Fintech unicorn Rapyd to continue acquisitions and recruitment, CEO says
“The current situation in the market is excellent for small startups in the pre-Seed and Seed stage that are looking for employees that they had no chance to find in the last two years. They had to fight against companies that invested much more money and now the situation is much easier for them to get employees who will help them become big companies. This is excellent for the industry,” said Arik Shtilman, co-founder and CEO of Rapyd in a conversation with Meir Orbach as part of Calcalist’s Tech TLV conference. .
According to Shtilman, there is still competition and a lack of great talent, but unlike the two previous years, it is easier to reach such candidates. “Salaries haven’t changed, but there are companies that close and suddenly 50 employees are thrown into the market in one fell swoop. Before, you had to “hunt” and convince them to join your company, but still in terms of recruitment, there are enough companies recruiting and it’s still a war for every employee.”
Regarding the joy over Rapyd’s misfortune following the recent announcement of layoffs, Shtilman said, “We acquired two companies in 2022, added 300 employees to the workforce in acquisitions that also added more than $120 million in revenue for the next year, and there were an organic growth of another 550 people. So we checked where there were duplicate positions and we had to let go of the irrelevant people. We behave the way we think we should, and if it bothers some people, that’s their problem. It’s really doesn’t interest us. Our financial results are excellent, and that’s why investors really like what we do. Yes, after the acquisitions, we decided to reduce some personnel because of the 300 or so people added in the acquisitions, we only needed about 230. This is legitimate and it is our decision that any decision any business will make and for those who are bothered by it, it will probably continue to bother them in 2023 as well.” According to him, the company has no intention of making further job cuts and is still recruiting staff in all 12 offices around the world.
Shtilman said the online payment industry continues to grow. “The boost that the online payment industry got during the pandemic continues. What people don’t understand is that only about 20% of the trade that takes place in the world today is done online, and the transition from industry to online continues. The payment market continues to grow every year and will eventually reaching over 50% of trade done online. When it comes to raising money, the story is completely different. Fintech companies that do not have a clear business model are unlikely to be able to raise money today , no matter who they are and who the founder is.”
Shtilman added that the company will continue to acquire other companies and also act in the same way next year. “The company is delivering the performance that investors expected and so it will continue to behave in the same way and I see no reason why it has to behave in a different way.”
