A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs | TechCrunch

May 4, 2024 2:35 AM0

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether.

By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses embracing AI and automation for jobs that had previously been considered safe. It also serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs and what could be at stake in regards to increased innovation.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known layoffs in tech that have occurred in 2024, to be updated regularly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.

January 2024: 19,350 employees laid off — see all January 2024 Tech Layoffs
February 2024: 15,589 employees laid off — see all February 2024 Tech Layoffs
March 2024: 7,403 employees laid off — see all March 2024 Tech Layoffs
April 2024: 22,153 employees laid off — see all April 2024 Tech Layoffs

May 2024

Sprinklr

Has laid off about 3% of its workforce, impacting 116 people, the company confirmed to TechCrunch in a statement. The cuts come over a year after the company eliminated about 4% of its headcount.

Peloton

Is laying off 15% of its workforce, affecting about 400 people, as part of a cost-cutting effort. The company’s CEO Barry McCarthy is also stepping down.

April 2024

Tesla

Has gutted its charging team in a new round of layoffs, CEO Elon Musk announced in an overnight email to executives.

Google

Has laid off staff across key teams like Flutter, Dart and Python. It is currently unclear how many employees were let go.

Fisker

Is laying off more employees to “preserve cash,” according to an internal email viewed by TechCrunch. The number of cuts is currently unknown.

Getir

Is shutting down operations in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, impacting at least 6,000 jobs across the closing markets.

Ola

Is cutting about 180 jobs in a profitability push and has let go its chief executive Hemant Bakshi, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

True Anomaly

The space and defense startup laid off nearly 30 people, accounting for about 25% of its workforce, due to “duplication of roles and functions across the company,” TechCrunch exclusively reported.

Expedia

Is expected to cut employees in its Austin office for the second time this year.

Nike

Plans to eliminate 740 employees at its Oregon headquarters this summer, according to a WARN Act notice.

Stability AI

Is eliminating 10% of its workforce following the exit of former CEO Emad Mostaque.

Google

Is laying off workers as part of continued cost cutting measures. The number of employees affected was at the time unknown.

Rivian

Is reducing its total workforce by 1%. It’s the second round of layoffs for the EV maker this year.

Take-Two

Is laying off 5% of its workforce, affecting around 579 employees. The GTA 6 publisher also announced the elimination of “several projects” in development.

Tome

Is eliminating about 20% of its 59 employees in a restructuring effort.

Tesla

Is cutting “more than 10%” of its global workforce, per an internal email sent by CEO Elon Musk. That could impact more than 14,000 workers worldwide, as Tesla prepares itself “for our next phase of growth” amid a challenging EV market.

Criteo

Is reducing its global workforce by nearly 4%, impacting up to 140 employees.

TikTok

Is laying off 250 employees based in Ireland as it restructures its Training and Quality team.

Hinge Health

Cut approximately 10% of its workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned, as the company prepares for an IPO and aims to reach profitability.

Checkr

Has laid off 382 employees, amounting to 32% of its total workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The background-screening platform was last valued at $5 billion in April of 2022.

Bolt.Earth

Reportedly laid off a sizable part of its staff in a restructuring effort. The number of employees impacted is currently unknown, but sources told Inc42 that it could be “in the range of 70-100” workers.

Apple

Is laying off 614 employees in California after abandoning its electric car project, according to a WARN notice.

Agility Robotics

Has laid off a “small number” of employees as part of a company-wide focus on commercialization efforts.

Ghost Autonomy

Shut down operations. The company, which was backed by OpenAI, employed about 100 people.

Whirlpool

Is shutting down Yummly, the recipe and cooking app it acquired in 2017.

AWS

Will cut hundreds of jobs across Sales, Marketing, Global Services and its Physical Stores Technology team.

Byju’s

Is laying off about 500 employees, accounting for 3% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring effort.

March 2024

ChowNow

Has laid off 20% of its staff after acquiring point-of-sale platform Cuboh. The company previously laid off 100 people in 2022.

Nintendo of America

Is restructuring its testing department, which is largely made up of contractors. A Nintendo spokesperson told Kotaku the changes will end some assignments but will lead to the creation of new full-time positions.

Dell

Cut its global workforce by about 6,000 jobs, according to a 10-K SEC filing. The filing reveals the company cut 13,000 jobs in the last year.

Synctera

Has made cuts to its staff, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. A report in Fintech Business Weekly estimates that 17 people, or about 15% of the company, were impacted.

ShopBack

Is cutting 195 roles in an effort to become more sustainable, CEO Henry Chan wrote in a blog post. The layoffs impact nearly a quarter of its staff.

Airmeet

Reportedly eliminated 20% of its total workforce in its second restructuring effort in the past year.

Chipper Cash

Conducted another round of layoffs impacting 20 employees, CEO Ham Serunjogi announced in a blog post.

Textio

Has reportedly cut 16% of its staff in a strategic move to support its Textio Lift product.

Stash

Is reportedly laying off around 25% of its workforce. According to Axios, the cuts affect roughly 80 people.

Phantom Auto

Is shutting down after failing to secure new funding, TechCrunch has learned. The remote driving startup, which had cut staff last year, employed a little more than 100 people.

IBM

Is reportedly slashing its marketing and communications staff. The company previously announced a strategy to replace upwards of 8,000 jobs with AI.

Inscribe.ai

Cut just under 40% of its staff, equating to dozens of employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Turnitin

Laid off around 15 people earlier this year, following comments from CEO Chris Caren that the company would be able to reduce 20% of its headcount thanks to AI.

Sorare

Laid off 13% of its staff based in its New York office as the web3 fantasy sports platform focuses on its Paris headquarters, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Melio

Is eliminating roughly 7% of its workforce as part of organizational restructuring. The fintech unicorn last conducted layoffs in August 2022.

