Gojek

Gojek creates talent directory following 430-person layoff

🌎 Jakarta ∙ 👩 430 employees (9%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Gojek, Indonesia’s largest startup, laid off 430 employees (9%) in late June. The ride-hailing company joined its global peers Grab, Uber, Lyft, Ola, and Kapten in cutting staff as a result of pandemic-induced lockdowns.

In the wake of the layoff, Gojek created a talent directory to showcase its affected employees (see link 👇). The Gojek layoff list features 177 former employees, primarily in Indonesia.

Gojek’s layoffs were concentrated in its GoLife (household services) and GoFood Festivals (physical dining) business units. The company plans to shut them down in order to focus on its core businesses of transportation and food delivery.

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

Spotahome

Spotahome launches alumni talent directory

🌎 Madrid, London ∙ 👩 At least 31 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Spotahome, a European startup that helps people list mid to long-term housing rentals, launched a talent directory of its alumni employees (see link 👇). A layoff at the company has yet to be reported publicly.

The Spotahome talent directory features 31 ex-employees in Madrid and London. The company last raised a $40 million round of funding in 2018.

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

LinkedIn

LinkedIn launches official talent directory after laying off 960 employees

🌎 Multiple locations ∙ 👩 960 employees (6%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

LinkedIn, the professional networking site, laid off 960 employees (6%) across its Global Sales and Talent Acquisition teams in late July. Today the company launched an opt-in talent directory featuring hundreds of its recently-departed alumni (see link 👇).

The directory includes people with experience in customer success, recruitment, and sales management in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions, according to a company blog post.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn’s alumni talent directory was built inside LinkedIn’s own product. After logging in to LinkedIn, hiring managers and recruiters can filter candidates by connections, locations, job title, and job type. They can then browse each candidate’s LinkedIn profile and send a LinkedIn message to those they’re interested in.

All of these features resemble the LinkedIn Recruiter product that sits within the company’s Talent Solutions business. Ironically, it is the Talent Solutions business that catalyzed the company’s layoff in the first place, having suffered due to a slowdown in hiring during the pandemic.

The LinkedIn layoff list features over 400 ex-employees globally.

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

Zeitgold

Bookkeeping startup Zeitgold lays off 75 employees and pivots to tax prep software

🌎 Berlin, Tel Aviv ∙ 👩 75 employees (71%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Zeitgold, a Berlin-based startup that automates bookkeeping for small businesses and their tax advisors, announced last week that it was sunsetting its main product. In conjunction, the company laid off 75 of its employees, leaving 30 people on the team.

Like other startups that have attempted to automate bookkeeping, Zeitgold discovered that despite years of technology development, its service still required large amounts of manual labor to deliver. Scaling such a service was unsustainable, Zeitgold ultimately concluded. The company will instead develop new products that can be delivered without human involvement, such as tax preparation software.

Following the layoff, Zeitgold launched a talent directory to showcase its former employees (see link 👇). The Zeitgold layoff list includes 62 ex-employees in Berlin and Tel Aviv.

The company raised a $29 million Series B just 3 months ago.

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

Oyo

Oyo UK launches talent directory for laid-off employees

🌎 London ∙ 👩 At least 34 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Oyo, a lodging startup headquartered in India, has cut hundreds of employees globally as the pandemic decimates its business.

In the wake of these layoffs, the Oyo UK division released a talent directory to showcase a few of its affected employees (see link 👇). Employees were told in May that most of the UK staff would be laid off, numbering approximately 150-200 people.

It’s not clear whether the talent directory is meant to cover the May layoffs, or if there’s been a new round in July. The Oyo layoff list features 34 ex-employees, many of whom are in sales.

According to a recent internal memo, Oyo’s global revenue has dropped to ~30% of pre-COVID levels amid declining hotel occupancy rates.

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

Pared

Pared layoff list surfaces

🌎 San Francisco Bay Area, New York City ∙ 👩 At least 16 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Pared, a hiring marketplace for the food industry, conducted a significant layoff. With restaurants across the country under extreme pressure due to lockdown orders, there’s not much hiring happening in the food industry right now.

Pared released a layoff spreadsheet this week (see link 👇). The list includes 16 former employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, including several software engineers.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Pared has raised just under $14 million to date.

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

Sorabel

Indonesian startup Sorabel releases engineering talent directory following company shutdown

🌎 Indonesia ∙ 👩 100% of employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Sorabel, a fashion e-commerce startup based in Indonesia, is shutting down by the end of July. All employees will be laid off as of July 30. The company had raised $27 million over four rounds of funding, but ran out of cash to survive the pandemic.

Sorabel created a talent directory showcasing some of its former engineers (see link 👇). In a LinkedIn post promoting the directory, its VP Engineering said that the “directory is published with the intention so that prospective companies can have better access to their next strong engineering team members.”

The Sorabel layoff list features 28 ex-employees based in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and Bandung, Indonesia.

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

Checkr

Checkr lays off 64 employees

🌎 San Francisco, Denver ∙ 👩 64 employees (12%) ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Checkr, a startup that provides background checks to companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart, laid off 64 employees (12%) last Thursday. The company has been hurt from a hiring slowdown by its clients during the pandemic.

A company executive provided Layoffs.fyi with an opt-in list of Checkr alumni (see link 👇). The Checkr layoff list features 43 impacted employees across multiple departments in its San Francisco and Denver offices.

Laid-off employees will receive 2 to 4 months of severance pay and one year of health insurance benefits. The company also removed the one-year vesting cliff for employee stock options.

In late 2019, Checkr raised funding at a valuation of $2.2 billion.

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

Perkbox

HR tech startup Perkbox launches talent directory following layoff

🌎 London ∙ 👩 At least 4 employees ∙ 🖥 Multiple departments

Perkbox, which makes HR software designed to improve the employee experience, conducted a layoff last week. In a LinkedIn post announcing the layoff, the company launched a talent directory showcasing some of its former employees (see link 👇).

The Perkbox layoff list features 4 ex-employees based in London.

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

Kapten

French ride-hailing startup Kapten releases layoff list

🌎 Paris ∙ 👩 At least 68 employees ∙ 🖥 Engineering and Product

A Paris-based ride-hailing company owned by Free Now Group, Kapten set up a Talent Directory to promote its departed alumni (see link 👇). In a LinkedIn post promoting the directory, Free Now’s CTO said that the company decided to “stop additional investments into [its] Paris Tech hub.”

Back in May, multiple sources told Layoffs.fyi that Kapten was conducting a layoff, with estimates ranging from 130 to 180 employees affected. Due to local labor law regulations, the process was expected to take several months to complete.

The Kapten layoff list features 68 ex-employees, primarily in Engineering and Product.

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