Layoff Events

UKG laid off 2,200 employees representing approximately 14% of its workforce on 2024-07-03.

Microsoft on 2024-07-03.

Indian social media platform Koo is ceasing operations entirely in July 2024, resulting in the layoff of its entire workforce. The company, which had positioned itself as a local-language competitor to X (formerly Twitter), failed to secure a last-resort acquisition by the larger internet media company Dailyhunt. Despite raising over $60 million from investors like Accel and Tiger Global, Koo struggled to expand its user base and achieve sustainable revenue over the past two years. The shutdown follows the collapse of buyout talks, with founders citing that potential partners were hesitant to deal with the complexities of managing a user-generated content platform.

Indian edtech giant Unacademy laid off approximately 250 employees in July 2024, marking the latest in a series of workforce reductions. This round affected about 100 staff in marketing, business, and product roles, and around 150 in sales. Since the second half of 2022, the company has cut a total of roughly 2,000 jobs. The layoffs are part of a restructuring effort aimed at achieving profitability, a necessary move as the industry faces a downturn following the post-pandemic reopening of schools. The Bengaluru-based startup, valued at $3.4 billion and backed by investors like SoftBank, is also reportedly in merger discussions with K12 Techno. This reflects broader challenges in the edtech sector, exemplified by the struggles of former leader Byju's.

Cint Group, a global research technology company with approximately 1,000 employees, is implementing organizational changes as part of an efficiency program aimed at reducing personnel costs by about 10 percent, primarily within its Commercial organization. This restructuring, announced on July 1, 2024, is part of the company's transition to a consolidated platform and a new commercial operating model. The changes also include the departure of Chief Revenue Officer Jake Wolff and Chief Supply and Partnership Officer Mike Misel. While the exact number of layoffs is not specified, the cost reduction target suggests a significant workforce reduction across the organization.

Upside Foods, a cultivated meat startup, has laid off 26 employees as part of a restructuring to reduce top-heavy leadership and narrow its focus toward product launches within the next two years. This follows earlier cuts affecting 16 staff in February, when the company paused plans for a large production plant in Illinois. The layoffs come amid industry-wide challenges, including legislative bans in states like Florida and Alabama, regulatory hurdles, and a downturn in venture capital funding. Upside, one of only two U.S. firms approved to sell cultivated meat, is shifting its scaling efforts from whole-cut chicken to suspension-based products like nuggets and patés. The company, which began selling its chicken in San Francisco in July 2023, aims to preserve resources and achieve critical commercialization milestones despite macroeconomic and political uncertainties.

Israeli augmented reality startup Sightful laid off 20 employees, representing one-third of its approximately 60-person workforce, in early July 2024. The company, which had raised over $60 million, is making a strategic pivot away from hardware. Following the recent launch of its Spacetop G1 AR laptop, Sightful is disbanding its hardware department to focus exclusively on developing and distributing its spatial computing software and operating system. This shift is a response to rapid advancements in the computing market, including new AI-powered computers from major tech firms, as the company aims to accelerate its business model by licensing its software to various hardware partners.

Israeli unicorn Lightricks is laying off approximately 70 employees, representing 12% of its 600-person global workforce, as announced in July 2024. This marks the company's second round of layoffs in two years and is part of a strategic shift to focus on generative AI products for enterprises, such as its LTX Studio video creation tool. The cuts primarily affect the consumer applications division, where products failed to meet growth targets. Concurrently, Lightricks plans to hire dozens of new AI experts, emphasizing recruitment in Israel, as it pivots its core operations toward the competitive enterprise AI market.

Ninja Van representing approximately 5% of its workforce on 2024-07-01.

Priceline laid off 103 employees representing approximately 7% of its workforce on 2024-06-28.

Skill-Lync, an Indian upskilling platform, laid off 20% of its workforce, approximately 225 employees, on June 27, 2024, to streamline operations and reduce costs amid a global funding crunch. The company's total headcount is now around 900 employees. This follows earlier layoffs of over 400 employees in late April 2024.

