Trustly Layoffs Brazil: What Happened and Why

If you heard that layoffs now always come with an AI excuse, the Trustly layoffs Brazil case breaks the pattern. The Swedish fintech, which operates a hub in Vitória, cited losses and a focus on priority areas when it began cutting Brazilian teams in September 2026.

What happened in the Trustly layoffs in Brazil?

Around 100 people were dismissed from Trustly's Vitória hub in a single day, the first wave of a global plan to cut roughly 200 jobs, or one in four employees. The cuts hit QA, release engineering, frontend, backend and management roles, and were announced through emails sent to workers' personal addresses.

Trustly began cutting its Brazilian workforce in Vitória, Espírito Santo, with roughly 100 people dismissed in a single day, according to reports circulating on the r/VitoriaEspiritoSanto subreddit and relayed on the Mano Rage Show live stream on 22 September 2026. Trustly, a Swedish payments company specialized in Pay by Bank transfers, had operated a Brazilian hub in the city for years after acquiring the former Pay With My Bank business, which was founded in 2012. A business registration under the name Trustly Brasil Software in Vitória has been open since 2008, some 17 years before the current cuts.

Employees described learning about the dismissal through emails sent to personal addresses, because company email access had already been cut. Entire teams were dissolved without notice to team members, and several affected workers had to inform their own managers that they had been fired. The affected roles were not limited to one function: reports cited QA and release teams, and a search on LinkedIn showed frontend, backend and management positions among those let go. Some dismissed employees were reportedly on vacation at the time. One former employee wrote that she left after almost two years and is looking for frontend, full stack or backend roles with React and Node experience; another former colleague described Trustly as a good company she holds dear, and noted that nobody on LinkedIn was speaking ill of it, even if the way the cuts were handled was harsh.

The cuts fit a larger announced plan. Reporting collected by Tech.eu stated that Trustly would cut around 200 jobs, roughly one in four employees, and that the company indicated the first cuts would affect its teams in Brazil as it concentrates investment on priority areas.

Why did Trustly cut jobs: losses, not AI

Trustly attributed the cuts to financial performance and a refocus on priority areas, not to artificial intelligence efficiency. The company reported a loss of 534 million Swedish krona in 2025, after a 401 million krona loss in 2024, and revenue fell to around 2,427 million krona, a drop of roughly half a billion krona from the earlier figure, according to the numbers read from Tech.eu coverage on the live stream.

The streamer presenting these numbers noted the contrast with the 2026 pattern of AI-framed layoffs. In his account, Trustly was honest and at no point blamed AI, and instead published the loss figures alongside the announcement. That framing matters for readers tracking whether 'AI efficiency' claims are becoming a cover story: here, the company's own statement pointed to losses.

Because the announcement specified that Brazilian teams would be cut first, workers in Trustly's Lisbon hub feared the next round there. Remaining employees also feared the Brazil operation could shrink further in a second wave. That expectation about Lisbon is the streamer's own reading of the announcement, not a confirmed company plan.

The 2022 precedent: growth pains at Trustly

This was not Trustly's first round of cuts. On 15 November 2022, the company laid off about one in ten employees, several senior executives left, and the CEO admitted the company had chosen the wrong path. He said the organization had become too much like a big company, with many layers and functions, and had lost the entrepreneurial spirit needed to innovate.

The streamer connected that 2022 statement to a familiar argument about scale: companies that grow large accumulate management layers, and coordination costs slow decisions. He illustrated the point with the calendar problem common in big organizations, where a simple conversation needs a meeting slot two weeks out, and referenced the Spotify-inspired squad, tribe and chapter model as an example of structure that can become bureaucracy in practice. In his telling, agile made bureaucracy prettier without making it smaller. A chat commenter who left Mercedes-Benz for a startup made the same point from experience: six months there delivered what took more than two years at the large company.

Whether or not that diagnosis is complete, the 2022 quote and the 2026 losses tell a consistent story for anyone watching the Trustly layoffs Brazil situation: the company has been restructuring for years, and the current cuts look like a continuation of that pattern rather than a sudden response to new technology.

