Monese lays off 36 employees and splits into two

Estonian fintech Monese has laid off 36 of its 175 employees and decided to split its operations into two separate companies. 

The first company, Monese, will continue to operate in retail banking. The second company, XYB, is an end-to-end coreless platform for banks and other companies, which will be spun off as an additional business line of Monese in 2021. The development of XYB involved a partnership with Indian company HCL Technology, and many of Monese's employees have joined HCL's staff.

Founded in 2015 by Norris Koppel, Monese has developed a mobile-based multi-currency account and accompanying debit card that supports cash deposits and withdrawals. It does not require a credit check, and customers don’t need local proof of address, but they do need to provide a photo ID and a selfie and be EU or UK residents. The platform allows customers to convert sterling, euro, and Romanian lei into 16 European currencies. Monese has over 2M customers in 31 countries and has raised approximately $208M in funding.

In February 2023, Monese had already announced 22 redundancies due to the opening of a new B2B business line.