Creditas plans to fire 95 people and close two stores – 03/20/2023 – Market

Creditas plans to lay off 95 employees and close two stores – one in Rio de Janeiro and one in São Paulo, says the startup’s CEO, Sergio Furio. The movement is part of Creditas Auto’s reorientation from the purchase and resale of vehicles to the intermediation of exchanges between used vehicle owners.

The company, valued at more than $1 billion, intends to shut down its vehicle reconditioning business.

“We are going to invest in redirection centers with outsourced partners, without the need to have these physical spaces”, said Furio to Sheet.

The executive claims that he will try to reallocate as many employees as possible to partners and other sectors of the company. He, however, does not say how many will be reassigned to new posts. “Let’s offer a career transition”.

These changes have not yet been implemented, but communicated to employees through an internal notification. “With the growth of Creditas Auto, we are finding more efficient ways of working with partners”, says the company in a note.

“We still have cars in the workshop. I can’t end all this activity at once”, says Furio.

The change at Creditas Auto was motivated by an assessment that the vehicle reconditioning process required a lot of infrastructure and human resources, according to Furio. “We want to increase the profitability of this business with less capital consumption.”

The executive claims that the changes will not affect the startup’s main businesses: online lending and insurance. Creditas has more than 3,000 employees, which includes the Creditas Auto team.

Recently, several Brazilian startups have made layoffs. On March 3, Loft announced the cut of 340 employees, after laying off 855 people in 2022.

Loggi cut 7% of its workforce on February 6, after laying off 15% of its employees last year.

Companies have stated that they are cutting payroll due to the global economic situation.