Metigy, an Aussie Tech company lays off 75 staff after reports of 300% growth
Metigy was a marketplace powered by artificial intelligence that provided automated marketing solutions for small businesses.
David Fairfull, who created the B&T website, and Johnson Lin established the company in 2015.
Metigy’s recent growth of 300 per cent surprised Metigy’s 75 workers after the recent news and planned on raising money with a valuation of $1 billion
The company’s voluntary administration is particularly surprising, since it sought funds just two months ago.
Five V Capital recently presented Metigy as a case study showing that it was valued at $105 million in October 2020 when it invested and as having an evaluation of $1 billion in April 2022
Senior brand & content lead Clare Riley is saddened by the news, as a number of now former staff have done on LinkedIn, describing all the great work they had planned.
Riley says it’s not because we didn’t care enough or because we did a bad job or the market conditions weren’t in our favour
“That will always be the toughest thing to deal with when you work as hard as we did,” says Riley
An employee who has worked for Metigy for almost 18 months says two weeks ago she ‘couldn’t believe’ that the company would go out of business.
‘All of us employees were informed today, and we are absolutely devastated,’ she wrote on LinkedIn.
‘It’s terrible to have our journey cut short this early, since I could see that we were getting better as a product in recent months and what we’d be accomplishing in the coming months,’ she said.
Another worker revealed that he planned ‘for all the excellent work we could do with a new company and communication operation at Metigy,’ but instead, he found himself suddenly out of work.
According to documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Metigy has more than 30 shareholders.
Tech firms in Australia have been hard hit after a bloodbath on the stock exchange made funding harder to come by and frightened investors, resulting in the liquidation of grocery delivery service Send, among other failed businesses.
Raiseing $20 million in a funding round led by Cygnet Capital attracted major institutions.
Regal Funds Management, OC Funds, Five Venture Capital, and Thorney contributed to the early-stage funding, in addition to Cygnet, CP Ventures, and We Are Social. $27.1 million in total capital was raised as a result.
According to corporate regulator ASIC Simon Cathro and Andrew Blundell of Cathro Partners are the administrators of Metigy’s assets and intellectual property and seeking to sell them immediately.
