Branch confirms layoffs in Kenya and Nigeria despite profitable year

Branch International, a San Francisco-headquartered fintech offering digital banking and lending services, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees in Kenya and Nigeria in what it described as “the difficult decision to reduce headcount across some of our markets.” 

Several sources familiar with the matter, including affected employees, confirmed the layoffs to TechCabal. An internal email seen by TechCabal outlined the severance terms offered to affected employees.

The job cuts highlight a broader shift across African fintech, where startups are prioritising leaner operations and profitability over aggressive expansion, even as funding conditions improve. Branch said both its Kenya and Nigeria businesses remained profitable last year, while the group posted roughly $30 million in global profit for 2025.

Branch informed affected employees during a global all-hands meeting on April 17 before sending termination notices that took effect immediately. “Your last day of employment will be today, April 17, 2026,” part of the email read. 

“This was not a decision driven by financial distress,” Branch told TechCabal in an emailed response on Tuesday. ”Both our Nigeria and Kenya markets were profitable last year, and Branch International declared a global profit of approximately $30 million for the 2025 financial year.” 

The company added that its operations in Kenya and Nigeria remained financially strong, with “significant cash on hand” and no debt across its African entities.

One source familiar with the matter said employees received termination notices shortly after the company-wide meeting and quickly lost access to their work emails and internal systems. Several affected staff described the layoffs as unexpected.

“We were aware of the company-wide meeting, but nobody expected people would be laid off,” a former employee told TechCabal on Thursday.

Some employees said Branch had internally discussed possible fundraising plans in recent months, but they did not anticipate job cuts would follow, according to a former employee who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

Branch said the job cuts were not connected to fundraising or debt financing activity. “We are not actively fundraising equity as we are profitable in every market, summing to over $30M last year,” the company said.

The company declined to disclose how many employees were affected or which teams were impacted.

A Kenya-based employee told TechCabal it was difficult to determine the full scale of the layoffs because many staff had been working remotely in recent weeks, making the cuts less visible than they would have been in a physical office environment.

Several affected employees have also remained largely silent on platforms such as LinkedIn, where laid-off tech workers often publicly signal availability for new roles.

“Generous” severance packages 

According to the internal email seen by TechCabal, affected employees will receive at least four months of compensation, including salary, notice pay, and unused leave days. The company also said employee health insurance coverage would remain active through the end of 2026.

“Employees impacted by this decision were provided with extremely generous severance packages, and we are grateful for their contributions to Branch,” the company told TechCabal. 

Branch has raised $274.3 million across 11 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase data. Its largest disclosed raise was a $170 million round in 2019 backed by investors including Foundation Capital and Visa. The company last raised funding in 2022 through an undisclosed debt financing round.

Founded in 2015, Branch became one of Africa’s biggest app-based lenders, serving more than 13 million customers across Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and India, and issuing over 54 million loans worth more than $1.8 billion, according to company data.

In 2022, Branch expanded beyond digital lending in Kenya by acquiring a majority stake in Century Microfinance Bank, becoming one of the country’s first digital lenders to enter deposit-taking microfinance banking.