ONE

Is cutting about 13% of its workforce, affecting 40 employees. It’s the second round of layoffs for the battery startup in recent months.

Project Ronin

Is shutting down, resulting in a “permanent mass layoff” impacting around 150 employees.

February 2024

Fisker

Plans to lay off 15% of its workforce and says it likely does not have enough cash on hand to survive the next 12 months.

EA

Cut 5% of its workforce, impacting 670 employees, as it moves away from the “development of future licensed IP.”

Bumble

Is letting go of about 350 employees, accounting for 30% of its workforce.

Apple

Is likely cutting hundreds of employees who worked on the company’s autonomous electric car project now that the effort has stopped, TechCrunch has learned.

Sony

Is laying off 900 employees from its PlayStation unit, affecting 8% of the division’s workforce. Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Firesprite studios will also be impacted.

Expedia

Will reportedly cut 1,500 roles in 2024, primarily in its Product & Technology division, accounting for more than 8% of the company’s workforce.

Finder

Eliminated roughly 60 employees, or 17% of its workforce. It’s the financial startup’s third major layoff round in the past 12 months.

Rivian

Is laying off 10% of its salaried workforce in a bid to cut costs in an increasingly tough market for EVs.

Meati Foods

Will lay off 13% of its workforce as it works to “build a financially sustainable business,” CEO Phil Graves told TechCrunch exclusively.

Cisco

Announced it will eliminate 5% of its employees, impacting more than 4,000 people.

Toast

Will lay off about 550 workers in a move designed to promote “operating expense efficiency.”

Instacart

Announced in an SEC filing that it will lay off roughly 250 employees as part of a restructuring effort.

Mozilla

Is scaling back its investment in a number of products, TechCrunch has learned, resulting in layoffs that will affect roughly 60 employees.

Grammarly

Is laying off 230 employees worldwide as part of the company’s efforts to advance its focus on “the AI-enabled workplace of the future.”

Getaround

Is cutting 30% of its North American workforce as part of a restructuring.

Amazon

Is reportedly cutting jobs in its healthcare businesses One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy. The number of impacted roles is currently unknown.

DocuSign

Announced plans to eliminate 6% of its workforce, largely impacting the company’s sales and marketing divisions.

Snap

Announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, impacting roughly 500-plus employees, in an effort to “reduce hierarchy.”

Polygon Labs

Has laid off 60 employees, or about 19% of its staff, CEO Marc Boiron announced in a blog post.

Okta

Is laying off approximately 400 employees. The layoffs come almost exactly a year to the day after Okta announced plans to cut about 300 employees.

January 2024

Thinx

Will lay off 95 workers in New York City, according to a filing with the New York Department of Labor.

Proofpoint

Is laying off about 6% of its global workforce, or 280 employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Wattpad

Conducted another round of layoffs earlier this month, amounting to roughly 15% of its workforce, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch.

Block

Is reportedly laying off around 1,000 people in the Cash App, foundational and Square arms of Block.

PayPal

Has reportedly begun company-wide layoffs. While it is unclear how many people will be affected, one source told TechCrunch it was expected to be in the “thousands.”

Aurora Solar

Has laid off 20% of its staff of about 1,000 people, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The cuts to the software startup come despite record growth in the solar industry last year.

iRobot

Is laying off 350 people, or one-third of its headcount, after Amazon’s bid to acquire the Roomba-maker shuttered. Longtime CEO Colin Angle has also stepped down.

Salesforce

Is reportedly laying off 700 workers, or around 1% of its staff. This comes after the company had a significant reduction of 10% of its workforce in 2023.

Flexport

Is reportedly planning to cut around 20% of its staff in the next few weeks. The company announced similar cuts in October, when founder Ryan Petersen returned as CEO and slashed its workforce by 20%.

Microsoft

Is laying off 1,900 employees across its gaming divisions following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra announced he will also be stepping down.

Swiggy

Is cutting about 400 jobs, 7% of its workforce, as the food delivery startup seeks to bring further improvements to its finances ahead of a planned IPO later this year.

Aurora

Laid off dozens of workers, according to sources familiar with the decision. The autonomous vehicle technology company has since confirmed that about 3% of its workforce has been laid off.

eBay

Will lay off 9% of the company’s workforce, affecting about 1,000 full-time employees. In a blog post, the company also plans to cut contract roles in the coming months.

SAP

Announced it intends to offer voluntary buyouts or job changes to 8,000 employees amid restructuring.

Brex

Laid off 20% of its staff, affecting 282 workers. In a blog post, Co-CEO Pedro Franceschi said that the company is prioritizing “long-term thinking and ownership over short-term gains in our comp structure.”

TikTok

Eliminated around 60 jobs across the U.S. in Los Angeles, New York, and Austin in addition to layoffs in international markets. The affected roles, according to NPR’s initial reporting, are largely in sales and advertising.

Vroom

Is cutting 90% of its employees as it shuts down its online used car marketplace and shifts resources into two business units: one focused on auto financing and the other on AI-powered analytics.

Riot Games

Is laying off 11% of its workforce, affecting about 530 employees, as the company focuses on “fewer, high-impact projects.” The League of Legends maker is also sunsetting its five-year-old publishing group, Riot Forge.

Wayfair

Is eliminating 13% of its global workforce, affecting 1,650 employees, in a restructuring effort aimed at cutting layers of management.

YouTube

Will eliminate 100 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch, as part of a restructuring effort in its creator management and operations teams.

Google

Is laying off “hundreds” of employees in its advertising sales team, according to a leaked memo. The cuts come a week after the company did sweeping layoffs across its hardware teams. And more layoffs will come throughout the year, as CEO Sundar Pichai told the company in a memo obtained by the Verge.

