprise agency has confirmed to TechCrunch.
A spokesperson for London-based Anthemis stated the transfer was an effort “to higher mirror present market situations and to arrange the enterprise for future development” towards its “strategic priorities.”
The agency declined to say which roles have been impacted within the restructuring however a supply who wished to stay nameless pointed to Farhan Lalji, a former managing director of the agency, as being among the many group that was laid off, along with early-stage investor Swarnali Mitra and a person who served as each a content material and editorial supervisor. TechCrunch reached out to all three staff however didn’t obtain a response. Nonetheless, their LinkedIn profiles point out they’re not with Anthemis as of January and February of this yr.
Because the layoffs, Anthemis says it has made two new hires — an funding principal and head of mental capital — and presently has a workforce of 44 folks throughout Europe and North America. In April 2021, Jillian Williams left her function as funding principal at Anthemis to affix Cowboy Ventures as a companion. She initially joined Anthemis in July 2016 and helped open its U.S. workplace in New York.
Based in 2010, Anthemis at the moment has $1.5 billion in property beneath administration. The agency in late 2021 introduced that it had raised $700 million in new funds in what the spokesperson described as “a set of capital” it closed “throughout methods” from its enterprise studio by means of to its enterprise development fund.
The agency could now be narrowing its efforts.
“Our focus, now greater than ever, is round deploying monetary, mental and human capital in service of the monetary system enchancment and reinvention,” the spokesperson stated this month. “And I’ll say that technique continues to evolve.” She stated Anthemis stays dedicated to backing various founders and that it continues to “discover complementary merchandise” inside its asset administration enterprise.
This isn’t the primary time lately {that a} enterprise capital agency has let go of workers. Final June, Backstage Capital revealed it had downsized its staff from 12 to a few folks after pausing web new investments. Usually, although, it’s fairly uncommon for a enterprise agency to put off so many individuals at one time.
Anthemis declined to supply additional specifics round its technique transferring ahead or touch upon its returns, as an alternative pointing me to this blog post from co-founder Amy Nauiokas. Within the submit, Nauiokas writes that the agency goals to “translate 2022’s reckoning in personal markets into enduring change within the construction and technique of early-stage investing.”
She added: “With rates of interest rising throughout western economies, the ‘seek for yield’ that has sustained an epoch of our enterprise has formally come to a detailed.”
To this point this yr, Anthemis has publicly introduced just a few new investments together with: Flyby, Elevate (lead investor), Greenspark and Agreena. It additionally introduced a follow-on funding in Flock. The agency has additionally seen a few exits, together with Power being acquired by Marqeta and Goji getting picked up by Euroclear. Different firms in its portfolio embrace social funding app eToro, investing and financial savings app Betterment and insurtech Vouch.
However prior to now yr, Anthemis has additionally seen a few portfolio firms stumble. In November, controversy surrounding the sudden stepping down of three of Pipe’s co-founders, together with its CEO, raised eyebrows. And extra lately, LGBTQ+-focused digital financial institution Daylight was slammed with a lawsuit by three former staff “alleging age and wage discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and fraud.”
In the meantime, Anthemis is also “actively fundraising,” the spokesperson confirmed, however stated the agency couldn’t touch upon these efforts past that. It additionally declined to supply a remark in response to an allegation from one affected worker that the latest layoffs have been associated to challenges in getting capital commitments “on account of lower than high quartile returns.”
One particular person who wished to stay nameless confirmed to TechCrunch that she was notified about one week earlier than she was on account of begin a brand new place on the agency in January that the agency had “restructured” and that the function she was set to start out “not exists.” Nonetheless, she says she was “actually OK with the way in which it was handled and the way I used to be handled.”
The corporate’s present restructuring shouldn’t be the primary time there was a administration shakeup. The agency additionally made headlines in 2018 when its then-CEO and co-founder Nadeem Shaikh resigned after reportedly being the goal of a sexual harassment complaint by a feminine worker.
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