Are layoffs really caused by AI? The Stone counterexample

Not every AI-framed layoff holds up under scrutiny. In March 2026, reports circulated that Stone, the Brazilian payments company, had cut about 3% of its workforce, with tech roles affected, and the cuts were explicitly attributed to artificial intelligence. Follow-up reporting and the streamer's earlier analysis found that Stone was already suffering losses, and its share price rose after the announcement, which he reads as the AI story serving an investor audience.

His conclusion, and the useful lesson from the Trustly layoffs Brazil case, is that the 'fired because of AI' explanation deserves the same skepticism as any corporate narrative. Check the company's financials before accepting the framing. In Trustly's case, the numbers were published; in Stone's case, the losses existed before the cuts.

Case	Date	Official reason	What the numbers showed
Trustly Brazil	September 2026	Losses, focus on priority areas	534M krona loss in 2025 after 401M in 2024
Trustly global	15 November 2022	Too many layers, lost entrepreneurial spirit	About 1 in 10 employees cut, executives left
Stone	March 2026	Artificial intelligence	Pre-existing losses; shares rose after the cuts

Treat these as two data points and one precedent, not proof of an industry-wide pattern. Two companies, one of which blamed AI and one of which did not, cannot establish what is happening across the technology sector in 2026.

Vibe coding and the store breach that followed

The same live stream covered a security incident that shows the risk side of AI-built software: a store built entirely with an AI tool was breached one day after launch. A Brazilian content creator with over 15 million followers, known as Buzeira, launched an online clothing store built from scratch with Lovable, the prompt-to-app builder that ships a deployable front end, instead of an established platform like Shopify or Nuvemshop.

A security researcher, Yuri Dev, then published a video walkthrough of serious vulnerabilities in the store:

1. Order data, including price and total, was sent entirely from the frontend at checkout, in a single request to the orders endpoint.
2. Access tokens were returned for any email submitted at checkout, even without an account, exposing the user's ID, email and role.
3. Mass assignment let an attacker set a two-factor authentication field on any account through the profile API, bypassing 2FA wherever it was later requested.
4. An exposed admin panel was reachable through a subdomain found with directory scanning, alongside API and payments subdomains.
5. Full platform control followed after swapping a session token for a super-admin token found in an API response, opening analytics, customers, orders and products.

The story took a turn during the video: the developer himself had commissioned the analysis, because the store had already been breached one day after launch. At 3 a.m., attackers ran brute-force login attempts against the team's personal emails and even the developer's own, reached an admin account, and changed the payment gateway's receiving account, first to one called DH Rayan and then to Jaivan. The developer noticed by 1:11 p.m., cut access and enabled 2FA. Roughly four hours later the attackers messaged the developer pretending to report the vulnerability, in what the streamer called 'vibe hacking': AI-assisted intrusion by people who, in his words, left traces everywhere, including tax IDs and site logs that now point to the suspected attacker. He stressed that the original developer acted correctly, documented everything, kept log evidence, and is pursuing the case in court. The store was unfinished when Buzeira published the link early, which forced a rushed completion.

The security training company Solyd, which sponsored the stream, markets exactly this defensive path: 37 courses, labs where you hack real machines, five practical certifications and a hacking championship with a 30,000 BRL prize, plus a talent pool called Solid Hunter. The streamer's argument was that AI-generated code ships fast and breaks fast, making systems faster and more vulnerable at the same time, and that security skills are where the demand is moving. That is a sponsor's pitch wrapped around a real case, so weigh it accordingly.

