Andela

Andela layoff list emerges after it laid off 135 employees

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🌎 Nairobi, Lagos, Kigali, Kampala, New York City ∙ 👩 135 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

An Africa-focused startup that provides “engineering as a service” to other companies, Andela laid off 135 employees in May. The company cited a decline in customers due to the economic downturn. Andela is also shifting its strategy from acting as a talent accelerator to serving as a talent outsourcing firm.

The Andela layoff list features 59 former engineers and 30 non-engineers (see link below 👇). Most are based in Africa, though a few are located in New York City.

View list of engineers laid off ->

View list of non-engineers laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

These tech startups received PPP bailout loans but still laid off employees

Analysis

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was established by the government to incentivize small businesses to keep their workers employed during the pandemic. However, a Layoffs.fyi analysis reveals that over 100 tech startups conducted layoffs despite receiving loans through the program.

On Monday, the government released the names of all companies that received loans greater than $150,000. Among the tech startups on the list: Getaround (laid off 100 on 3/27, received $5-10 mm loan on 4/28), Metromile (laid off 100 on 4/6, received $5-10 mm loan on 4/7), Lever (laid off 86 on 4/8, received $2-5 mm loan on 4/27), and Mixpanel (received $5-10 mm loan on 4/13, laid off 65 on 5/12).

Some companies have disputed the list’s accuracy, claiming they never received a PPP loan. It’s also worth noting that most of these companies laid off employees before getting the loan.

PPP loans carry a 1% interest rate and a 2 or 5-year term, making them an extremely attractive financing option for startups. The loan can even be forgiven if the company uses at least 60% for payroll costs and doesn’t reduce headcount, among other requirements.

Here’s a list of startups that reportedly received a PPP loan and laid off employees during the pandemic (our Layoffs.fyi Tracker has a complete list of all tech layoffs).

Many venture-backed startups struggled to decide whether to apply for a PPP loan, fearing they’d be taking money that could’ve gone to needier small businesses. Those that received a loan and laid off employees may endure additional scrutiny since the loan didn’t accomplish its intended purpose.

At the same time, PPP loans may have prevented these startups from laying off even more staff or shutting down altogether. 72% of the companies listed above conducted their layoff before receiving the loan, suggesting that the money was used to avoid further business damage.

While companies must retain their employees to qualify for loan forgiveness, there’s no such requirement to take out a PPP loan in the first place. Businesses are also allowed to use the loans for expenses beyond payroll.

Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for helping with the research.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 7/2/20

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Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic.

🏢 Katerra ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 400 employees (7%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A tech-driven construction company, Katerra cut 400 employees following a CEO change. The SoftBank-backed company previously laid off 240 employees in April. Katerra said then that stay-at-home orders forced the company to shut down some of its operations. TheRealDeal previously reported cases of cost overruns, delays, and cancellations in Katerra’s construction projects.

🏢 Argo AI ∙ 🌎 Munich ∙ 👩 100 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A self-driving car company, Argo AI laid off 100 of the 300 employees in its Munich-based Autonomous Intelligent Driving unit. Argo acquired the AID unit from Volkswagen as part of a $2.6 billion investment in Argo last year.

🏢 Bossa Nova ∙ 🌎 Pittsburgh, SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 61 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A maker of robots used in retail stores, Bossa Nova Robotics is terminating or furloughing 61 people. The layoffs affect its Bay Area and Pittsburgh-area staff, and are concentrated in the company’s software and operations teams. No robots were laid off.

🏢 Integrate.ai ∙ 🌎 Toronto ∙ 👩 26 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A startup that uses AI to improve customer interactions, Integrate.ai laid off 26 employees as part of a strategy change. The company said it would be focusing fully on its Trusted Signals Exchange offering going forward.

🏢 New Relic ∙ 🌎 Portland ∙ 👩 20 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A software performance monitoring tool, New Relic is combining its site engineering team with its core technology platform team. As a result, “less than 20 people” were laid off at its engineering headquarters in Portland.

🏢 Byton ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A Chinese electric vehicle startup, Byton said last week that it was implementing a layoff in its U.S. office. Later, it emerged that due to financial difficulties exacerbated by the pandemic, Byton will be halting operations entirely for at least six months. The company has yet to ship its first vehicle, a small crossover SUV.

🏢 G2 ∙ 🌎 Chicago ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees

  • A reviews website for business software, G2 conducted a “significant” workforce reduction, Layoffs.fyi has learned. Multiple employees, particularly in marketing, posted on LinkedIn about being laid off.
Sharethrough

Adtech startup Sharethrough lays off 18 employees

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🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩 18 employees (22%) ∙ 🖥 Sales and marketing

Sharethrough, a digital advertising exchange, laid off 18 employees today (22%). The downsizing primarily affected the company’s sales and marketing teams.

In a blog post, Sharethrough said that its business has been impacted by COVID-19, though there were signs of recovery in June. Brands have been pulling back their advertising spending during the economic slowdown, triggering layoffs at digital advertising firms as well as media companies dependent on ad revenue.

Sharethrough and other ad exchanges may be facing other headwinds beyond economic conditions. Recent initiatives by Apple and Google to restrict data tracking in browsers and mobile apps have the potential to severely shake up an entire advertising ecosystem that depends on this data to target and attribute digital ads. While Sharethrough did not cite this as a factor for its layoff, the company previously shut down its European operations due to restrictions in ad tracking imposed by GDPR.

To help laid-off employees, Sharethrough put together an opt-in list that it shared with Layoffs.fyi (see link below 👇).

