Anthemis Group, one of the leading actors in the world of innovative financial services, has laid off 28% of its workforce, which is 16 employees, as it completes restructuring at the company.
The company disclosed that the downsizing of its workforce was necessitated in a bid to better reflect current market conditions and to set up the business for future growth against its strategic priorities.
Anthemis however failed to disclose which roles were impacted, but an insider familiar with the incident disclosed that a former managing director of the firm was among the group that was laid off.
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Since the layoffs, the company has made two new hires, an Investment Principal and the Head of Intellectual Capital, and currently has a team of 43 people across Europe and North America.
The VC firm which currently has $1.5 billion in assets under management in late 2021 raised $700 million for embedded fintech startups, in what a spokesperson described as a collection of capital it closed across strategies from its venture studio through to its Venture growth fund.
Founded in 2010, Anthemis is a global platform that cultivates change in the financial system by investing in growing and sustaining businesses committed to resiliency, transparency, access, and equity. In 2016, the firm made the first close of their inaugural fund at $60m, with the aim of reaching $100m to exclusively invest into FinTech companies.
The venture investment platform is founded on three guiding principles which are authentic collaboration, virtuous cycle outcomes, and diversity and inclusivity. The firm has had a concerted interest in FinTech throughout the years for its investments, accruing over 20 investments into the space since inception.
Regional focus has been restricted to Europe and North America thus far for Anthemis’ FinTech investments. The firm has also been expansive regarding FinTech subsector investments, with their investments spanning most of the subsectors within the industry
Anthemis has made more than 150 investments in fintech firms which include Betterment, eToro, Currency Cloud, The Climate Corporation, Carta, Happy Money, and many more. Its Early stage investments include Pipe, a recurring revenue trading platform; Weavr, an embedded banking provider for digital innovators and fintech; and Atomic, an investing API for fintech and banks. Venture investments include Branch, which bundles home and auto insurance; Eigen, an intelligent document processing provider; and LocoNav, a telematics-based fleet management platform.
Anthemis heavily promotes its progressive values of diversity and inclusivity. Its vision statement includes building “one of the world’s leading diversified financial services companies, with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a blueprint for the economy.”
By creating fertile ground for a diverse group of startups, investors, entrepreneurs, institutions, academics, and visionaries to cover, Anthemis believes it can solve the financial system’s most pressing challenges faster, better, and for the benefit of all.