Lost Boys Interactive

Reportedly laid off a “sizable” number of employees January 12. The game developer studio was acquired by Borderlands maker Gearbox in 2022.

Pixar

Is going to lay off employees in 2024, TechCrunch exclusively learned, with the total impacted employees potentially reaching as high as 20% of the animation studio’s 1,300 person workforce. The cutbacks come as Disney looks to reduce the studio’s output as it struggles to achieve profitability in streaming.

Audible

Is laying off 5% of its workforce, citing an “increasingly challenging landscape,” according to a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider.

Discord

Is laying off 17% of its staff, impacting 170 people. In an internal memo obtained by the Verge, Discord CEO Jason Citron blamed the cuts on the company growing too quickly.

Google

Laid off hundreds of employees across its Google Assistant division and the team that manages Pixel, Nest and Fitbit hardware. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are also exiting.

Amazon

Is laying off “several hundreds” of employees at Prime Video and MGM Studios, according to a memo obtained by TechCrunch. The cuts come days after the 500 layoffs at Amazon’s Twitch.

Twitch

Is reportedly laying off 500 employees, 35% of its current staff, amid a continued struggle to achieve profitability in the face of rising costs and community backlash. The pending layoffs come after hundreds more employees were laid off in 2023.

Treasure Financial

Confirmed to TechCunch that layoffs, conducted in December, had impacted 14 employees, accounting for 60% to 70% of the company, according to multiple sources.

Duolingo

Confirmed it cut 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023 as it turns to AI to streamline content production and translations previously handled by humans.

Rent the Runway

Will cut about 10% of corporate roles as it goes through a restructuring plan following Anushka Salinas’ planned resignation as operating chief and president at the end of January.

Unity

Is reducing its workforce by about 25%, or 1,800 people. The video game engine maker went through three rounds of layoffs in 2023.

Pitch

Laid off two-thirds of its employees as the German startup, which built collaborative presentation software, looks to pursue a “completely different path.” CEO and co-founder Christian Reber also stepped down.

BenchSci

The AI and biomedical startup reportedly cut 17% of its workforce January 8, citing “shifts in the economic environment,” in a LinkedIn post announcing the layoffs.

Flexe

Eliminated 38% of its staff January 8 as the online retail logistics company follows up after conducting layoffs in September 2023.

NuScale

Announced January 8 it is laying off 28% of its staff, or 154 workers, as the small modular nuclear reactor company shifts its focus to “key strategic areas.”

Trigo

Is reportedly laying off 15% of its workforce focused on computer vision for retailers.

InVision

Is shutting down at the end of 2024 after a 12 year run. The design collaboration startup was once valued at nearly $2B.

VideoAmp

Is laying off nearly 20% of its workforce as it tries to maintain its battle with Nielsen over media measurement. CEO Ross McCray stepped down from the company.

Orca Security

Is laying off roughly 15% of its staff, totaling 60 employees. The Israel-based unicorn reportedly plans to move some impacted employees into other positions at the company.

Frontdesk

Laid off its entire 200-person workforce January 2 after attempts to raise more capital failed, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The mass layoff comes just seven months after the startup acquired rival Zencity.

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Climate tech investment roars back with an $8.1B start to 2024 | TechCrunch

May 3, 2024 10:59 PM0

Climate tech startups raised $8.1 billion in the first quarter, near record amounts of money that suggest 2023’s quite close might have been little more than a blip than the sign of a protracted downturn.

The figure, contained in a new report from PitchBook, shows that climate tech hasn’t succumbed to the same slowdown that has dragged on the rest of the venture community.

While the number of deals was down slightly quarter-over-quarter, the value was up nearly 400%, according to the report. A deeper look into the $8.1 billion raised in the first quarter shows that investors focused their attention on materials, including green steel and battery materials and minerals.

Three early-stage firms closed the most deals. Climate Capital landed 94, Lowercarbon Capital closed 70 and SOSV came in with 59 (a figure that would be higher if you included its Hax and IndiBio programs). Despite those tallies, this year started with fewer deals closing compared with Q4 2023. Total deal count was down 20% this quarter to 244.

Despite the lower deal count, the amount of money raised by climate tech startups in Q1 was second only to Q3 of last year. A handful of noteworthy deals helped keep the sector buoyant.

Top deals

Swedish startup H2 Green Steel led the pack, raising $4.5 billion in debt and $215 million in equity to fund a massive new plant in northern Sweden. The company claims it can produce steel with up to 95% fewer emissions by burning green hydrogen rather than coal. The new plant will initially produce 2.5 million metric tons of steel per year, and the company says customers have already committed to buying half of that volume for the next five to seven years. H2 Green Steel follows Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer, in attracting outsize investments to build large-scale production facilities in the country.

Battery recycler Ascend Elements followed by adding another $162 million to its Series D, bringing the total to $704 million for the round. The company, a unicorn worth $1.6 billion post-money, is vying for a share in an increasingly competitive market for recyclable battery materials, squaring off against former Tesla executive J.B. Straubel’s Redwood Materials.

Continuing the materials theme, battery manufacturer Natron raised a $189 million Series B round to begin construction on a commercial scale factory in western Michigan. The startup specializes in sodium-ion batteries, which are cheaper than lithium-ion but less energy dense.

Lilac Solutions also closed a significant Series C last quarter, raising $145 million to scale up its ion-exchange technology that can extract lithium from salty water. Most of the world’s lithium is produced in evaporation ponds, which require gobs of land and water. Lilac Solutions’ approach looks more like a regular factory, with modular units humming inside an enclosed building. It promises to make lithium extraction commercially viable in the U.S., something automakers will need if their EVs are to qualify for federal tax incentives which are dependent on domestic minerals.

