Payments company Stripe has announced it is cutting 14% of its global workforce, citing the "different economic climate" and preparation for "leaner times".

In an email to Stripe employees sent on Thursday, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said the company had over-hired in recent years and that the job losses would reduce the company's headcount from more than 8,000 to 7,000 by February.

Company employees were informed by Collison as follows:

Today we’re announcing the hardest change we have had to make at Stripe to date. We’re reducing the size of our team by around 14% and saying goodbye to many talented Stripes in the process. If you are among those impacted, you will receive a notification email within the next 15 minutes. For those of you leaving: we’re very sorry to be taking this step and John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it.

It is unclear how many of the San Francisco and Dublin-headquartered technology firm's staff in Ireland will be affected by the decision, which the Collison brothers said they had taken together.

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Stripe's revenue and payment volume has increased three-fold since 2020 with the shift to e-commerce caused by Covid-19, but the company said it is now facing stubborn inflation, energy shocks, higher interest rates, reduced investment budgets and sparser start-up funding ahead of an expected global downturn.

"Our business is fundamentally well-positioned to weather harsh circumstances. We provide an important foundation to our customers and Stripe is not a discretionary service that customers turn off if budget is squeezed," stated the e-mail missive, which was signed by bothers. .

"However, we do need to match the pace of our investments with the realities around us. Doing right by our users and our shareholders means embracing reality as it is.

"Today, that means building differently for leaner times. We have always taken pride in being a capital efficient business and we think this attribute is important to preserve. To adapt ourselves appropriately for the world we’re headed into, we need to reduce our costs."

Affected staff will be paid 14 weeks severance, their annual bonus as well as any outstanding paid time-off and the cash equivalent of six months of their existing healthcare insurance.

The company will also offer career support to help cut staff find new jobs or start their own business with discounted access to Stripe technologies, and immigration support for those on work visas.

Job losses will not be evenly spread across the organisation, and the company's recruitment division will be disproportionately affected in light of reduced hiring next year. The Collisons warned unaffected staff members of "bumpiness" in the coming days as Stripe adjusts to its smaller workforce.

They added that they had made two "consequential mistakes" in being too optimistic about the internet economy's growth prospects in 2022 and 2023, and increasing operating costs too quickly as a result, allowing "operational inefficiencies to seep in."

"We are going to correct these mistakes. So, in addition to the headcount changes described above (which will return us to our February headcount of almost 7,000 people), we are firmly reining in all other sources of cost," they said.

"The world is hard to predict right now, but we expect that these changes will set us up for robust cash flow generation in the quarters ahead."

Stripe said it added 75% more customers in the third quarter than during the same period in 2021 and that its growth rate remains strong after recording a record for daily transaction volume this week.

The company processed $640bn in payments last year, and its services, which support 135 currencies and payment methods, are available in more than 45 countries.

Stripe in March 2021 announced plans to add up to 1,000 jobs in Dublin over a five-year period after raising a further $600m, setting its notional valuation at $95bn.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that the company has internally reduced the value of its shares by 28%, putting the company's notional value at around $68bn.

Photo: Patrick and John Collison. (Pic: Getty Images)