Linktree lays off 27% of workers, hitting ANZ staff hardest, in favour of US hires

Linktree has made a second round of layoffs in less than a year, with the social media startup announcing a 27% reduction to its staff, with the majority being in Australia and New Zealand.

Back in August Linktree attributed the layoffs to the global economic downturn. This time around it is saying that it needs to let go of staff in order to hire more in the US to aid its expansion in that market.

According to the company, it now has 35 million users globally and roughly 40,000 new sign-ups each day.

“The United States is now our largest market with our largest opportunity, and the vast majority of our signups come from this region, meaning it is essential we are able to further expand the team based there,” Linktree CEO, Alex Zaccaria, said in a memo to employees that was also published publicly.

“We have built this momentum to date with very few Linkies based in the US. We need to focus on our growth in the US and hire people with deep experience building products for this specific audience.

“It is for this reason we are making the decision to move certain roles from Australia to the US across our product, engineering, marketing and design teams. To be able to hire for those roles and further our growth in the US, we will be reducing our overall team by about 27% today, primarily impacting Linkies based in Australia and New Zealand.”

According to the memo, impacted staff would be contacted within minutes of receiving the initial email.

The email goes on to assure staff although there will be a leaner local team moving forward, Australia is still important to the company and that the founders will remain living in Melbourne.

“While the overall global Linktree team will feel a lot smaller, it will only be temporary. We will be hiring product, engineering and marketing roles with specific US market experience and are committed to an evenly distributed team between Australia and the US by the end of the year. We are also committed to ensuring development and progression opportunities for everyone across the company, regardless of geographic location,” Zaccaria said.

Back in March of 2022, Linktree hit ‘unicorn’ status after a $150 million raise led by US investors Index and Coatue, and joined by Airtree, put its valuation at $1.7 billion.

This is just the latest in a suite of tech layoffs in Australia this year, with Atlassian and Xero amongst others, making big cuts to its workforces.

Despite this, a report from the Tech Council of Australia just last week revealed that tech jobs are actually on the rise.

Linktree acquires Bento

Alongside news of staff reduction, Zaccaria also announced the company’s acquisition of Bento.

The Berlin-based startup, launched in 2022, received US$1.6 million (approx AU$2.41 million) in pre-seed funding led by Sequoia Arc, with participation from NextBlue and Gaingels Network.

Bento will officially join Linktree on June 19.

Linktree has declined to comment further on the layoffs.