A preview?

The numbers posted in Q1 may feel inflated because of those sizable rounds, but they could also be the beginning of a trend in which nine-figure raises cease to be exceptional.

Today, it would be easy to dismiss massive deals like H2 Green Steel’s as an outlier, but that would also ignore the fact that many climate tech companies, which often sell physical goods instead of software, need large sums if they’re to successfully reach commercial scale. Currently, there are simply fewer companies ready to make the leap. As early stage companies mature, that should change.

Large rounds coupled with fewer deals may be cold comfort for early stage founders in need of cash now. But the reality is that investors have been trending in that direction for several quarters. The exuberance that was on display during the pandemic caused valuations to skyrocket, making it challenging to justify additional investment without a down round.

In conversations over the last few months, VCs have told me they’ve preferred to put their money behind companies with customer traction and some revenue on the books. In climate tech, there’s a much smaller pool to draw from since many companies still harbor a decent amount of technical risk. Investors’ bias toward de-risked, revenue generating startups is reflected in Q1’s numbers, which was dominated by established companies raising large rounds.

That dynamic can’t continue forever, though. In the next 25 years, the world will need to invest $230 trillion to reach net zero carbon emissions, according to McKinsey. For investors, it’s an opportunity that’s too large to ignore, and founders have been rushing to fill the gap with novel technologies and business models.

Investors have been meeting founders at the starting blocks, but as early stage companies begin to think about scaling, they frequently encounter a challenging fundraising environment, something that’s become known as the “valley of death.”

The ‘valley of death’ for climate lies between early-stage funding and scaling up

As companies like H2 Green Steel, Ascend Elements and others traverse the valley, the lessons learned will inform investors and startups who are on a similar journey. It might take a few years to develop a playbook, but once that happens, large rounds like the kind seen this quarter should start becoming the norm, not the exception.

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Inside TC's Techstars investigation and how AI is accelerating disability tech | TechCrunch

May 3, 2024 7:47 PM0

The downturn in venture capital funding that the world has seen since the bust of the 2021-era bubble has impacted startups, VC firms, and accelerators alike. One company in the final category, Techstars, has been shaking up its operations for some time now, leading to certain departures from its ranks. TechCrunch’s deep-dive into how it all went down is well worth your time.

So, we had author Dominic-Madori Davis on Equity to chat with us about her reporting. But that wasn’t all. Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Alex Wilhelm had a lot to parse this week.

We had notes on wallet-as-a-service’ startup Ansa’s latest fundraise, and how Alex initially misunderstood its business model. Then Kirsten talked us through a simply massive deal in the self-driving space, while Alex wanted to riff on Beehiiv and its own funding round. $33 million is no small Series B in 2024!

And we had a few minutes to discuss Anna Heim’s recent reporting on disability tech and how AI is taking and industry and accelerating it. Even better, there appear to be a mix of business models approached by the startups we discussed. That means that there could be many avenues to making tech that works better for more folks into real, and large businesses.

Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast.

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Apple adds more carve-outs to its EU core tech fee after criticism from devs | TechCrunch

May 3, 2024 4:27 AM0

Apple is tweaking how it applies a new fee that can affect iOS developers in the European Union as it continues to configure its approach to the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA): Developers of free apps will be able to avoid the fee entirely under changes it announced Thursday, which apply from today, while other developers earning under a certain revenue threshold will get longer before they have to pay Apple the fee.

The core technology fee (CTF) remains opt-in for iOS developers in the region, as Apple continues to offer its standard business terms, but those wanting to take up new entitlements the DMA has required Apple to offer — such as allowing sideloading of apps, third-party app stores, and support for alternative payment tech than Apple’s own — must agree to the set of business terms that include the CTF (as Apple calls it).

The fee remains under scrutiny in the region where the Commission, which enforces the DMA on Apple and other gatekeepers — and opened its first investigations, including on Apple, in March — is actively exploring whether the mechanism is enabling the iPhone maker to avoid its obligations to open up the App Store to competition, such as from third-party app stores. But so far the EU hasn’t prevented Apple from charging a fee.

Apple said it’s making changes to the CTF in response to feedback from thousands of developers. Some have expressed concern the fee risks penalizing those who offer free non-commercial apps or small developers who end up with a surprise hit on their hands. An app that goes viral and crosses the 1 million first annual installs threshold Apple had already set before the fee kicks in could end up owing the tech giant a lot of money, since the fee costs €0.50 for each first annual install per year after the 1 million threshold.

In information provided for developers, Apple said the no-fee-for-free-apps tweak is intended to give “students, hobbyists, and other non-commercial developers an opportunity to create a popular app without paying the CTF.” Developers will need to certify their non-commercial status annually to Apple to keep qualifying for the fee exemption. (NB: Government bodies and accredited educational institutions were already exempted from paying the CTF, provided they meet Apple’s criteria.)

Apple said the second change it’s announced aims to provide small developers that score a hit app more time to scale their business. Devs earning less than €10 million in global annual business revenue will get a three-year “free on-ramp to the CTF,” as its developer materials put it.

“Within this 3-year period, if a small developer that hasn’t previously exceeded one million first annual installs crosses the threshold for the first time, they won’t pay the CTF, even if they continue to exceed one million first annual installs during that time,” Apple wrote in a blog post. “If a small developer grows to earn global revenue between €10 million and €50 million within the 3-year on-ramp period, they’ll start to pay the CTF after one million first annual installs up to a cap of €1 million per year.”

Earlier this week the EU announced that Apple’s tablet OS platform, iPadOS, would also soon fall under the DMA too — giving the company six months to ensure it complies with the same rules that already apply to iOS, the App Store and Apple’s Safari browser.

