Akuna Capital cuts 11pc of staff across global operations

Last year Akuna Capital was revealed as one of the highest paying firms for tech graduates, but now it is reining in costs by cutting jobs.

Akuna Capital has sacked 1 in 10 staff across the business in a cost-cutting move. Picture: Instagram

Akuna Capital, an Australian derivatives trading outfit now operating in the UK and US, has laid off more than 10 per cent of its staff – telling some recently hired graduates they no longer had jobs.

The Australian has confirmed there have been 64 redundancies at the firm out of its total 580 person global workforce.

Johnny Norris, Akuna’s chief operating officer, described the impact on the affected individuals as “deeply regrettable”.

Akuna was founded in 2011 by Andrew Killion – previously a Hong Kong partner at Optiver – who returned to Sydney in 2020, when he purchased the Vaucluse home of Alexander Ma for $30m.

Last year, Mr Killion emerged as a major backer of Teal independent Allegra Spender, donating $50,000 to her campaign in Wentworth and $325,000 to the Climate 200 election fund.

Sources said as many as 30 of the 64 staff who lost their jobs were based in Australia, with the process starting late last year. A number of new staff also had their contracts rescinded.

Shawn Lee, who had interned at Akuna in Chicago, wrote in a LinkedIn post that it was a “complete shock” to have his job offer pulled just weeks before he was to have started at the company.

“It is with a deep sense of disappointment that I must announce that my return offer as a junior developer at Akuna … has been (sic) rescinded due to upcoming organisational changes at the company,” he wrote.

Staff were told the move was a cost control measure.

Last year Akuna Capital was amonng the top 10 employers of tech graduates, employing software engineer graduates on a salary of $200,000 including bonuses. Picture: Instagram

The job losses at Akuna came just weeks after business operations manager and partner Neil Aitken stepped off the company’s board in November.

The Australian revealed last year that Akuna offered some of the highest tech graduate salaries in the country, employing software engineer graduates on salaries of $200,000 before bonuses.

That placed the company in a similar position to Microsft, Atlassian and Google when it came to graduate pay. It was just under the starting salaries at Optiver – which was offering software engineers around $250,000.

Microsoft this week said it would cut 10,000 workers across its global operation – or 5 per cent of the total – due to as “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities”.

Other local groups have also started laying off workers, including Till Payments, which counted Akuna as one of its backers alongside Regal Funds Management and Woodson Capital.

Till earlier this month said it would lay off 120 staff under a restructure plan to make the business “sustainable”.

Tech companies have cut deep in response to the market downturn, with almost 46,350 staff laid off across the industry in January

The firm posted a US$1.4m ($2.05m) profit from its Australian business in 2021, up from $1.2m the year before. The Australian arm of the trading firm pulled in $41.7m in net trading income in the 2021 financial year, according to accounts lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The slim margins came after Akuna was hit with a $US7m loss in 2019, after a $US5.4m loss on its cryptocurrency assets.

In addition to its trading activities, Akuna has been a major investor in a series of recent tech plays. The company put in funding to e-bike start-up Zoomo, which recently axed 16 per cent of its staff. Akuna also invested in cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which dumped 20 per cent of its staff in June before filing for bankruptcy in November.

The redundancies have not only hit technology companies, but also the major investment banks. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs both unveiled a fall in fourth quarter earnings, with the latter announcing plans to cut some 3200 workers globally. More than a third are from its core trading and banking teams.