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      Luno

      Part of Digital Currency Group

      Engaged employer

      Luno Reviews

      4.3

      96% would recommend to a friend

      (571 total reviews)

      James Lanigan

      97% approve of CEO

      72% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Luno has an employee rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on 571 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Luno employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      571 reviews
      1.0
      29 Mar 2019

      Avoid this place. Bad culture and starting to come undone.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Some people are genuine and really smart. salaries are ok but the money isn’t worth the unhappiness.

      Cons

      Where to start? Some of the other reviews have covered off a few points but you’ll be sold a dream and the reality is different in truth . It’s a miserable and depressing place to be. The management don’t listen to their employees at all. You’ll be be expected to give it all and will get very little back (no medical or pension, no shares, no maternity or paternity policy) all you’ll get is a lunch which you are forced to have indoors to mix with the team You have to travel on weekends and don’t get the time back and expected to answer emails 24/7 and be constantly ‘on’. It’s frowned on to take a break or run errands at lunch or to work at home. The CEO can be difficult to deal with and so are some toxic employees. Their answer to solving issues is to organise a night out instead of doing things which will actually make the staff happier. They are hiring some amazing people, with great experience from good tech companies but this people will soon get fed up and tired of it all when they realise what it’s like. Some good people left after just a few months and more and more are leaving. What does that tell you?! Nobody wants to spend time with each other apart from to talk about how unhappy they are with various things. The all company summit is just forced fun. You think you’re mad when you are there as they just talk about how amazing it is but you aren’t, other companies are just better to be at. People are starting to realise it but It’s all brushed under the carpet. Also they ask people to write a Glassdoor review 2 weeks in so that’s why most are positive.

      avatar
      Luno Response
      7y
      Hi there, Marcus here. Firstly, I’m very sorry that you have had such a bad experience. I can assure you that I have read your review many times and I’ve taken it very personally, so have many other people in the team that are trying their utmost best to build a team and a place where people love their work and can significantly progress in their careers. Given we have hundreds of very happy people in the company we’d like to think that most of the time we get it right, but we also do know that often we get it wrong, and if you were on the receiving end of that I do apologise. No-one here would ever intentionally miss-sell the opportunity, and as you know in companies and in life, there are many reasons why things happen or don’t work out. We’re scaling fast and learning as we go along, and again it won’t always be perfect. Where your comments have some truth in it we have reflected on these and continue to work to make it better - there is no doubt about it that we can do many things better. I suspect a lot of your concerns are also because some things might have existed, but not communicated properly, especially in our London office that was pretty new and we needed time to get everything in order (and yes, that is my fault for not communicating it properly). There are also many things on your list that I feel is only fair to point out (please feel free to contact me if you disagree or wish to discuss): No maternity / paternity leave: we’ve always had this No shares: many people do get shares, we have a company ESOP, it just depends on the role / your experience. No pension: I assume you refer to statutory pension in the UK. We have that. It took time to implement it but it was communicated to the team and disclosed at signing for all, and everyone was okay with this Medical - we don’t have private medical yes, this is not because we don’t want to, it’s because we haven’t had the time to put it in place. To make up for this, whenever we hired someone, we would pay them more on top of their base to make up for it so that they could pay their own medical. Over time we will try and build a group scheme, but we’d never expect anyone to be out of pocket on this, and as far as I know no-one has ever been. Forced indoors lunch: we provide free lunches to the team Mondays to Thursdays. It’s not forced, it’s free, whether you choose to have your free lunch or not is your decision. I’m sorry you felt this was something bad, we want to give the team free lunch which is meant to be something good. Forced travel over weekends: again, not forced. Nothing is ‘forced’ her. We are all adults and can decide to do something or not. That said, I can see how there could have been a miscommunication here because sometimes people would book weekend travel out of habit, which could come across as forced, but again it wasn’t the intention. Some people get away with murder/toxic employees etc: this is both my responsibility and that of people that notice it to mention it to me, so that if there is truth in the matter we can deal with it. We have a track record of doing it many, many times and won’t hesitate to do it again. Please let me know if there is something I missed so I can act on it if appropriate. CEO difficult to work with - sorry you feel this way, I try my best. Answer emails 24/7 and constantly on: I’ve not seen this for anyone regularly let alone the whole company. There might be some exceptions with the odd late night or weekend stuff but it’s certainly not the norm. I would love to know more if you can share. Frowned about to take breaks for errands or work from home: I’ve genuinely never seen or heard anyone have any issues with people running errands or having to ask, in fact I would argue that I’ve actually never seen an environment where one can so easily do this. And yes, I checked this with the entire London office after this review. Company summit forced fun: we fly or drive people from all over the world somewhere for an all expenses paid week filled with events, knowledge sharing, meeting colleagues, lots of parties etc. It is not forced in any way, and there are often people that can’t make it for personal reasons, but hundreds of people really love it. I’m sorry you personally hated it. Have people write Glassdoor reviews 2 weeks after joining: I suspect this might have happened once before many years ago, by accident, but it’s not something we do systematically or encourage - you can just look at the dates of the reviews on Glassdoor vs the 10-30 people we onboard every month, and it will be obvious this is not true. Again, I’m very sorry that I ignited so much anger in you. Please know that so many people at Luno care about our company and the team and every single individual so so much, and we will continue to try our best, despite our faults. Please email or whatsapp me personally if you need to discuss any of the above, you have my contact details. Marcus
      2.0
      28 Mar 2019

