Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

Flash Coffee, a startup firm backed by venture capital, has joined the ranks of other companies laying off employees recently, reported The Business Times (BT).

Regional layoffs

Headquartered in Singapore, the coffee chain is retrenching employees across the region, including in Singapore and Indonesia, BT cited LinkedIn posts by former employees.

Flash Coffee Indonesia's former Head of PR and Communications, Randy Salim, attributed these layoffs in his LinkedIn post to "region-wide [reorganisation] and ongoing financing efforts".

According to BT, the extent of the retrenchment is not known.

In a March 2022 Vulcan Post interview with Flash Coffee's CEO David Brunier, the company opened nearly 250 stores since starting in 2020, and employed a total of 1,400 staff.

In Singapore, it had 250 staff across its head office and its 31 stores.

Mothership has reached out to Flash Coffee for more information.

Opened three outlets per week in 2021

Flash Coffee offers specialty drinks at reasonable prices and has stores in Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.

It describes itself as a "tech-enabled" coffee chain.

Prior to its launch, Flash Coffee raised millions of dollars from investors such as Global Founders Capital, White Star Capital and Delivery Hero, reported BT.

According to Tech In Asia, the firm raised US$32.8 million (S$45 million) in the first close of its series B funding round in July 2022, one of the stages in the capital-raising process.

BT reported Brunier saying in April 2021 that the company's dream is to have "a Flash Coffee every 500m in all major Asian cities".

Last year, Flash Coffee opened three new outlets per week, reported Marketing-Interactive.

Flash Coffee was included in LinkedIn's list of top 15 startup companies in Singapore in September 2022.

Not the only tech company

Several other tech companies like Meta and Twitter have recently laid off a significant number of staff.

Top photo from Facebook/Flash Coffee Singapore