Scoop: Corporate card startup Teampay lays off roughly 30% of staff

Teampay, a corporate card startup, has laid off roughly a third of its staff in two instances over recent months, the company confirms to Axios.

Why it matters: The spend management and corporate card sector was one of the hottest areas of fintech between 2020 and 2022.

Details: Teampay laid off roughly 10-15 of its over 100-strong workforce in the winter, three sources with knowledge of the matter tell Axios.

• Approximately 20 more employees were let go a few weeks ago, with management citing the rough market conditions, the sources say.
• Backed by Fin Venture Capital, Tuhaye Ventures and Crosscut Capital, the company has raised about $65 million in debt and equity since its founding.
• “Like many tech companies affected by current market conditions, we had to make the difficult decision to transition talented individuals,” a spokesperson for the company wrote in an email to Axios.

Context: The first round of layoffs came not long after Teampay announced in November that it raised a $32 million Series B led by Fin Venture Capital, with participation from Mastercard, Proof Ventures, Trestle, and Espresso Capital.

• The round actually closed in the first quarter of the year, two sources says.

Meanwhile: The investor in charge of the deal at Fin Venture Capital, Peter Ackerson, departed Fin in "January to pursue other opportunities and remains a close friend and ally of the firm," a spokesperson for Fin tells Axios.

• Ackerson is also known for having previously been the sole outside board member at Pipe — the $2 billion fintech that drew scrutiny when all three of its founders resigned at the same time last year.

• Another member of Fin's team has taken over the board position.

The intrigue: Tribe Capital led the company's $12 million Series A in mid-2019, but later gave up that board seat over misalignments with the founder, a source with knowledge of the matters tells Axios.

• Teampay disagreed with the characterization, writing in an email: "As part of the Series B, the board was restructured, and Tribe remains supportive of the business."
• Tribe declined to comment.

Flashback: In an interview with TechCrunch in November, Teampay CEO Andrew Hoag said he planned to grow its headcount by 5% to 10%, "barring unforeseen market turbulence."