Singapore based fintech startup GoBear announced that it has laid off 11% of its workforce across its offices in Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Ukraine. A total of 22 staff members have been retrenched from its 200 strong workforce.
GoBear’s CEO, Adrian Chng said in a statement that they had to “adapt our business to overcome challenges and future-proof it” and focus on “growth engines of digital lending and digital insurance brokerage”. He further added that this measure was done as a “last resort”.
In 2016, GoBear attempted to expand its market to Malaysia with limited success as it struggles to compete with local players. The startup has changed two country managers since its launch with its most recent country manager having left to pursue other career opportunities. Its comparison features on their Malaysian site have since been removed and been replaced with a blog that has not been updated since 2019.
This news follows GoBear’s recent funding round of US$ 17 million raised to “expand to Asian markets”. That funding round brought GoBear’s total funding to US$ 97 million. The fintech startup has been facing a series of challenges in recent times starting with the resignation of its CEO in 2018 followed by the exit of two of its co-founders in 2019
