Cake Group CEO’s Message to Employees

Today, Cake Group’s Co-Founder & CEO Julian Hosp communicated the following to all employees via video call and email.

Today we are announcing the most painful decision since starting our company. In order to refocus Cake Group on its core business of Bake, we have taken the difficult decision to restructure our verticals and resize our team to approximately 125 team members.

If you are among those impacted, we are deeply sorry for what this means for you. You will receive an email from the People Team to your personal address, with clear guidelines on what happens next.

But first, some context to provide rationale for the decisions that have been made.

The realities of today’s situation

In 2020 and 2021, a buoyant digital assets landscape was the catalyst for us to grow a successful company with a large and loyal user base. This has since enabled us to make strategic commitments to new business verticals, including hiring talented people to build great, new things.

While we are confident that our core business is fundamentally well-positioned to capture the opportunities of the next cycle and beyond, not least with our focus on a revamped Bake, it is clear to us now that we grew too quickly. It is therefore imperative that we adjust appropriately.

For those of you departing

Unfortunately, today will be your last day as an employee of Cake Group. There is nothing we can say now that will make you feel any better about this decision, but we will do whatever we can to treat everyone that is leaving with respect, and to support you to the best of our means.

Please refer to a separate email to be sent to you. You will receive a retrenchment benefit, and maintain access to health insurance and independent mental well-being support until the end of the month. Cake’s People Team will be available for support and counsel at any time, and you will be provided with letters of recommendation as well as career transition support leveraging the Singapore FinTech Association network for roles within the industry.

With good reason, you may wonder if this situation could have been avoided had we made different decisions. Looking back, in our view there are two consequential challenges that we could have tackled differently:

1. We grew operating costs too quickly.

2. We underestimated both the longevity and extent of a broader slowdown in the crypto landscape, and the impact it would have on investor sentiment.

Today is an important, though painful step towards rectifying those decisions, and once again, we apologize to those of you who are leaving us for the impact this will have on you.

This was not the outcome we envisaged when we made hiring decisions in the past, and we want you all to know that you are valued, talented and that we are grateful for everything you have done to contribute to our company.

The opportunity for our business looking forward

We feel very positive about the prospects for Cake’s position in the digital assets landscape. Our runway is solid, our recurring monthly revenue is good, and we have an innovation agenda coming to fruition this quarter with the new Bake and the imminent deployment of the community-driven Metachain Layer. We are confident that once again we will capitalize on the coming wave of crypto growth.

We have developed a plan for Cake 2.0, which brings increased focus to Bake while also offering Ordzaar, DeFiChain Labs and later on also Levain the support and resources they require to kick-on as self-sustaining entities in good time.

We’ll describe this plan in more detail, starting with a Town Hall for all remaining employees. In actual fact, nothing will radically change - our mission to level the investment playing field remains the same.

Supporters of our company, and customers of our products and services should not feel alarmed by today’s announcement. This decision enables us to extend our runway and give all team members a renewed sense of focus to deliver on our vision.

We thank you in advance for your resilience and commitment. For now, for the next week, we will focus our efforts on supporting those people leaving Cake Group, and then we’ll regroup and move forward.

Julian HospCo-Founder & CEO, Cake Group

Clarifications How many staff are impacted?

52 staff are let go overall. 123 are retained.

Which verticals are impacted?

The resizing impacts all verticals; Bake, Levain, Ordzaar, Birthday Research - across both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur offices.

What are the plans for Cake’s verticals moving forward?

We will share a detailed business and product roadmap next month, which will bring increased focus to Bake while also offering Ordzaar, DeFiChain Labs and later on also Levain the support and resources they require to kick-on as self-sustaining entities in good time.

Will there be changes to the organizational leadership structure of Cake Group?

There have been discussions about potential changes to our organizational leadership, however nothing is solidified or certain to date. Once anything is confirmed, it will be communicated first internally, then publicly. Should a leadership transition occur, it would not be sudden, and business continuity will be prioritized via an impeccable handover and transition plan.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that the information on this blog and in any articles posted on this blog is for general information only and should not be relied upon as financial advice. Cake Pte. Ltd., Bake, UAB, and its affiliates (the “Cake Group”) are not licensed financial advisers. You may wish to approach your own independent financial advisor before making any decision to buy, sell or hold any product and/or digital assets mentioned in this blog.

Any views, opinions, references, assertions of fact and/or other statements are not necessarily the views held by the Cake Group. The Cake Group disclaims any liability whatsoever that may arise out of or in connection with such statements. Always do your own research before investing in any financial assets and consult a qualified financial advisor if necessary.