Tag: Retail

Layoffs Roundup: Fri 11/6/20

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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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 50% of employees ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 Austin∙ 👩 82 employees ∙🔗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 ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 20 employees (8%) ∙ 🔗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:

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 9/3/20

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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 pandemic.

🏢 Big Fish Games ∙ 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩 250 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Big Fish Games, a developer of mobile and social casino games, laid off 250 employees despite other gaming companies reporting a surge in sales during the pandemic. Some point to a recent $155 million legal settlement, the result of allegations that the company’s games constituted illegal gambling in Washington, as a reason for the layoff.  For its part, Big Fish Games explained its decision using phrases like “refactoring operations” and “reinforce the company’s positioning for growth.”

🏢 GoBear ∙ 🌎 Singapore ∙ 👩 22 employees (11%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • GoBear, an online financial services “supermarket,” laid off 11% of its employees in offices across the globe. The company now plans to focus on its growth areas of digital lending and insurance brokerage services.  [As an aside, GoBear feels like an ominous name choice for a financial services startup…maybe “bear market” means something different in Southeast Asia?]

🏢 MakeMyTrip ∙ 🌎 New Delhi ∙ 👩 350 employees (10%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • MakeMyTrip, India’s largest online travel booking company, saw revenue slashed to zero during the pandemic. Its founder joked that the company’s Q2 earnings call should’ve been called a “lack of earnings call.” As a result, the company laid off 350 employees, or 10% of its staff, in June. 

🏢 Awok ∙ 🌎 Dubai ∙ 👩 100% of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Dubai-based e-commerce startup Awok shut down a year after raising a $30 million Series A. Employees have reported receiving no pay since January and blame company leadership for the shutdown; Awok’s website cites the pandemic as the reason for closing shop.

🏢 kununu ∙ 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Kununu, a platform that lets employees rate their employer, discontinued its U.S. operations and shut down its Boston office. Headquartered in Vienna, the company was bought by Linkedin competitor XING for $12.3 million in 2013.

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

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 8/20/20

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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 pandemic.

🏢 Shopify ∙ 🌎 Ottawa ∙ 👩 30-50 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • An e-commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store, Shopify has seen revenue double YoY during the pandemic. However, due to the company’s decision to adopt remote work permanently, at least 30 employees supporting in-office workers were laid off. BetaKit reports that some laid-off employees complained about poor severance packages and being denied transitions to other roles.

🏢 DJI ∙ 🌎 Shenzhen ∙ 👩 ~120 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Chinese drone manufacturer DJI began cutting its global sales and marketing teams in March as sales dropped and political pressures surged. The US Department of Interior recently grounded its fleet of DJI drones over security concerns, and DJI’s mobile app has been accused of collecting more user data than needed. Reuters estimates that over 120 employees have been laid off; the company denied the number but declined to provide a more accurate count.

🏢 InVision ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 40-60 employees

  • Digital product design platform InVisionApp laid off 40 to 60 employees over the past couple of weeks, sources told Layoffs.fyi. InVision most recently raised a $115 million Series F in 2018 that valued the company at $1.9 billion.

🏢 Glossier ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 Unknown # employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Make-up and skincare startup Glossier previously closed its three physical stores in March and furloughed its retail workers in June. The D2C beauty company is now laying off its retail workers, as it does not expect to reopen its stores this year. New York and Los Angeles workers will receive 12 weeks of severance and healthcare coverage through October. Glossier did not lay off any corporate employees and will continue to focus on e-commerce, its main revenue source.

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

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 8/6/20

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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 pandemic.

🏢 Booking.com ∙ 🌎 Amsterdam ∙ 👩 4,375 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Hotel reservations website Booking.com will be laying off 25% of its global workforce (approx. 4,375 employees). The company said that it needs to downsize to “match our expectation of the future of travel.” In accordance with local regulations, Booking.com expects to inform affected employees starting in September and lasting through the end of the year. Its sister companies Kayak, OpenTable, and Agoda (all owned by the same holding company) already conducted layoffs earlier in the year.

🏢 Buy.com ∙ 🌎 San Francisco Bay Area ∙ 👩 87 employees (100%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • Buy.com, a U.S. e-commerce site acquired by Rakuten, will be shutting down over the next two months. All 87 employees will be laid off.

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

Sorabel

Indonesian startup Sorabel releases engineering talent directory following company shutdown

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🌎 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.

View list of employees laid off ->

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

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.

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.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 6/4/20

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Here’s a recap of the startup layoffs from this past week. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!

See the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a comprehensive list of all startup layoffs since COVID-19.

🏢 Stitch Fix ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 1,400 employees (18%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An online personal styling service, Stitch Fix said it will lay off 1,400 stylist employees in California between now and the end of September. It plans to replace these employees by hiring 2,000 stylists in lower-cost cities over the coming year. Laid-off employees will have the opportunity to relocate; those who don’t will receive 2 weeks or more of severance, extended healthcare, and a bonus for staying through the transition period.

🏢 TrueCar ∙ 🌎 Los Angeles ∙ 👩 219 employees (30%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An automotive pricing website, TrueCar says the cuts come in anticipation of the termination of its revenue-sharing partnership with USAA. The timing and scope of the layoff was further accelerated by COVID-19. Laid-off employees will receive 13 weeks of base pay plus 1 week for each additional year of service beyond the first, along with healthcare coverage through 2020.

🏢 Monzo ∙ 🌎 London ∙ 👩 120 employees (8%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A London-based digital bank, Monzo is laying off 120 of its U.K. employees. This comes on top of the 165 employees it laid off when it shut down its Las Vegas customer support office in April. The company also previously furloughed 295 U.K. employees. As consumers pull back on spending, Monzo generates less revenue from the interchange fees on its debit card products.

