Israeli-American financial technology company Bluefin It lays off 100 employees, including 30 in Israel. The business banking and solutions company currently has 500 employees worldwide, meaning the layoffs represent 20% of the workforce. The 20% figure also applies to the Israel Development Center, which has 150 employees.
“It’s obviously a difficult process and no one wants to do it,” Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and co-founder of Bluevine, tells Globes. “In terms of the company and its strategy, we are making positive progress. The strategy is working well, and we have expanded significantly in terms of our platform.
“We provide full banking services in the United States. We have 200,000 accounts with over a billion dollars in deposits. So we continue to grow in terms of the volume of activity and the need for a wave of layoffs is just for the sake of efficiency. The importance of charting a path to profitability here is becoming more important.” Increasingly, by adapting to reality, the market and investor expectations.
“Organizational change is focused on making employee teams more efficient. There was no focus on layoffs in this or that department, but rather the real focus was on how we, as an organization, can operate more efficiently,” Lifshitz also told the Globes.
Business accounts with no monthly fees and geographic expansion
Bluevine was founded in 2013 in Tel Aviv by Eyal Lifshitz and Nir Klar, who identified a significant gap in banking for small and medium-sized businesses, as the company describes it. Shortly after its founding, the company opened its headquarters in Silicon Valley and began expanding into the American market.
In 2019, the company achieved a major milestone when it granted $1 billion in loans. In 2020, following changes in the banking world, Bluevine launched a business account with no monthly fees, while expanding the financial solutions it offers. The company’s geographic expansion also continued with offices opening in Austin, Texas, and India.
In 2022, the company launched a payments management system and developed a dedicated interface for accountants and bookkeepers. Last year, Bluevine launched a business credit card. Today the company offers financial services including business accounts, loans, credit cards and international payments.
To date, Bluevine has raised $250 million from investors including Citi Ventures, Greylock, Vintage Partners, Lightspeed, and OG Ventures.
The company said: “Out of the desire to adapt the company’s activities to the changes occurring in the global market and the desire to continue implementing the company’s long-term strategy in an effective manner and in line with the company’s objectives, it has decided to separate from approximately 18% of the company’s employees around the world. This step was taken in parallel with the continued growth of the company’s small banking platform and driven by the need to ensure its continued success for many years to come. Bluefin is committed to the employees who support it, the company will help them find a new job and will support them during the adjustment period in their new path. Israel is the center of the search and key development for the company, which will continue to move the company forward and ensure that Bluevine remains a global leader in its field, strong, growing, and financially stable.”
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on December 10, 2024
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