      Bad culture, don't express an opinion and don't expect progression

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Salaries are competitive for some roles

      Cons

      Working at Luno is more about who you know than what you know. The decision making in Luno is made by a select few, these are those who are either in favour or have served time rather than those who might have more knowledge or skills to make those decisions, don't try to express an opinion to these select few as it will fall on deaf ears, either that or you will forever be the person who didn't agree. Luno has people working in roles they do not have the experience or qualifications for and simply are there on good terms, this sets a bad example for those who truly want to progress as there is no example of 'hard works pays off'. Luno would like to be seen as a company who 'works hard, plays hard' the truth is no one wants to spend time together outside of working hours, if we do it is forced fun and not enjoyable. The HR department is questionable and not open to feedback or ideas, neither do they hold a very open view on the world. Travel is expected but also expected to be done in your own time, flying on weekends for long periods of time is expected and you won't be given days back for this. The only benefit offered is a free lunch that you are expected to eat in the office at the same time as everyone else within a twenty minutes slot, it is frowned upon if you expect to go outside or make any plans at lunch.

      avatar
      Luno Response
      7y
      Hi there - Marcus here. I'm truly sorry to hear that this is what you are experiencing at Luno. As we are scaling we are trying really hard to foster a culture of feedback, where Lunauts can raise concerns in a way that allows us to do something constructive about it. These things are typically much better discussed and dealt with in person, so if you are open to it, please reach out to me so that we can set up some time to talk and address your specific concerns.
      1.0
      20 Mar 2019

      Inconsistent culture across offices

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The Cape Town office has a great vibe - people are friendly, want to help each other and spend time together. It really is a community and people are trusted to get on with their jobs. Free lunches are a good perk (but designed to keep you in the office and with about 15mins break to eat then get back to work). There were some great people at Luno, but most of these are leaving or have left now.

      Cons

      If you're not in Cape Town, it feels like a very different company. There is no autonomy, people are judged on hours worked rather than impact, and you're a second-class after-thought to decisions being made elsewhere. For the size and stage it is at, there are way too many bureaucratic processes and hoops to jump through to get anything done, so most people give up in frustration. These processes are designed to concentrate all power and decision making in the hands of a couple of early employees, who would rather bottleneck everyone else's work than trust their team and delegate any kind of decision. The CEO seems to collect people based on the prestige of the companies they have worked at in the past, but then rather than embrace ideas that have worked at successful companies, wants things to be done 'the Luno way' so these proven people stagnate and switch off. No one seems to care what they do though as long as their previous employers can be used in pitch decks, so these people get away with doing very little whilst the expectations on others are much higher. From what I saw, people don't want to be in the office, they do their time like a prison sentence and get out as fast as possible, other than a couple of dedicated (overworked) people. Attempts to 'fix' culture are superficial because management don't ask people how they are feeling or what problems they have, they just decide for them that the problem must be people not spending enough time together, and then enforce out of hours 'team bonding' sessions regardless of whether people have families, as if a meal will fix the problems with the culture. There is no dialogue with management, it is entirely one way - top down. The product doesn't have much to set it apart from the competition but expects marketing alone to make it successful. It's a big bet to make when there are already established players in the crypto space.

