Betterfly Lays off Several Employees in Brazil and Chile

Betterfly, a Chilean company that in February achieved unicorn status, and a platform that companies hire to provide life insurance to their workers whose coverage grows as they register healthier habits, is one of the latest startups in the region to make layoffs. 

Last week it laid off 30 workers in Brazil from a workforce of 100. The layoffs are said to include Caio Ribeiro, the country manager, although the company has not yet confirmed this. Given the magnitude of the layoffs, the dismissal of the executive and the fact that they come just a few months after the launch of Betterfly in Brazil (which included television advertising, a media campaign and the country manager saying that they would end the year with 150 employees due to its high growth rate) it seems that the decision goes beyond a simple downsizing.

Contxto contacted Betterfly for statements on the matter but did not receive a response. Some laid-off workers in Brazil told Contxto that the layoffs mainly affected the commercial and marketing areas and the team that used to be Xerpay, one of the companies acquired by Betterfly in that country. 

Bloomberg Linea, the first media outlet to report the news about Brazil, got an official statement. There, Sol de Cabo, Betterfly’s VP of People & Culture, stated that the layoffs were due to efficiency issues and added that the company took care of people not only when they were hired but also “at the end of their life experience as a Betterflyer,” although without explaining how that materializes.

The layoffs in Chile, reported by local newspaper DFMas, are much smaller than in Brazil: 12 laid-offs out of 400 employees. According to this Chilean outlet, an unidentified Betterfly employee explained that they were due to “a restructuring of different areas and not related to the business.”