Layoffs Roundup: Fri 11/6/20

Below is a recap of the latest tech layoff news. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.

🏒 Bossa Nova βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 50% of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Bossa Nova Robotics, a maker of shelf-scanning robots used in retail stores, laid off 50% of its (human) staff. The decision comes after Walmart ended its contract with Bossa Nova, finding that humans were equally capable of doing the robots’ job. Walmart had been using 500 of Bossa Nova’s robots, so those robots will presumably need to look for new work as well.

🏒 Remedy βˆ™ 🌎 Austinβˆ™ πŸ‘© 82 employees βˆ™πŸ”—Source

  • Remedy, a telehealth startup that provides mobile urgent care, laid off 82 employees. The company said that many of the affected employees were recent hires that were added to meet demand during the peak of the pandemic.

🏒 Knotel βˆ™ 🌎 New York City βˆ™ πŸ‘© 20 employees (8%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Knotel, which leases office space to companies, cut 20 employees in its second layoff of the year. The company previously laid off or furloughed 195 employees in March, as demand for office space plummets during the pandemic.

In case you missed it, check out our standalone posts about layoffs from these companies:

Alto Pharmacy

Alto Pharmacy lays off 47 employees

🌎 San Francisco, CA βˆ™ πŸ‘© 47 employees (6%) βˆ™ πŸ–₯ Multiple departments

Alto Pharmacy, an online delivery startup for prescription drugs, laid off 47 employees (6%), a company executive told Layoffs.fyi. The San Francisco-based startup is just months removed from a $250 million funding round led by Softbank.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a boon to telemedicine and prescription delivery startups in general. With fresh funding in the bank and the tailwinds of the pandemic, it’s not clear why Alto needed to perform a layoff.

Alto sent the following written statement:

Last week we made the difficult decision to eliminate a small percentage of the roles at Alto. As we continue to scale, we recognize the need to streamline operations and reallocate resources to better serve our customers and our continued long term growth. For those affected, we are grateful for their contributions to Alto and are working to support them with a significant severance and extended healthcare coverage. We are continuing to hire for roles critical to our mission and the service of our patients. We have never been more encouraged about our progress in building Alto and the need for a better pharmacy experience.

The company also prepared a talent directory to increase visibility for laid-off employees (see link below πŸ‘‡)

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

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 9/17/20

Well, that was fast. Just six months after everyone was warning about a startup reckoning, tech is booming again — coronavirus be damned πŸ€·πŸ»β€β™‚οΈ. 

The latest evidence? Using data from PitchBook and Layoffs.fyi, the Financial Times identified more than 20 startups that recently raised funding at higher valuations despite laying off employees (including Carta, Sonder, and Stack Overflow). 

It’s not just private markets that have recovered. Shares of data startup Snowflake gained 112% on its first day of public trading yesterday, boding well for the half dozen startups about to IPO in the coming weeks. Maybe it’s time for me to finally join all the millennialsΒ trading options on Robinhood? πŸ˜‰Β 

Despite the froth, layoffs are unfortunately still happening. I won’t be turning Layoffs.fyi into IPO.fyi anytime soon (plus, someone already registered it 2 weeks ago 😠).

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 pandemic.

🏒 NS8 βˆ™ 🌎 Las Vegas βˆ™ πŸ‘© 240 employees (95%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • NS8, a fraud prevention startup, laid off nearly its entire staff. Ironically, the layoff came just days after NS8 informed employees that it was itself under investigation for fraud. The startup’s CEO abruptly resigned amid the SEC investigation, and has claimed that he β€œdid not walk away with the companies [sic] money.” NS8 raised a $123 million round of funding just months ago.

🏒 Bleacher Report βˆ™ 🌎 London βˆ™ πŸ‘© 20 employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Digital sports media company Bleacher Report will lay off 20 employees later this month, representing nearly its entire London office. The UK staff had been focused on Bleacher Report’s football brand (what we Americans call “soccer”), and there’s speculation that this layoff is part of a series of decisions to pull back from its investment in the sport. Bleacher Report is currently owned by AT&T.

🏒 HubHaus βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 100% of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • HubHaus, a co-living startup that manages shared homes, is shutting down and laying off all its employees. The startup says that it failed to attract enough tenants, perhaps because the pandemic has exacerbated rental markets in cities like San Francisco. 

