Payoneer to Reduce Headcount 9% to ‘Enhance Productivity and Efficiency’

Payoneer Global plans to reduce its total headcount by 9%.

The FinTech company — which has 2,000 employees worldwide, according to its website — expects to complete the layoffs by the end of the third quarter, Payoneer said in a Monday (July 10) filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The move is expected to incur charges of about $5 million in the third quarter, primarily around severance payments and payroll taxes, and deliver an annualized future benefit to its operating expenses of about $20 million, according to the filing.

“The plan is expected to enhance productivity and efficiency and streamline the company’s organizational structure to better align operations with its growth objectives,” Payoneer said in the filing. “The company intends to reinvest some savings from the plan into future growth initiatives, and to continue hiring for roles essential for those initiatives in areas such as research and development.”

Payoneer Global executives are “very optimistic and excited” about the long-term growth of the company’s B2B business, they said during an earnings call in February.

John Caplan, who was co-CEO at the time and became CEO in March as part of a transition announced last year, said during the call: “Payoneer is at a pivotal point in our evolution, and we are operating the business with a focus on long-term growth and operating efficiency. We are becoming the partner of choice for emerging market SMBs [small and medium-sized businesses] who need to manage their global financial activities in an increasingly digital world.”

Payoneer’s workforce reduction come at a time when the technology sector has been hard hit by job cuts.

As of June 1, the technology sector saw 136,831 layoffs year to date — a total that was 2,939% higher than the same period in 2022 and the highest since 2001, Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported at the time.

In another recent workforce reduction in the sector, it was reported July 3 that Australian buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Zip was cutting 20% of its staff as part of a continuing effort to streamline its operations.

Days earlier, on June 6, it was reported that stock brokerage app Robinhood laid off 7% of its workforce, or about 150 employees, in response to a slowdown in trading volumes and to “better align team structures.”