🏢 Kitty Hawk ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 “Most of” a 70-person team ∙ 🔗Source

  • Backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, Kitty Hawk is shutting down its electric flying car initiative and laying off most of that team’s 70 employees. However, the company is still working on a different autonomous electric aircraft initiative. Laid-off employees will receive at least 20 weeks of severance based on tenure, along with health insurance coverage through the end of the year.

🏢 Acorns ∙ 🌎 Portland∙ 👩 55 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • Last week, Portland Business Journals reported that Acorns was shutting down its Portland office. A source tells Layoffs.fyi that over 55 employees were laid off as well, and that the support team was offshored. According to the source, Acorns closed both its Portland and Delaware offices and laid off most of its staff in New York.

🏢 Rivian ∙ 🌎 Detroit ∙ 👩 40 employees (2%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An electric vehicle company, Rivian confirmed it laid off 40 employees in its Plymouth, Michigan office. One laid-off employee tells Layoffs.fyi that the actual number may be higher. In another example of differing accounts, The Verge reported that “former employees say they believe the cuts were related to the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, though Rivian says they were performance-based.”

🏢 SpotHero ∙ 🌎 Chicago ∙ 👩 40 employees (21%)∙ 🔗Source

  • An app that helps people find parking spots, SpotHero has now reduced its staff by 70 employees across two rounds of layoffs since March. Parking solutions are in less demand now that people are staying at home.

🏢 Fundbox ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 14 employees (15%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A small business lending company, Fundbox announced a $20 million extension to its $326 million Series C in conjunction with the layoff. The company is also cutting management salaries by an unspecified amount. Fundbox says the COVID-19 crisis has harmed small and medium-sized businesses, which form the core of the company’s customer base.

🏢 MakerBot ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 12 employees

  • A creator of 3D printers, MakerBot laid off a dozen employees amid declining revenues caused by school closures, according to an internal memo viewed by Layoffs.fyi. MakerBot’s layoff was part of a broader staffing cut by parent company Stratasys, which is laying off 240 employees in total.

Layoffs Roundup: Thurs 5/21/20

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The number of newly-reported startup layoffs continues to decline, though each one is now affecting 3x more employees on average. This past week saw a massive layoff from Uber, alongside other notable cuts mentioned below. The total count is now up to 58,000+ startup employees laid off since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a comprehensive list. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!

🏢 Ola ∙ 🌎 Bengaluru ∙ 👩 1,400 employees (35%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An India-based ridesharing company, Ola said revenue has dropped by 95% in the last two months due to stay-at-home orders. Laid-off employees will receive 3 months of severance, along with “healthcare and emotional support until the end of the year.” It’s not clear who will be providing the emotional support.

🏢 Deliv ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 669 employees (100%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A service that enables brick-and-mortar stores to offer same-day deliveries, Deliv announced that it was shutting down operations and selling some of its technology to Target. The company is laying off at least 669 workers and will wind down its business over the next 90 days. Even though delivery businesses like Amazon, Target, and Uber Eats are surging during the pandemic, Deliv’s business depends on customers like Best Buy, Macy’s, and Walgreens, who have been severely impacted by shelter-in-place orders.

🏢 Cruise ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 150 employees (8%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A self-driving car startup owned by GM, Cruise becomes the most prominent (though certainly not the only) autonomous vehicle company to cut staff. AV companies like Cruise, Zoox, and Ike were already bleeding money with little revenue — now, their vehicles are also sitting idle because social distancing measures mean that backup drivers can’t be used for self-driving tests. Cruise’s layoff largely avoided touching its engineering team.

🏢 SoFi ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 112 employees (7%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A personal finance startup, SoFi is positioning its staffing reduction not as a layoff but as a performance-driven cut. The company implied that the employees cut were falling short of their performance expectations. One source told Layoffs.fyi that 37 engineers were affected.

🏢 Quartz ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 80 employees (40%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • A business news site, Quartz said its layoff was focused on its advertising department, though over 20 journalists were also affected. The company is planning to transition its business model from advertising-supported to subscription-based. Quartz is led by ace journalist and former Harvard Crimson editor Zach Seward.

🏢 Integral Ad Science ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 70 employees (10%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An ad verification company, Integral Ad Science joins the growing number of ad tech startups (and ad-supported media businesses) confronting a broader pullback in ad spending. Similar companies that have conducted layoffs include Rubicon Project, OpenX, GumGum, TripleLift, VideoAmp, MediaMath, Sojern, and AdRoll.

🏢 Intercom ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 39 employees ∙ 🔗Source

  • A maker of customer messaging software, Intercom is also relocating 47 roles in its marketing and R&D teams from San Francisco to Dublin, in addition to the layoff.

🏢 Divvy ∙ 🌎 Salt Lake City ∙ 👩 Unknown # of employees

  • A platform for expense reports, Divvy conducted a mass layoff on Tuesday, according to multiple LinkedIn posts. One source tells Layoffs.fyi that over 100 people were cut.

Layoffs Roundup: Wed 4/29/20

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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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩982 employees (17%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩900 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 London ∙ 👩 367 employees (15%) ∙ 🔗Source

  • An online food delivery service, Deliveroo blamed the layoff on the coronavirus pandemic. Although 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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 260 employees (10%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 Detroit ∙ 👩 100 employees (12%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 87 employees (15%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 80 employees (18%) ∙ 🔗Source

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

🏢 Sisense ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 80 employees (9%) ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 74 employees ∙ 🔗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 ∙ 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩 70 employees (5%) ∙ 🔗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.