Canadian fintech company, Wealthsimple has announced plans to lay off 159 employees from its service.
The company had 1,262 employees before this.
Wealthsimple’s CEO, Michael Katchen disclosed this in a letter addressed to employees.
The company said in the letter, that its customers were currently living in uncertain times, in a very difficult economy.
The company, allows customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its platform.
It also engages in the sale of stocks and exchange-traded funds on major Canadian and U.S Exchanges.
However, the company now says that it will shift its attention to investing and banking, through which it will provide customers with tax and merchant services as well as peer-to-peer payments.
“If you’ve been with us over the past two years, you know it’s been a time of immense volatility.
Just about anyone who made predictions about how the pandemic would affect the economy was wrong about one thing or another. The markets crashed. Then they soared. Our business grew at an unprecedented rate, and we have been aggressively building to meet the needs of a wave of new clients since then.
Of course, volatility works both ways, and we’re seeing the other side of it now as the pandemic market conditions unwind.”Katchen said in the letter.
Before now, Wealthsimple was regarded as one of Toronto’s leading FinTech companies. Making a name during the COVID-19 pandemic, Wealthsimple is reported to have made a profit of about $900 million since its inception.