Owens is moving aside to become executive chairman, making way for Paddle COO Jimmy Fitzgerald to take over the reins. In a Linkedin post, Owens said: “I started this company in my bedroom, and together we have scaled it to an enduring and recognised business approaching $100m in revenue. “As we push forward into our next phase, I know now is the right time for me to pass the baton of day-to-day operations.” In January, Paddle, a provider of payments infrastructure for SaaS companies, laid off eight per cent of its 350-strong workforce, citing the need to cut costs amidst rising inflation and interest rates. The firm, which last year raised $200 million in Series D equity and debt financing at a valuation of $1.4bn, was a beneficiary of the Covid era as the shift to digital saw it sign up a slew of software companies who wanted to sell globally. In May it went on to acquire US  subscription management firm ProfitWell for $200 million

In a memo announcing the layoffs, Owens admitted to making two "key mistakes". "The first was assuming that the growth our customers saw during Covid was a signal of fundamental change and the growth would be sustained largely in perpetuity. The second was allowing our operating costs to increase at a faster rate than we were growing our revenue," he wrote.