UK-based smart finance app W1tty has shut down, with several former employees left claiming that they have not been paid owed wages.
In a post on LinkdIn (first reported by TechEU), former W1tty head of customer care Sara Wacławik has shared the story of a former colleague left unpaid. In comments under her post, several others provide similar stories.
Founded in 2019 by Ammar Kutait (pictured), W1tty was a money management app targeted at Generation Z - students and other young people starting their first jobs and building their careers.
With offices in London and Lithuania, the startup secured a UK Electronic Money Institution licence and a Lithuanian EMI licence, enabling it to expand into that country and Poland.
Kutait also put together an impressive advisory board, chaired by serial entrepreneur Lord Chadlington, and including Gene Lockhart, the former CEO of Mastercard International and Lord Hill of Oareford, the former EU commissioner for financial services.
However, according to Wacławik, in December 2023, employees were given notice that W1tty was moving "all crucial business elements to Dubai," resulting in job layoffs for its 100+ workforce.
Promises, says Wacławik, were made to the former staffer who contacted her about notice periods and salary. These were not kept.
By September, according to a notice on its site, W1tty had wound down its operations.
In a comment on Wacławik's post, Igor Zlatojev, who worked as a research analyst at W1tty until January, says: "Loads of us weren’t paid. I’m guessing in the dozens, if not hundred+ people."
Salman Mohammmad Mujtaba, a former security operations centre analyst at the company, adds: "Same, I have not been paid my dues from November 2023".
Meanwhile, Wacławik notes: "The company owner Ammar Kutait has since disappeared from LinkedIn (not a big surprise). He's probably flying his private jet now, while claiming he cannot afford to pay a few thousands of EUR to a person who worked for him with all devotion."