October 8 fintech unicorn Stash announced that its co-founders, who started the company in 2015 and reduced their roles last year, are returning to run the company they founded.
But one important detail was left out: Stash is also restructuring, with 40% of its roughly 220 people, including at least three executives, out of a job, according to three people familiar with the matter and confirmed by Zanachko. It was the second major layoff at Stash this year.
The changes come just weeks after its CEO since 2023, Lisa Landsman, abruptly left at the end of September. The board of directors, made up mostly of the company’s venture capital investors, approached co-founders Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg to lead the company as co-CEOs, Robinson says Fortune.
Robinson stepped down from his operational role, although he remained a member of the board of directors. Krieg stepped down to lead business development. Robinson characterized Landsman’s departure as mutual, saying she was not fired or resigned. “Lisa did some incredible things for Stash … She wasn’t the type of person to take it to the next level,” Robinson said. Landsman has resigned, two people familiar with the matter said. Landsman declined to comment.
At the time of her departure, there were rumors among employees about a possible acquisition, recalls one former employee. And for good reason: Two people say the board was considering two acquisition proposals at the time.
One of those offers was from investment platform eToro for less than Stash’s last 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 merger and acquisition opportunities around the world,” an eToro spokesperson said Fortunedeclining to comment on any specifics.
Although the board ultimately rejected those proposals in favor of a financing round that Robinson said is in the process of closing. In the near future, the company plans to announce investments.
Robinson declined to share any details on the expected funding round, other than that it will be used to pay down some of the company’s debt and costs for growth initiatives. Robinson tells Fortune that Stash frequently receives acquisition offers and estimates that about 80 companies have expressed interest in acquiring them in the past six to nine months. He declined to name specific potential buyers.
Robinson said the latest restructuring was intended to eliminate management layers and make Stash “less bureaucratic.” He insisted that Stash hasn’t eliminated any of its products and that its employees are still working on the same things — just with smaller teams. “We just really wanted to try to remove a lot of layers and just refocus the company,” he said.
Stash, whose latest valuation of $1.4 billion dates back to 2021, operates in the crowded technology advisory and investment platform space, competing with other companies including Betterment, Acorns and Robinhood. Stash positions itself as an “investing app for beginners” with a subscription model that provides users with financial advice and manages automated investing services.
Stash, which is based in New York but whose staff is mostly remote, does not disclose its revenue or other financial data.
Stash advertises more than 1.2 million subscribers, though that number represents a decline from 2022, when the platform had 2 million. The company struggled with debt and made a series of layoffs through October, including one in March that represented 25% of its workforce, or about 80 people, bringing its workforce to 220 at the time.
At its peak, the company had 500 employees, according to Axios the report.
“There was a general feeling that there was increasing pressure from competitors, so things had to be tougher,” says one former employee.
The October restructuring was not mentioned in the company’s external announcement that its co-founders were returning as executives, although two sources said it came on the same day the company announced the layoffs internally. A Bloomberg article on the restructuring published the same day also made no mention of the cuts.
Robinson said the company is not considering further layoffs and achieved positive monthly cash flow in November – the first in Stash’s 10-year history. He highlighted a new AI investment tool introduced this year and added that Stash is considering bringing back crypto trading to its platform, which was discontinued under Landsman.