Apple confirmed today that all DMA-related changes it’s applied to iOS will also apply on iPadOS later this fall. (Under the DMA it has six months to meet the iPadOS compliance deadline.)

“Developers can choose to adopt the Alternative Business Terms for Apps in the EU that will include these additional capabilities and options on iPadOS, or stay on Apple’s existing terms,” it wrote in the blog post.

“Once these changes are publicly available to users in the EU, the CTF will also apply to iPadOS apps downloaded through the App Store, Web Distribution, and/or alternative marketplaces,” it also noted, adding: “Users who install the same app on both iOS and iPadOS within a 12-month period will only generate one first annual install for that app.”

Apple’s answer to EU’s gatekeeper rules is new ‘core tech’ fee for apps

Apple revises its DMA rules after pressure, but keeps the Core Technology Fee intact

Apple to allow web distribution for iOS apps in latest DMA tweaks

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A comprehensive list of 2023 & 2024 tech layoffs | TechCrunch

May 2, 2024 5:56 AM0

The tech-wide reckoning that began in 2022 and ran throughout into 2023 has continued into this year. And while 2024’s losses are not at that scale, they’re still significant, driven by big names like Pixar, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok. It remains to be seen if this year’s layoff trends follow last year’s, in which layoffs slowed down in the summer, before cuts began ramping up yet again toward the winter.

Momentum for a tech sector rebound remains slow to build, outside of bright spots within artificial intelligence and adjacent companies, resulting in tech companies continuing to cut back on their workforces and pivot from a growth mindset to one based on efficiency in the face of stubborn market conditions.

But tracking these layoffs helps us to understand the impact on innovation, which companies are facing tough pressures and who is available to hire for the businesses lucky to be growing right now. Unfortunately, it also serves as a reminder of the deeply human impact of layoffs and how risk profiles could evolve from here.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known layoffs in tech that started last year, to be updated monthly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.

The final total of layoffs for 2023 ended up being 262,735, according to Layoffs.fyi. Tech layoffs conducted in 2023 were 59% higher than 2022’s total, according to the data in the tracker. And 2024 is off to a rough start despite not reaching the peak of last year’s first quarter cutbacks.

January: 89,554 employees laid off — see all January 2023 Tech Layoffs
February: 40,021 employees laid off — see all February 2023 Tech Layoffs
March: 37,823 employees laid off — see all March 2023 Tech Layoffs
April: 20,014 employees laid off — see all April 2023 Tech Layoffs
May: 14,928 employees laid off — see all May 2023 Tech Layoffs
June: 10,958 employees laid off — see all June 2023 Tech Layoffs
July: 10,589 employees laid off — see all July 2023 Tech Layoffs
August: 9,545 employees laid off — see all August 2023 Tech Layoffs
September: 4,632 employees laid off — see all September 2023 Tech Layoffs
October: 7,331 employees laid off — see all October 2023 Tech Layoffs
November: 6,956 employees laid off — see all November 2023 Tech Layoffs
December: 7,159 employees laid off — see all December 2023 Tech Layoffs
January 2024: 19,350 employees laid off — see all January 2024 Tech Layoffs
February 2024: 15,589 employees laid off — see all February 2024 Tech Layoffs
March 2024: 7,322 employees laid off — see all March 2024 Tech Layoffs

April 2024

Tesla

Has gutted its charging team in a new round of layoffs, CEO Elon Musk announced in an overnight email to executives.

Google

Has laid off staff across key teams like Flutter, Dart and Python. It is currently unclear how many employees were let go.

Fisker

Is laying off more employees to “preserve cash,” according to an internal email viewed by TechCrunch. The number of cuts is currently unknown.

Getir

Is shutting down operations in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, impacting at least 6,000 jobs across the closing markets.

Ola

Is cutting about 180 jobs in a profitability push and has let go its chief executive Hemant Bakshi, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

True Anomaly

Expedia

Is expected to cut employees in its Austin office for the second time this year.

Nike

Plans to eliminate 740 employees at its Oregon headquarters this summer, according to a WARN Act notice.

Stability AI

Is eliminating 10% of its workforce following the exit of former CEO Emad Mostaque.

Google

Is laying off workers as part of continued cost cutting measures. The number of employees affected was at the time unknown.

Rivian

Is reducing its total workforce by 1%. It’s the second round of layoffs for the EV maker this year.

Take-Two

Is laying off 5% of its workforce, affecting around 579 employees. The GTA 6 publisher also announced the elimination of “several projects” in development.

Tome

Is eliminating about 20% of its 59 employees in a restructuring effort.

Tesla

Criteo

Is reducing its global workforce by nearly 4%, impacting up to 140 employees.

TikTok

Is laying off 250 employees based in Ireland as it restructures its Training and Quality team.

Hinge Health

Cut approximately 10% of its workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned, as the company prepares for an IPO and aims to reach profitability.

Checkr

Has laid off 382 employees, amounting to 32% of its total workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The background-screening platform was last valued at $5 billion in April of 2022.

Bolt.Earth

Apple

Is laying off 614 employees in California after abandoning its electric car project, according to a WARN notice.

Agility Robotics

Has laid off a “small number” of employees as part of a company-wide focus on commercialization efforts.

Ghost Autonomy

Shut down operations. The company, which was backed by OpenAI, employed about 100 people.

Whirlpool

Is shutting down Yummly, the recipe and cooking app it acquired in 2017.

AWS

Will cut hundreds of jobs across Sales, Marketing, Global Services and its Physical Stores Technology team.

Byju’s

Is laying off about 500 employees, accounting for 3% of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring effort.

March 2024

ChowNow

Has laid off 20% of its staff after acquiring point-of-sale platform Cuboh. The company previously laid off 100 people in 2022.

