SumUp Reviews

Bit of a wild story. I interviewed with SumUp in 2021 for a role I wasn't placed in but was kept in the system for other opportunities. A few months later a C level exec reached out to me about a role in a "big bet" they were investing in. I was a good fit for the role, and eventually we agreed some great terms and a start date a couple of months later. It's important to note this was a relocation offer, so I was to move country with my partner to take this exciting opportunity. A full month after signing the physical contract that I got a call from the people team saying they were rescinding the contract due to budget cuts. I had already given up my long term lease (where i lived with my partner) and was in my last week at my previous employer. SumUp offered me zero compensation: not a cent. This is at a time where other tech companies are offering people in the same position 14 weeks severance. All I received from SumUp was a paper termination letter saying they owed me nothing, signed by a co-founder. I didn't even receive a "sorry this happened" email from the C-Level exec that convinced me to take the job. I'm really disappointed in SumUp. Everyone who I met was giving it large about their "we care" value, and how it guides everything. To not offer any compensation was reprehensible. My partner and I made an enormous life decision on the premise that SumUp would act honourably. It didn't, and we've had to move back in with our parents. Beware. Interesting to note that the week I got my termination notice the company was at a week long offsite in Portugal. That isn't cheap. And a week after they announced a fundraise of $624m. Classy.

No leadership: SumUp tends to “hire” within WHU circles especially when it comes to European / global leadership with little experience and missing openness for diverse thinking or constructive criticism. If challenged, leaderships tends to remove uncomfortable individuals rather than listening to them in order to make positive change. Being direct is used for a continuous excuse of being rude and the general understanding of power imbalance between managers and their reports fails to be understood. Lastly promotions are mostly decided based on relationship rather then expertise and hard work (there is a process for promotions, however this one is tweaked to the respective advantage of the individual) Missing diversity: within Global / European leadership about 80% are white male and German. Female representatives have been put in place for the quota (HR, Marketing, Diversity) however lack edge, impact and inspiration to individual contributors. Working groups to direct change have been set up in order to show change in paper but initiatives are barely implemented. Lack of Strategy: within 3 years at SumUp the organizational structure changed multiple times including significant layoffs while at the same time acquiring companies for +300M USD without properly managing integration into the infrastructure, leading to loss of trust of the people into leadership, to frustration and misalignment. Missing values: it’s ok to admit that SumUp is looking to maximize returns for their investors and that performance is key, however that’s not what is being communicated to the wider org ie. We care and put our team first is one of the values. More than 300 people were laid off globally, only to start rehiring 6 months later, which led to a significant decrease in motivation and productivity and forced the remaining individuals almost into burnouts. Numbers, data, infrastructure: data is not connected and infrastructure only provides 10% of the insights you’d need to understand your business. Decisions are based on false assumptions and are being made by leaders lacking relevant understanding of economic factors and impact their decisions have on their co-workers.