Thought Machine cutting jobs seven months after hiring spree

Banking software firm Thought Machine is going through a “cost reduction exercise”, making job cuts that could impact around 50 members of staff.

The company’s CEO Paul Taylor sent a company-wide email, as reported by UKTN, in which he said the fintech is cutting costs, and “as part of the process we have made the hard but necessary decision to reduce our global headcount”.

A Thought Machine spokesperson confirmed with AltFi that the eight per cent reduction will primarily affect sales and marketing roles, along with a few back-office roles.

They noted that the company is still hiring for several open roles and that its roadmap, product and other plans “remain unaffected”.

Just seven months ago, Thought Machine was bucking that layoff trend and shared news that it planned to expand its headcount by around 20 per cent — adding roughly 125 people to its 550-person team.

“It’s not all doom and gloom in the technology sector. While many businesses are cutting staff, we are not taking this approach,” Taylor said at the time.

“We are proud of our strategic and selective hiring approach, our focus on hiring the best people in the industry, and our company culture.”

The company said then it was hiring mostly in engineering roles in London, but that it was also opening a new office in Miami to meet demand in Latin America.

This past August it expanded into the area with Chilean private debt platform Cordada, which operates in Chile, Peru and Mexico.

The new hires added to a push for expansion during the 2020 lockdown, where Thought Machine added 200 new staff members to its team.

Earlier this month there were reports that Thought Machine was readying for an initial public offering in London.

According to UKTN, its source claimed the reported layoffs are part of a cost reduction strategy ahead of this.