Nintendo of America

Dell

Cut its global workforce by about 6,000 jobs, according to a 10-K SEC filing. The filing reveals the company cut 13,000 jobs in the last year.

Synctera

Has made cuts to its staff, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. A report in Fintech Business Weekly estimates that 17 people, or about 15% of the company, were impacted.

ShopBack

Is cutting 195 roles in an effort to become more sustainable, CEO Henry Chan wrote in a blog post. The layoffs impact nearly a quarter of its staff.

Airmeet

Reportedly eliminated 20% of its total workforce in its second restructuring effort in the past year.

Chipper Cash

Conducted another round of layoffs impacting 20 employees, CEO Ham Serunjogi announced in a blog post.

Textio

Has reportedly cut 16% of its staff in a strategic move to support its Textio Lift product.

Stash

Is reportedly laying off around 25% of its workforce. According to Axios, the cuts affect roughly 80 people.

Phantom Auto

Is shutting down after failing to secure new funding, TechCrunch has learned. The remote driving startup, which had cut staff last year, employed a little more than 100 people.

IBM

Is reportedly slashing its marketing and communications staff. The company previously announced a strategy to replace upwards of 8,000 jobs with AI.

Inscribe.ai

Cut just under 40% of its staff, equating to dozens of employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Turnitin

Laid off around 15 people earlier this year, following comments from CEO Chris Caren that the company would be able to reduce 20% of its headcount thanks to AI.

Sorare

Laid off 13% of its staff based in its New York office as the web3 fantasy sports platform focuses on its Paris headquarters, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Melio

Is eliminating roughly 7% of its workforce as part of organizational restructuring. The fintech unicorn last conducted layoffs in August 2022.

ONE

Is cutting about 13% of its workforce, affecting 40 employees. It’s the second round of layoffs for the battery startup in recent months.

Project Ronin

Is shutting down, resulting in a “permanent mass layoff” impacting around 150 employees.

February 2024

Fisker

Plans to lay off 15% of its workforce and says it likely does not have enough cash on hand to survive the next 12 months.

EA

Cut 5% of its workforce, impacting 670 employees, as it moves away from the “development of future licensed IP.”

Bumble

Is letting go of about 350 employees, accounting for 30% of its workforce.

Apple

Is likely cutting hundreds of employees who worked on the company’s autonomous electric car project now that the effort has stopped, TechCrunch has learned.

Sony

Is laying off 900 employees from its PlayStation unit, affecting 8% of the division’s workforce. Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla and Firesprite studios will also be impacted.

Expedia

Will reportedly cut 1,500 roles in 2024, primarily in its Product & Technology division, accounting for more than 8% of the company’s workforce.

Finder

Eliminated roughly 60 employees, or 17% of its workforce. It’s the financial startup’s third major layoff round in the past 12 months.

Rivian

Is laying off 10% of its salaried workforce in a bid to cut costs in an increasingly tough market for EVs.

Meati Foods

Will lay off 13% of its workforce as it works to “build a financially sustainable business,” CEO Phil Graves told TechCrunch exclusively.

Cisco

Announced it will eliminate 5% of its employees, impacting more than 4,000 people.

Toast

Will lay off about 550 workers in a move designed to promote “operating expense efficiency.”

Instacart

Announced in an SEC filing that it will lay off roughly 250 employees as part of a restructuring effort.

Mozilla

Is scaling back its investment in a number of products, TechCrunch has learned, resulting in layoffs that will affect roughly 60 employees.

Grammarly

Is laying off 230 employees worldwide as part of the company’s efforts to advance its focus on “the AI-enabled workplace of the future.”

Getaround

Is cutting 30% of its North American workforce as part of a restructuring.

Amazon

Is reportedly cutting jobs in its healthcare businesses One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy. The number of impacted roles is currently unknown.

DocuSign

Announced plans to eliminate 6% of its workforce, largely impacting the company’s sales and marketing divisions.

Snap

Announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, impacting roughly 500-plus employees, in an effort to “reduce hierarchy.”

Polygon Labs

Has laid off 60 employees, or about 19% of its staff, CEO Marc Boiron announced in a blog post.

Okta

Is laying off approximately 400 employees. The layoffs come almost exactly a year to the day after Okta announced plans to cut about 300 employees.

January 2024

Thinx

Will lay off 95 workers in New York City, according to a filing with the New York Department of Labor.

Proofpoint

Is laying off about 6% of its global workforce, or 280 employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Wattpad

Conducted another round of layoffs earlier this month, amounting to roughly 15% of its workforce, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch.

Block

Is reportedly laying off around 1,000 people in the Cash App, foundational and Square arms of Block.

PayPal

Has reportedly begun company-wide layoffs. While it is unclear how many people will be affected, one source told TechCrunch it was expected to be in the “thousands.”

Aurora Solar

Has laid off 20% of its staff of about 1,000 people, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The cuts to the software startup come despite record growth in the solar industry last year.

iRobot

Is laying off 350 people, or one-third of its headcount, after Amazon’s bid to acquire the Roomba-maker shuttered. Longtime CEO Colin Angle has also stepped down.

Salesforce

Is reportedly laying off 700 workers, or around 1% of its staff. This comes after the company had a significant reduction of 10% of its workforce in 2023.

Flexport

Microsoft

Is laying off 1,900 employees across its gaming divisions following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra announced he will also be stepping down.

Swiggy

Is cutting about 400 jobs, 7% of its workforce, as the food delivery startup seeks to bring further improvements to its finances ahead of a planned IPO later this year.

Aurora

Laid off dozens of workers, according to sources familiar with the decision. The autonomous vehicle technology company has since confirmed that about 3% of its workforce has been laid off.

eBay

Will lay off 9% of the company’s workforce, affecting about 1,000 full-time employees. In a blog post, the company also plans to cut contract roles in the coming months.