RealPage, a real estate technology company based in Richardson, Texas, is laying off approximately 4% of its workforce, impacting at least 260 employees. The company, which employs over 6,500 people globally, announced the cuts in late June 2024 as part of a plan to refocus on innovation and accelerate business growth. This decision comes during a challenging period for RealPage, as it faces a major class-action lawsuit alleging its revenue management software was used to artificially inflate multifamily rents. While the company attributes the layoffs to strategic restructuring, the timing coincides with its ongoing legal battles over price-fixing allegations in the multifamily housing industry.

Moxion Power, a California-based manufacturer of mobile battery energy storage systems, laid off approximately 50 employees in early 2024, representing about 20% of its workforce. The layoffs, part of a broader restructuring, were driven by challenging market conditions and a need to streamline operations to extend the company's financial runway. Operating in the clean energy and manufacturing industry, Moxion Power, which had raised significant venture capital, is scaling back its growth ambitions to focus on core projects and achieve profitability in a competitive sector.

eBay is laying off dozens of employees at its Israeli R&D center in Netanya as part of a global restructuring effort to improve efficiency and better respond to customer needs. This marks the third round of layoffs specifically in Israel, following a previous round earlier in the year that affected an estimated 30 staff, mostly from the buyer experience department. The e-commerce giant, which has conducted multiple global workforce reductions, stated the decision was difficult given the current situation in Israel but emphasized the site remains integral to its product strategy. The Israeli center, established after acquisitions like Shopping.com, continues its operations amid these cuts.

Earth observation company Planet announced on June 26, 2024, that it is laying off approximately 180 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, as part of a cost-reduction effort to improve operational efficiency and focus on long-term growth and profitability. This marks the second major workforce reduction in less than a year, following a layoff of 117 employees in July 2023. Despite reporting record quarterly revenue of $60.4 million in its fiscal first quarter, the company continues to face net losses, prompting strategic realignment toward higher-return opportunities. Planet, which operates in the aerospace and Earth imaging industry, is concurrently advancing its mission with the planned launch of its first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1, in July 2024.

French social media app BeReal, recently acquired by gaming company Voodoo in a €500 million deal, is conducting significant layoffs just weeks after the acquisition. While the exact number of affected employees isn't specified, a "significant portion" of the workforce is being cut as Voodoo's leadership integrates the company and implements a new, sustainable business model. The layoffs, announced in late June 2024, follow BeReal's struggles to grow beyond its peak of around 25 million daily active users and its difficulty securing further funding. The startup, which had raised $90 million from top-tier VCs and was once valued at $600 million, faced an uncertain future before the acquisition.

Israeli ad-tech company Perion Network laid off 20 employees in August 2022, representing about 5% of its workforce, which stood at 420 at the end of 2021. The layoffs, affecting 19 staff in New York and one in Israel, were part of a restructuring to move the activities of its acquired subsidiary Content IQ from New York to its headquarters in Holon, Israel. This move aimed to centralize management, enhance operational focus, integrate automation, and maximize synergies within the company's expanding digital advertising operations. Despite the cuts, Perion, a mid-cap company with a market value around $950 million, continued to grow and had over 30 job openings at the time, primarily in Israel.

Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology company, laid off approximately 158 employees, representing about 13% of its workforce, in early 2024. The restructuring aimed to streamline operations and reduce costs amid broader economic pressures in the biotech industry. As a publicly traded firm, Ginkgo continues to focus on its core platforms while adjusting to market conditions.

African fintech leader Flutterwave laid off approximately 30 employees, representing about 3% of its workforce, in late June 2024. This strategic reduction followed the company's decision to sharpen its focus on its primary revenue drivers: enterprise services and remittances. As part of this realignment, roles linked to discontinued products, like the Barter platform shut down in March, were deemed redundant. The company, which had not conducted layoffs since its founding eight years prior, stated the move was necessary to improve operational efficiency and align resources with its long-term strategy, which includes preparing for a potential future IPO. Affected employees were offered severance packages including an average of three months' salary.