🏒 Welkin Health βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 10 employees (33%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • The New York Post learned that patient healthcare software startup Welkin Health laid off a third of its workers in late April. Three days later, the company received a PPP loan worth over $1 million. Welkin claims that a declining sales pipeline caused the layoff. Since PPP loans are only forgivable if a company maintains its headcount, it’s likely that Welkin will need to pay back the loan.

Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for contributing to this post.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 8/27/20

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 pandemic.

🏒 Salesforce βˆ™ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© ~1,000 employees (2%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Salesforce, the CRM and enterprise cloud software giant, laid off about 1,000 employees (2%) less than a day after reporting blowout earnings. In March, Salesforce’s CEO pledged to its workforce β€œOhana” that the company would not have any β€œsignificant” layoffs for 90 days. Recent layoffs affected sales and customer support, despite a 29% rise in revenue and 26% increase in share price. Affected workers were given 60 days to find another role in the firm.

🏒 Hipcamp βˆ™ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© ~60% of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Hipcamp, an Airbnb for camping stays, laid off around 60% of its employees back in April, TechCrunch reported today. More recently though, Hipcamp’s business has rebounded now that stay-at-home orders have eased and travelers prefer the safety of the outdoors. Hipcamp has rehired some of its laid-off employees and is looking to expand its team further.

🏒 Docly βˆ™ 🌎 London βˆ™ πŸ‘© 8 employees (80%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Telemedicine startup Docly, a spinoff of Swedish digital health provider Mik Doctor, stopped operating in the UK. 8 employees were laid off as a direct result of restructuring, as Docly will refocus on becoming a technology supplier for companies like Mik Doctor in the future.

🏒 Spaces βˆ™ 🌎 Los Angeles βˆ™ πŸ‘© Unknown # of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Spaces, a VR entertainment startup, was recently acquired by Apple, who has been buying VR teams to develop its own VR headset. When the news broke, Spaces’ CEO noted that the company had to lay off an undisclosed number of employees at the beginning of the pandemic and take out a PPP loan to β€œkeep the lights on.”

🏒 Streamsets βˆ™ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© Unknown # of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Streamsets, a data integration startup with $76 million of funding, laid off an unknown number of employees in order to survive the first wave of the pandemic. The layoffs came days after the company won a best workplaces award. The company cut R&D and some recent hires, saying that it needed to give up on β€œinefficient growth.”

🏒 Mapify βˆ™ 🌎 Berlin βˆ™ πŸ‘© Unknown # of employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Mapify, an app for planning travel experiences, laid off β€œseveral team members,” citing the pandemic’s continued disruption on travel. The startup most recently raised a $1 million seed round in 2018.

Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for contributing to this post.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 6/25/20

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 βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 715 employees (7%) βˆ™ πŸ”—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 βˆ™ 🌎 Austin βˆ™ πŸ‘© 451 employees (6%) βˆ™ πŸ”—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 βˆ™ 🌎 Los Angeles βˆ™ πŸ‘© 174 employees (12%) βˆ™ πŸ”—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 βˆ™ 🌎 Austin βˆ™ πŸ‘© 90 employees (90%) βˆ™ πŸ”—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 βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 70 employees (1%) βˆ™ πŸ”—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 βˆ™ 🌎 Madison βˆ™ πŸ‘© 44 employees (25%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

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

🏒 Atlas Obscura βˆ™ 🌎 New York City βˆ™ πŸ‘© 14 employees (25%)

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

Layoffs Roundup: Wed 4/29/20

Although the number of new startup layoffs thankfully declined this past week, there were deep cuts from companies like Lyft, TripAdvisor, and Deliveroo.

Below are a few of the recent layoffs. You can check our tracker for a more comprehensive report. As always, if you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!

🏒 Lyft βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘©982 employees (17%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Ridesharing company Lyft has seen demand drop as people stay at home. Rival Uber is reportedly discussing a layoff as well (to the tune of 5,000 people), though those cuts have not been finalized.

🏒 TripAdvisor βˆ™ 🌎 Boston βˆ™ πŸ‘©900 employees (25%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • In conjunction with the layoff, TripAdvisor closed its San Francisco and downtown Boston offices. It is also pausing 401(k) matching 😒and reducing pay and hours to reflect a 4-day workweek. TripAdvisor became the latest travel company to conduct layoffs, joining Sonder (400 laid off on 3/24), TripActions (300 on 3/25), TravelTriangle (250 on 3/28), and Fareportal (200 on 3/26).