SAP

Announced it intends to offer voluntary buyouts or job changes to 8,000 employees amid restructuring.

Brex

TikTok

Vroom

Is cutting 90% of its employees as it shuts down its online used car marketplace and shifts resources into two business units: one focused on auto financing and the other on AI-powered analytics.

Riot Games

Wayfair

Is eliminating 13% of its global workforce, affecting 1,650 employees, in a restructuring effort aimed at cutting layers of management.

YouTube

Will eliminate 100 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch, as part of a restructuring effort in its creator management and operations teams.

Google

Lost Boys Interactive

Reportedly laid off a “sizable” number of employees January 12. The game developer studio was acquired by Borderlands maker Gearbox in 2022.

Pixar

Audible

Is laying off 5% of its workforce, citing an “increasingly challenging landscape,” according to a leaked memo obtained by Business Insider.

Discord

Is laying off 17% of its staff, impacting 170 people. In an internal memo obtained by the Verge, Discord CEO Jason Citron blamed the cuts on the company growing too quickly.

Google

Amazon

Is laying off “several hundreds” of employees at Prime Video and MGM Studios, according to a memo obtained by TechCrunch. The cuts come days after the 500 layoffs at Amazon’s Twitch.

Twitch

Treasure Financial

Confirmed to TechCunch that layoffs, conducted in December, had impacted 14 employees, accounting for 60% to 70% of the company, according to multiple sources.

Duolingo

Confirmed it cut 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023 as it turns to AI to streamline content production and translations previously handled by humans.

Rent the Runway

Will cut about 10% of corporate roles as it goes through a restructuring plan following Anushka Salinas’ planned resignation as operating chief and president at the end of January.

Unity

Is reducing its workforce by about 25%, or 1,800 people. The video game engine maker went through three rounds of layoffs in 2023.

Pitch

BenchSci

The AI and biomedical startup reportedly cut 17% of its workforce January 8, citing “shifts in the economic environment,” in a LinkedIn post announcing the layoffs.

Flexe

Eliminated 38% of its staff January 8 as the online retail logistics company follows up after conducting layoffs in September 2023.

NuScale

Announced January 8 it is laying off 28% of its staff, or 154 workers, as the small modular nuclear reactor company shifts its focus to “key strategic areas.”

Trigo

Is reportedly laying off 15% of its workforce focused on computer vision for retailers.

InVision

Is shutting down at the end of 2024 after a 12 year run. The design collaboration startup was once valued at nearly $2B.

VideoAmp

Is laying off nearly 20% of its workforce as it tries to maintain its battle with Nielsen over media measurement. CEO Ross McCray stepped down from the company.

Orca Security

Is laying off roughly 15% of its staff, totaling 60 employees. The Israel-based unicorn reportedly plans to move some impacted employees into other positions at the company.

Frontdesk

Data visualization by Miranda Halpern, created with Flourish

December 2023

ShareChat

Is cutting 15% of its workforce in a “strategic restructuring” effort for 2024.

Insightec

Is reportedly laying off 100 employees, with 60 from the company’s Israel headquarters.

Udaan

Reportedly laid off up to 150 employees in a restructuring effort. This month, the business-to-business e-commerce startup scored $340 million in new funding.

Enphase

Is reducing their workforce by around 10%, impacting roughly 350 contractors and employees, president and CEO Badri Kothandaraman wrote in a blog post December 18.

Arm Holdings PLC

Reportedly laid off more than 70 software engineers in China and will relocate some roles.

Delivery Hero

Is shutting down operations in Taiwan and Turkey and plans to eliminate roles at its Berlin headquarters, the company said December 18.

eBay

Is reportedly eliminating nearly 10% of its workforce in Israel. It’s the company’s second round of layoffs this year.

Intel

Will cut 235 employees at its Folsom office campus at the end of the year, the company reported to state employment officials December 15.

Superpedestrian

Is shutting down its U.S.-based shared scooter operation and exploring a sale of its European business, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.

Bolt

Confirmed it laid off 29% of its staff December 15. The e-commerce company known for its one-click checkout technology was at one time the subject of a federal probe.

Cruise

In an announcement obtained exclusively by TechCrunch, the embattled self-driving car company is cutting 900 employees, or 24% of its workforce, per a December 14 email from new president and CTO Mo Elshenawy.

Etsy

Is laying off 11% of its workforce. In a letter to employees December 13, CEO Josh Silverman cited a “very challenging macro and competitive environment.”

Chipper Cash

Has reportedly laid off 15 people across various departments. It would be the fintech unicorn’s fourth round of layoffs this year.

SmileDirectClub

Has shut down three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing $900 million of debt.

Sunfolding

Is reportedly winding down its operations. On its website, Y Combinator categorizes Sunfolding as an “inactive” company.

Zulily

Will lay off more than 500 employees after closing fulfillment centers in Ohio and Nevada in February 2024.

D2iQ

Is shutting down its operations and selling its assets to Nutanix.

Atmosphere

Has reportedly eliminated a large part of its workforce. The business-focused streaming TV service raised $100 million in 2022.

Tidal

Is laying off more than 10% of its staff, the company confirmed to TechCrunch December 7.

ZestMoney

Is shutting down operations. The Goldman Sachs-backed “buy now, pay later” startup was once valued at $450 million.

Navan

Is cutting about 145 roles as the travel startup previously known as TripActions plans to become public.

Incredibuild

Is laying off 20% of its workforce. The software development startup previously raised $35 million in a Series B funding in 2022.

Bill

Will cut around 15% of its workforce, the company announced December 5, and close its Sydney office to increase profitability.