      avatar
      Luno Response
      7y
      Thanks for leaving such a thorough review. Let me begin by apologizing that you didn’t have a good experience at Luno. We try incredibly hard to make Luno an amazing place to work and progress, and where it doesn’t work out for some people, I really take full responsibility. Also, I can assure you that we’ve spent a lot of time reading and reflecting on this review to ensure we draw the necessary truths from it to ensure we make things better for people in a similar position. As you know we’re scaling super fast and sometimes we don’t get to fix or do things as fast/well as we should. But scaling shouldn’t be an excuse for everything, and there are many areas that we can improve on. To address some of your specific points: Different offices with different culture: this is true. Bear in mind though, a big office wasn’t like that in the beginning, it took many years to get there. Most of our other offices are much smaller and new and will take time to evolve its own culture. Some offices have grown well, others more challenging, but it’s all a work in progress and we’re spending an incredible amount of time and energy to do it right. No autonomy: ‘no’ is probably a bit of a superlative, but there have certainly been challenges across some new offices. I am under no illusion that there are many initial bottlenecks, which is understandable given our stage and pace of growth. The important thing is that the strategy of all our new offices is to ultimately be fully autonomous, but it takes time, and it’s often 3 steps forward, 1 step back. This is a high priority on my agenda and over the past few months we’ve done a huge amount to speed things up. Processes ‘designed to be concentrate power in the hands of early employees’: It's definitely not ‘designed’ like that. Like any fast scaling company, it does sometimes happen that some early employees are challenged in a certain area, and then this could become problematic. But it’s not some evil power mongering going on, it’s usually just someone out of their depth that is insecure or worried about their job etc. We have a track record of asking people like this to step aside where needed, but at the same time, in some cases it is missed or we try to first give the person a chance to develop, and then it might take a bit of time for them to get better or for us to make that change, but it is always dealt with one way or another. Free lunches ‘designed to keep you in the office and only 15 mins. Again, not ‘designed’ in any way, it’s just free food and (if you would like it) and an opportunity to sit and have lunch with your colleagues if you want to, but you can take however long or wherever you want. Collecting people from prestigious companies for pitch books: if you look at the data on Linkedin for example, you will see that there is a huge range of Lunauts, some from so-called ‘prestigious’ companies, many (if not most) who are not. We hire based on merit, and often they will be from these companies, there is no bias. When I do investor pitches, I have a team slide (that you presumably refer to), which includes logos of companies that people previously worked for, which is standard. It’s also standard to include the companies that other people would know vs ones that are not so well-known. So nothing unusual. Do time as a prison sentence: no-one is forcing anyone to do anything or be anywhere. Like any other company, we’re a good match for some, not so good for others. But there is no gun to anyone’s head. No dialogue with management and that it’s ‘one way’: I think this is a gross generalization. Can we all do better at communication generally? Yes of course. It’s something we’re constantly working on, especially in many new teams and offices where communication is a bit weaker because people don’t know one another that well, hence trying to invest more into that. Product doesn’t differentiate, marketing expected to drive all, big bet with established players in space - this is quite a lot to address but in short, if you understand our business model you’ll understand why we’re so well set up for success in our industry. For example, we are no 1 in many markets across the world, by quite a significant factor. And we’re actually the total opposite of relying on marketing for growth, almost all of our growth is organic. Act faster on toxic employees: something I 100% agree with you, we don’t always do it fast enough, and we should be better at it. Again, I sincerely apologize that you had such a bad experience at Luno. Please know that there are a lot of people working tirelessly to make it better for current and future employees, and that we’ve taken your comments on board to make sure we improve. It would be useful if you could discuss your views with me in person so I can get more detail and act better where necessary, so please whatsapp or email me if you’d like, you have my contact details. Marcus
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      Glassdoor has 587 Luno reviews submitted anonymously by Luno employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Luno is right for you.