Itaú Initiates Wave of Layoffs at Subsidiary Zup Innovation with "Startup" Brand Overhaul

Itaú Initiates Wave of Layoffs at Subsidiary Zup Innovation with “Startup” Brand Overhaul

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 15/05/2023 at 15:48

foto: ZUP Innovation

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Itaú, Through Its Subsidiary Zup Innovation, Developer of Technologies and Products Headquartered in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Promoted Wave of Layoffs This Week, According to Information Released by Layoffs Brazil.

The company, acquired by the bank in 2019 for R$ 293 million (51% of the shares), underwent a rebranding process in 2021 and adopted a more “startup-like” approach, integrating product, user experience, and other complementary competencies to its core business in IT.

The information released by Layoffs Brazil indicates that around 50 professionals have been affected by the cuts so far, but former employees stated on social media that the number could be even higher, exceeding 150.

Employees at Zup reported that the company is undergoing an internal restructuring of its strategy and transitioning to a technology company, resulting in the dismissal of leadership positions, team leads, POs, UX, and QA.

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Zup Confirmed the Cuts but Did Not Provide Details Regarding the Number of Affected Individuals and the Areas Impacted.

The company released a statement stating that it constantly evaluates its business units to adapt to customer needs and that the current efforts and movements aim to specialize employees and minimize impact on teams. The company demonstrated its commitment to assisting all employees in their transitions and stated that it has always acted in a respectful and humanized manner.

The “startup-like” posture adopted by technology companies like Zup has become a trend in recent years, with the intention of boosting portfolios and attracting more professionals from complementary areas to the core business. Examples of companies that have adopted this posture and have similar layoff movements include CI&T and Ilegra.

CI&T, for its part, could not restrain its comments on social media, as a list circulated with over 120 names of people dismissed by the company in March.

Ilegra Has Adopted a More Discreet Posture Regarding Layoffs, Eliminating Positions Less Connected to Its Core Business.

Zup has 3,000 employees, meaning the cuts affected approximately 5% of the workforce. The company has four open-source products in the market and specific developments for clients such as Via Varejo, Sodexo, and Elo.

With the rebranding in 2021 and the more “startup-like” posture, Zup opened a new office in São Paulo, with an environment fully in line with the “startup-like” aesthetic. Itaú, which was a client of Zup before the acquisition, committed to acquiring more shares over the next few years. Before the layoffs, Zup had already faced scrutiny for alleged abusive practices against employees.

Mass Layoff

This year, what is most talked about is mass layoffs. Several large and small companies drastically reduced their number of employees. Bridgestone laid off 600 employees, GM carried out mass layoffs in the U.S. Banks like Itaú (mentioned above) and the German bank and Banco Neon were also targets of job cuts.

Itaú Initiates Wave of Layoffs at Subsidiary Zup Innovation with “Startup” Brand Overhaul

Itaú, Through Its Subsidiary Zup Innovation, Developer of Technologies and Products Headquartered in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Promoted Wave of Layoffs This Week, According to Information Released by Layoffs Brazil.

Zup Confirmed the Cuts but Did Not Provide Details Regarding the Number of Affected Individuals and the Areas Impacted.

Ilegra Has Adopted a More Discreet Posture Regarding Layoffs, Eliminating Positions Less Connected to Its Core Business.

Mass Layoff

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Itaú Initiates Wave of Layoffs at Subsidiary Zup Innovation with “Startup” Brand Overhaul

Itaú, Through Its Subsidiary Zup Innovation, Developer of Technologies and Products Headquartered in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Promoted Wave of Layoffs This Week, According to Information Released by Layoffs Brazil.

Zup Confirmed the Cuts but Did Not Provide Details Regarding the Number of Affected Individuals and the Areas Impacted.

Ilegra Has Adopted a More Discreet Posture Regarding Layoffs, Eliminating Positions Less Connected to Its Core Business.

Mass Layoff

Dissatisfied with seeing people sleeping on the street, a man named Ryan Donais started building small mobile homes so that homeless people can escape the cold, each equipped with a bed, running water, electricity, and heating.

Workers were opening a modern road in Dover when they found, 6 meters below the asphalt, a 3,500-year-old boat made of stitched oak and plant fibers.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

Consumers eat six times more chicken than in the 1960s, global meat supply quadruples in 60 years, and FAO report reveals the invisible cost on the plate: livestock could drive 80% of the increase in agricultural emissions over the next decade.

Using high-resolution satellite images, archaeologists rediscovered the Egyptian city of Imet, buried for centuries in the Nile Delta, revealing rare multi-story houses, granaries, and a sacred road linked to the cobra goddess Wadjet, from about 2,400 years ago.

Man built a 5-acre lake to raise bass, but after 1,000 days the project turned into a wildlife sanctuary with eagles, deer, ducks, owls, and live cameras that transformed the farm into a biodiversity laboratory.

Aircraft maintenance has become one of the technical areas most pressured by the shortage of professionals in Brazil, even with salaries that can exceed R$ 7,500 in more specialized careers.

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City Hall opens selection process with free registration, salaries up to R$ 3,622.31, and positions for teacher, driver, speech therapist, assistant, and other roles in education in Juazeiro.

The position that no one can explain: why Brazil still spends R$ 8 million per year on elevator operators even after the government officially recognized that the role became obsolete decades ago.

China unveils unprecedented quantum computer with 2 cores and 200 qubits: new architecture promises to reduce errors, increase stability for up to 100 seconds, and accelerate the global race for more powerful and scalable quantum machines.

La Rinconada, the city at 5,100 meters altitude where 50,000 people challenge the limits of the human body in the Peruvian Andes: gold mining, thin air, extreme cold, and artisanal mining have transformed one of the highest places on Earth into a hub of survival above the clouds.

The motorcycle that stands on its own, without the rider needing to put their feet on the ground, has already moved from paper to prototypes by Honda and Yamaha in Japan, which use robotics and artificial intelligence, not heavy gyroscopes, to avoid tipping over.