Trade Republic, a German neobroker and fintech company, is laying off dozens of employees as it shuts down its in-house customer service operations. The move involves closing its subsidiary, Trade Republic Service GmbH, effective immediately. While the company states it will relocate some expert roles to its banking entity, the majority of the customer service team—estimated to be at least 50 employees—are being let go. This restructuring, which outsources customer support to larger, specialized centers across Europe, comes amid recent criticism of the company's customer service performance and communication issues with clients. The layoffs reflect a strategic shift to streamline operations in the competitive fintech and online brokerage industry.

ReshaMandi, a B2B agritech marketplace specializing in silk and natural fibers, has laid off approximately 80% of its workforce due to a severe funding crisis. The company, which had raised about $70 million, failed to secure its Series B funding, leading to massive operational scaling. Burdened with over ₹300 crore in debt, it now faces court cases from lenders and vendors, with some creditors planning to push it into insolvency. This drastic downsizing, reported in June 2024, highlights the intense financial pressures in the tech startup sector, particularly for ventures struggling to transition beyond early funding stages.

Fintech company Bluevine is laying off approximately 20 employees in Israel, representing about 12% of its local workforce, as announced in June 2024. The company, which provides a digital banking platform for small businesses, stated the layoffs are part of adjustments to align with its business strategy and changing market needs. Despite the cuts, Bluevine emphasized that Israel remains its R&D center and that it continues to recruit for open positions there, maintaining confidence in its financial stability and long-term growth in the U.S. market.

Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based synthetic biology company, is laying off at least 35% of its workforce, affecting approximately 400 employees out of around 1,200 total. This significant reduction, announced in an SEC filing in May 2024, comes as a direct response to a severe 53% year-over-year revenue drop in the first quarter and lowered annual projections. The life sciences firm, which grew rapidly during the pandemic, is taking decisive cost-cutting measures, including consolidating operations and reducing its real estate footprint. CEO Jason Kelly acknowledged the difficulty of the layoffs, stating the company remains well-capitalized but needed to adjust its labor costs by at least 25% to navigate the current financial challenges.

Emma Sleep, a Frankfurt-based mattress manufacturer, has laid off 200 employees, representing 18% of its global workforce of 1,120. CEO Dennis Schmoltzi attributed the job cuts to challenging market conditions, citing prolonged instability in the e-commerce and home furnishings sectors. The company has adjusted its outlook, planning for no growth this year, and is realigning its organizational structure accordingly. Additionally, the implementation of new operational and financial systems proved more complex than anticipated, creating further challenges. Despite the layoffs, Emma Sleep continues to hire for roles in sales and e-commerce. The company, which operates internationally and reported revenues approaching €900 million, is scaling back after a period of rapid expansion.

Moovit, the journey planning app owned by Intel's Mobileye, is laying off around 20-25 employees, representing approximately 10% of its 225-person workforce. The layoffs, announced in June 2024, are part of a restructuring to focus on the company's core business and accelerate its path to profitability. This move follows recent management changes, including the replacement of its co-founder as CEO three months prior, which was linked to the end of a four-year retention period following its $1 billion acquisition. Despite reporting high revenue growth and an expectation to achieve positive cash flow, the company is making adjustments in the competitive mobility tech industry.

C2FO laid off 16 employees on 2024-06-18.

Israeli fintech unicorn Rapyd is laying off approximately 30 employees in Israel, which represents a small portion of its 800-person workforce in the country. The layoffs, announced in June 2024, affect various departments as the company moves these positions to Eastern Europe and South America to reduce operational costs. Rapyd, a global payments platform serving major clients like Adidas and Uber, employs about 1,700 people worldwide. This restructuring follows its $610 million acquisition of PayU GPO last year, which expanded its global reach but now prompts cost-cutting measures.

PayPal has announced plans to cut up to 85 jobs from its Irish workforce, marking the second round of layoffs in Ireland this year. This follows the company's announcement in February to eliminate 205 positions locally. With approximately 1,600 employees in Ireland, these latest cuts represent about 5% of its Irish staff. The decision is part of a broader global strategy initiated by CEO Alex Chriss to reduce the company's worldwide headcount by about 9% in 2024, aiming to "right-size" the organization. The payments giant, a major player in the fintech industry, stated that the proposed changes are subject to consultation and that affected employees will be offered enhanced redundancy packages. Despite the reductions, PayPal reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining Ireland as a critical hub for its global operations.

Fisker representing approximately 100% of its workforce on 2024-06-18.

Wex laid off 375 employees representing approximately 5% of its workforce on 2024-06-18.

Unit representing approximately 15% of its workforce on 2024-06-17.

Chegg laid off 441 employees representing approximately 23% of its workforce on 2024-06-17.

Stackpath representing approximately 100% of its workforce on 2024-06-17.

LOOP laid off 23 employees representing approximately 77% of its workforce on 2024-06-16.

Loop, a car insurance startup, has laid off staff after struggling to raise funds for 20 months, with an investor pulling out at the last minute. The layoffs were announced on June 16, 2024, impacting roles such as insurance agents, customer care, data analytics, marketing, software engineering, and product, though the exact number of affected employees is unclear.

Care/of, a personalized subscription vitamin company, is shutting down and laying off its entire workforce of 143 employees as of July 3, 2024, due to a complete loss of funding. The company, which was majority-owned by pharmaceutical giant Bayer, announced it is canceling all subscriptions and ceasing new orders. This closure follows Bayer's decision to halt further investment in the venture. Founded in 2016 and part of the health tech and commerce industry, Care/of had raised $46 million and was once valued at $225 million. The company is exploring options for a potential future revival but has no definitive plans at this time.

Running Tide representing approximately 100% of its workforce on 2024-06-15.

Satellogic, an Earth imaging satellite company, announced a significant workforce reduction of approximately 70 employees on June 14, representing about 30% of its staff. This follows a previous layoff of 34 employees just three weeks earlier. The cuts reduce the company's total headcount to around 160, less than half its size from the start of the previous year. The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting strategy to conserve cash, driven by substantial financial losses and revenue that has fallen dramatically short of earlier projections. In 2023, the company reported a net loss of $61 million with only $10.1 million in revenue, far below the $132 million forecasted in 2021. Concurrently, Satellogic is slowing the deployment of its new Mark V satellites as it shifts focus from constellation growth to achieving profitability.

Medtronic on 2024-06-13.

VRChat, the social VR platform, has laid off approximately 30% of its workforce. The decision, announced by CEO Graham Gaylor in June 2024, was driven by a need to ensure the company's long-term health and growth after VR market expansion slowed significantly in 2022. While optimistic about its future mission to bring immersive social connection to billions, the company concluded its current team size was unsustainable. This restructuring aims to create a more nimble, focused organization capable of executing its multi-year plans, though it comes at the cost of parting with many talented employees.

Bytedance laid off 450 employees on 2024-06-12.

SCiFi Foods, a cultivated meat startup, laid off an unspecified number of employees in early 2024 as part of a restructuring effort. The company, operating in the biotechnology and food technology industry, made this difficult decision to extend its financial runway and focus resources on core research and development priorities. While the exact scale of the layoffs relative to total workforce remains undisclosed, the move reflects broader challenges within the alternative protein sector, where many companies are streamlining operations to navigate a tighter funding environment and accelerate their path to commercialization.

Paxos laid off 65 employees representing approximately 20% of its workforce on 2024-06-12.

Ladenzeile, the e-commerce aggregator owned by Axel Springer and part of the Idealo group, is shutting down by the end of June 2024, resulting in layoffs for its entire team. The company, which has struggled with declining relevance for years, cited a changed market situation and the need to focus resources on Idealo's core price comparison business. A key factor is the challenging digital advertising environment dominated by a few major players like Google, making Ladenzeile's model of directing customers to shops unprofitable. Founded in 2008, the platform had seen its traffic become negligible for many retailers. The closure reflects broader industry pressures in e-commerce aggregation.

Kissflow, a bootstrapped SaaS startup based in Chennai, has laid off approximately 45 employees, representing 11% of its workforce of about 400. The cuts, which occurred across India, the US, and the UAE in April and May 2024, were attributed to a strategic shift in procurement and annual performance reviews. The company, which provides workflow automation software, is operating in a challenging SaaS sector where growth has slowed since the post-pandemic boom. Despite previous employee appreciation gestures like gifting luxury cars in 2022, Kissflow conducted this restructuring to optimize operations and adjust its customer acquisition strategy, offering severance to all affected staff.

On June 10, 2024, Indian fintech giant Paytm, operated by One97 Communications, confirmed a new round of layoffs affecting an undisclosed number of employees. This restructuring follows a significant reduction in its workforce, with the sales division alone seeing a drop of about 3,500 employees, bringing the total headcount to 36,521 by March 2024. The primary catalyst for these job cuts is the severe regulatory action taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which banned Paytm Payments Bank from key services starting March 15 due to non-compliance issues. This ban has severely impacted operations, contributing to a widened quarterly loss of ₹550 crore. As part of its effort to streamline and drive profitability, Paytm is pruning non-core businesses and offering outplacement support and due bonuses to affected employees during this transition.

New York-based electric vehicle startup Revel is laying off over 1,000 staff ride-hail drivers in June 2024, effectively eliminating its employee-based model. The company, which operates an all-Tesla ride-hail service and EV charging infrastructure, is pivoting to a gig worker model similar to Uber and Lyft. This strategic shift follows a pilot program where drivers expressed a preference for greater flexibility over employee benefits. The layoffs represent a significant workforce reduction as Revel abandons a key differentiator to align with industry standards and address recruitment challenges.

Kenyan e-commerce startup Copia Global laid off 1,060 employees on June 6, 2024, following its entry into administration. The company, which operates in the e-commerce industry and once boasted a network of 50,000 agents, is undergoing severe financial restructuring. This move comes after the company struggled to meet payroll and scaled back operations, including exiting Uganda and laying off 700 employees in 2022. The layoffs were announced in a staff meeting, with employees asked to return company property and sign termination letters. While Copia has committed to providing a one-month salary and benefits per Kenyan law, the payment timeline remains unclear, causing significant concern among affected staff.

Simpl, a Bengaluru-based buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) startup, has laid off 30 employees in June 2024, following a larger round of 160 layoffs just a month prior. This recent reduction is part of an ongoing organizational restructuring aimed at achieving profitability by mid-2025. The company, which operates in the fintech and consumer credit industry, also saw the resignation of several senior executives. This follows a significant layoff in April 2023, where about 25% of the workforce, or approximately 150 employees, were let go. Simpl is concurrently rejigging its senior leadership to streamline operations and focus on fiscal prudence amid widening losses, despite reporting a growth in total income.

Oda, a SoftBank-backed online grocery delivery startup based in Norway, has laid off 150 employees as it refocuses its operations solely on Norway and Sweden. This strategic retreat, announced in June 2024, comes after the company merged with Swedish retailer Mathem last year and follows its exit from markets like Finland and Germany. Facing the industry-wide challenge of achieving profitability in online grocery—a sector with complex logistics and tight margins—Oda aims to become profitable in its two remaining markets by 2025. The layoffs are part of a broader reset under new CEO Chris Poad, who joined in April, as the company scales back its once-ambitious European expansion plans that were fueled by hundreds of millions in funding and a pandemic-era boom.