🏒 Deliveroo βˆ™ 🌎 London βˆ™ πŸ‘© 367 employees (15%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • An online food delivery service, Deliveroo blamed the layoff on the coronavirus pandemic. AlthoughΒ demand for meal delivery has risen due to shelter-in-place, consumers may increasingly decide to save money by cooking instead, something my wife told me I should also consider.

🏒 Automation Anywhere βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 260 employees (10%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A robotic process automation platform, Automation Anywhere said it needed to cut costs to adjust to the economic fallout caused by COVID-19. Although a startup that automates repetitive manual tasks would seemingly benefit from the pandemic, most of Automation Anywhere’s customers have its software installed on their own servers, in their own offices (that are now closed).

🏒 StockX βˆ™ 🌎 Detroit βˆ™ πŸ‘© 100 employees (12%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A resale marketplace for sneakers, StockX has been negatively impacted by the plummeting demand for sneakers during the economic slowdown. The resale price of the 2020 Off-White Air Jordan V, for example, has dropped from a high of $986 to a low of $657 (which still sounds really expensive??)

🏒 Zenefits βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 87 employees (15%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A maker of HR and payroll software, Zenefits cited the coronavirus pandemic as the cause of the layoff. The company is running a number of coronavirus-related initiatives, including offering one year of free payroll for small business customers.

🏒 App Annie βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 80 employees (18%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A mobile analytics startup, App Annie said the layoff would help it become self-sufficient.

🏒 Sisense βˆ™ 🌎 New York City βˆ™ πŸ‘© 80 employees (9%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A maker of business analytics software, Sisense is projecting lower growth due to economic slowdown. Accordingly, its cuts were reportedly concentrated in their sales and marketing teams.

🏒 WeWork βˆ™ 🌎 SF Bay Area βˆ™ πŸ‘© 74 employees βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • Beleaguered co-working company WeWork is laying off another 74 employees, including 60 from its 655 Montgomery St. location. WeWork had already cut thousands of employees in prior rounds of layoffs.

🏒 Oscar Health βˆ™ 🌎 New York City βˆ™ πŸ‘© 70 employees (5%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source

  • A health insurance company, Oscar Health said the layoff was needed to meet budget goals. The company, co-founded by Josh Kushner (whose brother is President Trump’s son-in-law), has been criticized for potential conflicts of interest related to COVID-19 testing.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 4/2/20

This week Layoffs.fyi has already tracked 23 startups that cut jobs, affecting over 1,500 employees. And there’s still two days left ☹️.

Below are a few of this week’s layoffs. Check out our Layoffs Tracker for a comprehensive, real-time report. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!

  • KeepTruckin, which helps trucking companies manage their fleets, laid off 349 employees (18%). This comes just one month after the company’s previous round of layoffs.
  • Thumbtack, a marketplace for local services like cleaners and plumbers, laid off 250 employees (30%). Due to shelter-in-place, business has fallen by over 50% in markets like San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City.
    • 🌎 San Francisco, Salt Lake City βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 250 employees (18%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • Rover, a dog-walking and pet-sitting service, laid off 194 employees (41%). Pet owners no longer need Rover’s service because they’re now staying at home.
    • 🌎 Seattle βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 194 employees (41%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • RigUp, which provides labor services to the energy industry, laid off 120 employees (25%). Oil and gas companies are in the middle of an economic downturn.
    • 🌎 Austin βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 120 employees (25%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • Turo, a car-sharing company, laid off 108 employees (30%). Consumers are no longer renting cars because of shelter-in-place. Competitor Getaround also conducted recent layoffs.
    • 🌎 San Francisco βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 108 employees (30%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • PatientPop, which helps healthcare providers manage the patient experience, laid off 100 employees, according to a LinkedIn post by an ex-employee.
    • 🌎 Los Angeles βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 100 employees
  • uShip, which makes shipping software, laid off 65 employees (37%).
    • 🌎 Austin βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 65 employees (37%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • Showpad, which makes software to improve sales teams’ productivity, laid off 52 employees (12%). It blamed the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus.
    • 🌎 Chicago βˆ™ πŸ‘©β€πŸ’Ό 52 employees (12%) βˆ™ πŸ”—Source
  • PeerStreet, a crowdfunding platform for investing in real estate loans, laid off 30% of their staff (50+ employees), according to an HR employee. Layoffs.fyi was the first to report the news.