Crowdfunding platform Seedrs lays off 15% of staff in Europe

Equity crowdfunding platform is laying off 15% of its European workforce, equivalent to around 15 people.

UK staff are among those being made redundant by the London-headquartered investment platform, although Seedrs did not disclose numbers.

The company will remain active in all European markets, a Seedrs spokesperson told UKTN.

Seedrs was acquired by US private investment firm Republic for $100m, with the deal closing in September 2022.

“The startup fundraising landscape has faced challenging market conditions over the past 18 months,” a Seedrs spokesperson said.

“In response to this, Republic has recently restructured parts of its global business, including making the extremely difficult decision to reduce the total number of employees across Republic on a role-by-role basis. In Europe, this has meant roughly 15% of the team has been made redundant.”

Founded in 2009, Seedrs is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows large groups of investors, including everyday members of the public, to invest small amounts into early-stage startups.

It provides other investment services alongside crowdfunding, including a recently launched venture capital trust (VCT) offering.

VCTs are investment companies listed on a stock exchange. They provide investments to unlisted companies and receive tax relief.

Last October, Seedrs received a licence to operate in Europe under new EU crowdfunding regulations.

Sifted, which first reported the layoffs, said that Seedrs is closing its offices in Spain and Sweden.

“The business remains committed to supporting exciting high-growth European companies and providing investors across the continent with unparalleled investment opportunities,” the Seedrs spokesperson added.

“These operating expense reductions are critical to ensuring that Republic (including Seedrs) is fit and ready to deliver on its long-term ambitions, and we expect to see sustainable growth as a result of this course of action.”

The layoffs at Seedrs follow a challenging couple of years for tech and investment jobs. Globally, more than 240,000 tech sector jobs were lost in 2023, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi.