Kontist lays off 50 employees

The Berlin-based banking start-up has to let a quarter of its workforce go.

50 employees have been made redundant from the banking start-up Kontist, a spokeswoman confirmed to Finanz-Szene and Finance Forward. Other start-ups have also had to lay off parts of their workforce in recent days, such as the payment provider Klarna, which had to lay off ten percent of its staff. It was also said that there would now be a stronger focus on tax advice for account providers for business customers. There was talk of "organic restructuring".

Loss-making tech companies are unsafe for investors, which is why they are urging portfolio companies to pay more attention to costs. This means a change after several years of upswing, in which start-ups were looking for new employees and now have to lay them off.

Kontist was founded as a service for the self-employed, specializing in tailored banking services.