LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — Pollen, a tech startup focused on building and curating music destination events and experiences worldwide, announced that it has successfully secured $150 million in its Series C round in April 2022. However, on Tuesday (May 31), former employees indicate (via social media) that the London-based firm has let go over 150 members of its UK/US staff.
According to the social media posts from the released employees, the firm has made several redundancies.
Founded in 2014 by brothers Callum and Liam Negus-Fancey, the company has created travel experiences with talent and brands, including J Balvin, Justin Bieber, and Duran Duran. The start-up made some notable hires in 2021, Zeon Richards as Head of Hip Hop Partnerships and Christine Osazuwa as its Strategy Director for Pollen Presents. According to LinkedIn, Osazuwa is one of the executives leaving the company.
MBW reached out to Pollen for a statement regarding the posts on social media and heard back from cofounder/CEO Callum who said that “as part of closing our Series C round, we agreed on a new plan with our investors where we will continue to show strong growth while taking the business to profitability faster through greater focus and cutting costs by 15%. We ran a thorough process, and there are no more planned changes.”
The company focus is split with Pollen Presents, which creates experiences for customers across music, travel, and more, and Pollen+ works with promoters and music festivals to offer customers who book through their company perks at the events.
Pollen is backed by investors who include Kindred, Lansdowne Partners, Northzone, Sienna Capital, Backed, and Molton Ventures.
See the complete statement provided to MBW below.
“In the current macroeconomic environment, investors want to see growth stage technology companies have a clear path to profitability. As part of closing our Series C round, we agreed on a new plan with our investors where we will continue to show strong growth while taking the business to profitability faster through greater focus and cutting our costs by 15%. This is not unique to Pollen. It’s a trend happening across the technology industry as companies adjust their strategies in order to adapt to these new market realities. We ran a thorough process, and there are no more planned changes.” – CEO Callum Negus-Fancey.
