Health startup Alice fired 63 people after 7 months of investing a millionaire – Link

Seven months after receiving a contribution of US$127 milliona startup health company Alice Join the list of national technology companies to Make group discounts. a stadium Finding 63 people were laid off last Friday, the eighth, the company confirmed to the report the number of layoffs and stated that the cuts were part of a “scaling up” of the sales team. Another 20 professionals were transferred within the company.

For some former employees, Alice said the company has too many employees and that it will need to cut a portion of the staff because of the current economic situation. For other layoffs, the justification did not mention spending cuts or any financial difficulties – only restructuring.

They said the reason is to reduce the cost of the company. They thought the company would grow a lot and that didn’t happen, in addition to the crisis that affected them as well ”, a former employee explained to his hearing stadium. “Individually, they were not clear about the criteria for those who left and who stayed. Unfortunately, there was a lack of transparency in this,” another former employee said, when stadium. The sources declined to reveal their identity.

On a note, Andre Florence“During the semester, we better understand the opportunities to be more efficient and sustainable in the long term,” said the healthtech CEO. The startup informs that the dismissed sellers will receive an additional salary, a two-month health plan extension, as well as a mandatory severance pay.

change focus

Alice received a contribution 127 million dollars In December last year, led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. At the time, the investment was one of the largest in healthcare in 2021.

In June of this year, Alice announces a corporate health plan focused on companies with up to 250 employees. According to the former employees, the change came after pressure from investors for the company’s main product to be the plan targeting the corporate market.

The company, which was born to focus on selling health plans directly to patients, already had Announced the purchase of a startup company Cuidas, which provides consultations with family physicians and nurses to company employees.

Former employees say the shift in focus has encountered some major difficulties. One of them is the fact that the company is limited to the city of São Paulo, which leaves the product offering limited. The second is market competition: In addition to other startups in the sector battling for space, traditional health operators have a significant portion of the companies’ existing contracts in place. Asked about the matter, the startup declined to comment.

According to previous employees I interviewed stadiumThe company was unable to reach the estimated corporate and individual customer target for this year. In response to a question from the report, Alice preferred not to comment.

In May this year, National Agency for Complementary Health (ANS), which regulates health plans in Brazil, has authorized readjustment of health contributions up to 15.5%, after rises were frozen during the pandemic. On her website, Alice states that her plans have been revised up 12.13%, below the agency’s estimate.

The permitted modification below will be a way to attract customers to the platform. Sources informed stadium The goal was to reach 50,000 plan members by the end of 2022, but when the company’s plan caught the company’s attention, that target was lowered to 14,000. The company didn’t want to open its numbers to stadium.

Winter startup

Startups are notorious for hiring hundreds of employees a month, and have laid off hundreds of employees all over the world – this phenomenon is not unique to Brazil. This period has been dubbed ‘start-up winter’, after the positive wave caused by the digitization of the pandemic in the past two years.

According to the experts they consulted stadium In recent months, layoffs are taking place as a route adjustment amid the global rise in prices and Ukraine war, leading to disruption of the global production chain. In this scenario, investors are turning their backs on risky investments, such as startup companies. As a result, raising the rounds was much more difficult than during the pandemic, when the source of capital seemed endless.

Investment funds have warned emerging companies of a difficult scenario. Investor Masayoshi’s sonThe head of SoftBank, one of the largest investors in startups in Brazil and an investor in Alice, said that the Japanese group should reduce its investments in technology companies this year due to the poor results of the companies it invests in – the information is taken from a newspaper. financial times.

In addition to SoftBank, the metronome built pone of the most famous in Silicon Valley, recommended these startups Reassess their finances and prepare to cut spending. The metric, according to the accelerator, is a way to forecast up to 24 months without investments. “Economic crises often become great opportunities for founders who rapidly change the way they think, plan for the future and ensure their company’s survival,” she said in the letter.