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Dark

Programming service Dark releases layoff list

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🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 At least 6 employees ∙ 🖥 Engineering

Dark, a programming language and service, released a layoff list last week. The Dark layoff list features 4 engineers, 1 designer, and 1 business person. All of them are either remote or in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Dark’s LinkedIn page no longer lists any active employees other than the founders, suggesting that the entire company has shut down. Dark raised a $3.5 million seed round in 2017.

Explore list of employees laid off ->
Source: Google Sheets

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Sprinklr

Official Sprinklr layoff list surfaces

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🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 At least 30 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Sprinklr, a customer experience management platform with a $1 billion+ valuation, conducted a layoff in late May, according to multiple LinkedIn posts.

Yesterday the company began promoting a Sprinklr Talent Directory for employees “impacted due to COVID-19” (see link 👇). The Sprinklr layoff list features 30 ex-employees from multiple functions across the country, with a bent towards customer success roles.

Explore list of employees laid off ->
Source: Google Sheets

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 6/25/20

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Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic.

In case you missed it, our new Layoffs.fyi Severance Tracker tracks the details of severance packages offered by startups that have done layoffs. You can see how much each company gave in severance pay and healthcare coverage, whether they made any adjustments to employee stock options, and more.

🏢 Intuit ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 715 employees (7%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • The maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, Intuit said that staff cuts were needed to better align its team structure with its new strategy of becoming an “AI-driven expert platform.” In a blog post, the company’s CEO repeatedly referred to the layoff as “re-balancing our investments,” though rebalancing typically involves bringing a portfolio back to its original allocation rather than shifting to a new one (but I digress).

🏢 GoDaddy ∙ 🌎 Austin ∙ 👩 451 employees (6%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Web hosting and domain name provider GoDaddy is closing both of its Austin offices, which housed its GoDaddy Social business unit. 814 employees are impacted in total — of those, 40% were “offered alternate roles” in another location, 331 employees in sales were laid off, and 120 employees from fulfillment and customer success were let go.

🏢 Sonos ∙ 🌎 Los Angeles ∙ 👩 174 employees (12%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Despite having successfully taken thousands of dollars from my bank account over the years, wireless speaker company Sonos had to lay off 12% of its staff. Sonos is also closing its retail store in New York City and 6 satellite offices.

🏢 ScaleFactor ∙ 🌎 Austin ∙ 👩 90 employees (90%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Just months after raising a $60 million Series C, automated bookkeeping company ScaleFactor is shutting down. The company said that the pandemic had wiped out half of its sales. Half of ScaleFactor’s 100 employees were laid off immediately, and all but 10 will be let go by the end of August.

🏢 Splunk ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 70 employees (1%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A maker of data intelligence software, Splunk eliminated roles within its Product Management, Engineering, and PMO teams, according to an internal email reviewed by Layoffs.fyi.

🏢 Redox ∙ 🌎 Madison ∙ 👩 44 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An API for healthcare data, Redox explained the circumstances surrounding the layoff on its company podcast.

🏢 Atlas Obscura ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 14 employees (25%)

  • A travel media company that specializes in obscure destinations, Atlas Obscura laid off around 14 employees, two sources told Layoffs.fyi.
Grab

Official Grab layoff list released following 360-person layoff

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🌎 Singapore, Indonesia ∙ 👩 360 employees (5%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Grab, the largest ride-hailing startup in Southeast Asia, laid off 360 employees last week. Grab is the latest in the category to cut staff, following layoffs at Uber (U.S.), Lyft (U.S.), Ola (India), and Careem (Middle East). Grab mentioned it would be sunsetting non-core projects and redeploying staff to focus on its delivery business.

Grab is offering laid-off employees a host of transition benefits, including severance pay of 1.5 months plus half a month for every 6 months of service, health insurance coverage through the end of 2020, waiver of the annual cliff on equity vesting, and outplacement support from the company’s Talent Acquisition team.

The company also created a Grab Talent Directory that launched today (see link 👇). The Grab layoff list features nearly 100 ex-employees, mostly in Singapore and Indonesia.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Deliveroo

Deliveroo layoff list showcases over 100 of its global employees

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🌎 London, Dubai, Taipei ∙ 👩 367 employees (15%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

London-based Deliveroo, a food delivery startup that operates in 13 markets globally, laid off 367 employees in late April. At the time, the company was vague about the reasons for the layoff, but it’s widely speculated that the unprofitability of food delivery startups combined with pandemic-induced restaurant closures has led to troubles across the category.

On LinkedIn, the company has been promoting an official Deliveroo talent directory that showcases some of its laid-off employees (see link 👇). The Deliveroo layoff list contains over 100 former employees, primarily in London, Dubai, and Taipei.

View list of employees laid off ->

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.

Conga

Conga lays off 11% following merger with Apttus

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🌎 Denver ∙ 👩 11% of staff ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Conga, which makes document generation software for Salesforce customers, laid off 11% of its staff last Monday, according to an internal email reviewed by Layoffs.fyi.

The company announced last month that it was merging with competitor Apttus in a reported $715 million deal. Last week’s layoff, which affected the combined entity, was the result of role redundancies caused by the merger.

Conga said that laid-off employees would be offered severance pay and transition resources, including 1:1 help with resume preparation and interviewing skills. The company has also created an opt-in alumni talent directory (see link 👇).

The Conga layoff list currently contains 44 ex-employees across the country, primarily in Professional Services, Customer Success, Sales, and Sales Engineering.

Explore list of employees laid off ->
Source: Google Sheets

Our live Layoffs Tracker has a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.