What affected workers and watchers should do

For Trustly employees caught in the Brazil cuts, the immediate practical steps raised on the stream were collective and individual. Former employees were organizing through a group coordinated with the SindPD union in Espírito Santo to align on next steps, and affected workers were advised to join before negotiations proceed. The recommended actions, in the order the stream laid them out:

1. Join the former Trustly employees group and connect with SindPD in Espírito Santo before individual negotiations begin.
2. Post your availability on LinkedIn immediately, as several affected employees did, so recruiters can find you while the news is current.
3. Apply to companies hiring payments engineers in the region; a former Trustly engineer at Wise was actively referring former colleagues.
4. Do not treat a development plan and positive feedback as job security, since entire reporting lines disappeared in this round and some managers learned they were gone from their own direct reports.

On the hiring side, a former Trustly engineer now at Wise, the international money transfer company, posted that Wise is expanding in Brazil and has open positions, an obvious landing spot for payments engineers in the Vitória region. The streamer amplified that referral directly to affected viewers.

For engineers tracking the Trustly layoffs Brazil outcome, the broader takeaway is to keep external visibility of your own work. When cuts come from above, your standing with your manager may not matter, because your manager may be cut too.

FAQ

How many people were affected by the Trustly layoffs in Brazil?

Around 100 people were dismissed from the Vitória hub in the first wave, based on reports shared on Reddit and discussed on the live stream. Trustly's overall plan, as reported by Tech.eu, is to cut about 200 jobs, roughly one in four employees, with Brazil affected first.

Did Trustly blame AI for the layoffs?

No. The company cited losses and a decision to focus investment on priority areas. The streamer highlighted this as a contrast with AI-framed layoffs elsewhere, such as the Stone cuts reported in March 2026.

What were Trustly's financial results before the cuts?

According to figures read from Tech.eu coverage on the stream, Trustly lost 534 million Swedish krona in 2025 after a 401 million krona loss in 2024, with revenue falling to around 2,427 million krona. Verify against Trustly's own filings before citing these numbers elsewhere.

Is Trustly leaving Brazil?

No closure has been announced. The company said cuts would begin in Brazil, and remaining employees feared the Brazil operation could shrink further in a second wave, but the streamer's guess that Lisbon is Next.js speculation, not a company statement.

Was the Lovable-built store breach confirmed?

The account comes from a published video walkthrough by the security researcher Yuri Dev and the streamer's commentary on it. The researcher said the store's developer commissioned the analysis after an earlier real intrusion, which the developer confirmed. Treat the technical details as the researcher's own findings, not independently verified.

Who was at fault for the store breach?

The researcher argued the blame was shared. The store was unfinished when the link went out early, and the vulnerabilities were real, but the attackers who broke in acted criminally and left extensive traces, including tax IDs the developer now holds. The developer documented everything and is pursuing the case in court.

Was Trustly's 2022 layoff related to this one?

Both rounds are part of the same restructuring story. In 2022 the company cut one in ten employees and the CEO said it had grown too many layers and lost its entrepreneurial spirit. The 2026 cuts follow years of losses, so the streamer reads them as a continuation rather than a new departure.

What should former Trustly employees do first?

Join the organized former-employees group connected with the SindPD union in Espírito Santo before negotiating individually, then post availability on LinkedIn. Payments engineers in the Vitória region should also look at Wise, which is expanding in Brazil and taking referrals from a former Trustly engineer.

Is firing people because of AI efficiency still a credible story in 2026?

Less so, according to the stream. The Trustly case showed a company publishing real losses without invoking AI, and the Stone case showed an AI claim that unraveled once losses and a rising share price came to light. Check the financials before accepting either framing.

Turn a stream like this into a written record

A two-hour live stream like this one buries real reporting, including the loss figures behind the Trustly layoffs Brazil story and a full security walkthrough, inside greetings, sponsor reads, and chat banter. If you publish interviews, commentary, or technical breakdowns on YouTube, that same material can work as a searchable article. Skala Blog turns a YouTube video into a structured written piece: paste the URL, get a transcript, and generate an article you review before publishing. Community resources such as Crazystack Typescript and channels like Gustavo Dev Doido with the Bootcamp do Dev Doido show how much Brazilian dev knowledge lives only in video; converting it to text is how it reaches readers who search instead of watch.

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