On October 8, fintech unicorn Stash announcement that its co-founders, who launched the company in 2015 and whose roles were reduced last year, were returning to the helm of the company they had created.
But an important detail was omitted: Stash was also restructuring and 40% of its approximately 220 employees, including at least three of its executives, were unemployed, according to three people familiar with the matter and confirmed by Planque. This was the second major layoff at Stash this year.
The changes came just weeks after the abrupt departure of its 2023 CEO, Liza Landsman, at the end of September. The board of directors, made up primarily of the company’s venture capitalists, approached co-founders Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg to lead the company as co-CEOs, Robinson said. Fortune.
Robinson had left his operational role, although he remained a board member. Krieg had stepped down to head business development. Robinson called Landsman’s departure reciprocal, saying she was neither fired nor resigned. “Liza did incredible things for Stash…She was not the right person to take to the next phase,” Robinson said. Two people familiar with the matter said Landsman had resigned. Landsman declined to comment.
At the time of her departure, rumors were circulating among employees regarding a possible acquisition, recalls a former employee. And for good reason: two acquisition offers were then considered by the board of directors, say two people.
One of those offers came from investment platform eToro for a price lower than Stash’s latest valuation of $1.4 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The exact amount of the offer could not be confirmed. “We are actively exploring M&A opportunities globally,” an eToro spokesperson said. Fortune, refusing to comment on details.
The board ultimately rejected those offers in favor of a funding round that Robinson says is now closing. The company plans to announce this investment soon.
Robinson declined to share details of the expected funding round, other than that it will be used to pay down some of the company’s debt and fund growth initiatives. Robinson tells Fortune that Stash frequently receives acquisition offers and estimates that about 80 companies have expressed interest in an acquisition in the last six to nine months. He declined to name specific potential buyers.
Robinson said the latest restructuring aimed to remove layers of management and make Stash “less bureaucratic.” He insisted that Stash hadn’t eliminated any of its products and that its employees were still working on the exact same things, just with smaller teams. “We really wanted to try to remove a lot of layers and refocus the business,” he said.