The party's over at the craziest office in fintech
Lanistar, a digital banking firm, is one of the more controversial fintechs. Its time may be up: it reportedly faces liquidation over unpaid rent for its London office.
In job listings last year Lanistar said the office had waterslides, a 20-metre barbecue and a pet parrot. Multiple Glassdoor reviews mention the parrot. One negative review said it "seem[ed] to be suffering immensely" and would scream "incessantly."
Not all reviews are quite so positive about life in Lanistar's London land, however. One Glassdoor review from last October called the office "hell on earth", and said Lanistar had a motivational speaker in the background to "inspire" staff... In 2021, it was said to have a "losers table" where it would send underperformers.
Before the issues with alleged unpaid rent in London, Lanistar's employees were complaining that the firm hasn't paid them for their work as far back as 2021. There are unconfirmed reports that this has been an ongoing issue. Multiple Glassdoor reviews suggest the firm has conducted mass layoffs recently, although this is also unconfirmed.
Lanistar didn't respond to a request to comment for this article.
The company is no stranger to controversy. In 2021, it had a clash with the FCA in 2021, which said it was "not conducting regulated activities". This lead to Lanistar rescinding its card product from the UK; it's now only available in Brazil. Its sister company, WPRO, based in the same office, launched a number of cryptocurrency tokens which raised a lot of money but crashed after launch.
Companies House accounts show that Lanistar had an operating loss of £6.6m over 2022 and 2023, and it still appears to owe upwards of £17m. The accounts also said the firm averaged 15 employees in 2023, but social media data suggests it had close to 100 last June.
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