CourseHero

Announced December 5 it eliminated 23 employees across engineering, operations and development.

Pivo

Shut down operations December 5. The Nigerian fintech startup previously raised $2 million in a seed round.

Twilio

Announced hundreds of job cuts December 4, amounting to 5% of the company’s workforce.

Spotify

Is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, the company announced December 4. This marks Spotify’s third round of layoffs this year.

Bending Spoons

Has laid off the entire staff of Filmic, the team behind popular video and photo-editing apps that Bending Spoons acquired in July.

November 2023

Zepz

Cut 30 roles November 30 after the fintech unicorn eliminated 26% of its workforce earlier this year.

Domo

Made reductions to 7% of staff, in addition to reductions in its contract workforce, CEO Joshua G. James announced in the company’s Q3 earnings call November 30.

Mojo

Is laying off 20% of its staff, the company announced to staff November 30. The A-Rod and Marc Lore-founded sports betting startup previously raised $100 million.

Loco

Is cutting its workforce by about 36%, co-founders Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh announced at a November 30 town hall.

Unity

Is laying off 265 workers November 29 after eliminating its Wētā Digital division, which it acquired in 2021.

Tier Mobility

Is cutting roughly 22% of its staff, CEO and co-founder Lawrence Leuschner announced November 28.

Dataminr

Is laying off about 20% of its staff starting November 28, citing “the recent rapid advancements of our AI platform,” according to a memo from founder and CEO Ted Bailey.

Multiverse

Will lay off nearly a third of their U.S. staff. It’s the second round of layoffs at the U.K.-based unicorn company in just over a month.

ONE

Is cutting its workforce by around 25% November 27, citing “market conditions” affecting the EV battery startup.

ByteDance

Started mass layoffs November 27 in its gaming department, Nuverse, after two years of tepid performance. The number of affected employees is unknown.

Veev

Is closing up shop, according to multiple reports, after reaching unicorn status in 2022.

Tulip

Laid off 25 employees, CEO Ali Asaria announced November 24.

Anar

Is shutting down operations and returning capital to investors, CEO Nishank Jain announced November 23.

Alerzo

Cut 100 workers November 21, reportedly due to increases in automation. The recent layoffs come after Alzero cut 15% of its workforce earlier this year and 5% in 2022.

C3.ai

Reportedly cut jobs across departments November 20, citing a need to reduce costs. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that several impacted employees received just one month of severance.

Jodo

Reportedly cut around 100 roles across engineering, customer success, data and sales November 20.

Amazon

Is reportedly laying off “several hundred” employees in their Alexa division and its freshly launched Artificial General Intelligence team.

FreshBooks

Laid off 6% of their workforce November 17 as the company shuts down operations in Raleigh, North Carolina. President Mark Girvan and CEO Don Epperson are also leaving the company.

Beamery

Is reportedly cutting 25% of its workforce amid a larger restructuring and cost-cutting effort.

Paystack

Laid off 33 employees in Europe and Dubai November 16 as the company cuts down on operations outside of Africa.

Sega

Is reportedly planning to “phase out” 80 temporary workers by 2024. The company is now facing an unfair labor practice complaint, with workers alleging the layoffs are retaliation for unionizing.

Chewy

Laid off more than 200 employees November 14. The cuts impact roles in HR, recruiting, data, business intelligence, plus directors and higher managers.

Amazon

Is cutting “just over 180” roles in its gaming division, VP Christoph Hartmann wrote in an email to employees November 13.

Carta

Is reportedly cutting more of its workforce. The number of positions affected are unknown, but it would be the unicorn startup’s third layoff round this year.

Pico

Is cutting a “few hundred” roles, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch November 9. ByteDance’s Oculus challenger held an internal meeting announcing it is halting its expansion this week.

Cruise

Started laying off contingent workers who supported driverless operations November 9. Those layoffs came after the company recalled 950 robotaxis and lost key commercial permits to operate in California.

Snap

Laid off fewer than 20 project managers November 8. CNBC reported that Snap’s vice president of engineering, Nima Khajehnouri, will also be leaving.

Amazon

Started cutting workers in its music streaming division in Latin America, North America and Europe, the company confirmed November 8.

Google

Confirmed November 8 it eliminated “a small number of roles” in its consumer support staff, Google Users & Products.

Virgin Galactic

Said in a memo to staff November 8 it is cutting costs and reducing staff. The number of employees impacted is currently unknown.

Ubisoft Montreal

Confirmed November 7 it will cut 98 roles in business administration and IT. Ubisoft said 124 positions will be eliminated overall across Canada, including reductions in its global IT team and its VFX studio, Hybride.

Nextdoor

Revealed in its Q3 earnings that it is reducing its workforce by 25%.

Beyond Meat

Announced cuts November 6 affecting around 19% of its non-production employees. The plant-based meat company says it will also review its entire global operations for cost-cutting opportunities.

Ava Labs

Is cutting 12% of its workforce, CEO Emin Gün Sirer confirmed November 6.

OpenSea

Laid off about 50% of its staff, the company confirmed November 3. CEO Devin Finzer posted a statement on X saying the NFT marketplace is now focused on “OpenSea 2.0.”

Starz

Is laying off more than 10% of its staff ahead of the company spinning out from Lionsgate, CEO Jeffrey Hirsch announced November 3. The network and streaming app will also exit Australia and the U.K.

Faire

Laid off about 250 people November 3 as part of restructuring. The wholesale marketplace raised a $416 million extension at a $12.6 billion valuation last year.

Niu

Confirmed to TechCrunch November 3 that it is issuing a round of layoffs affecting about 10% of their workforce, citing “fierce competition.”

100 Thieves

Is reducing its workforce by 20%, CEO John Robinson announced November 2. The esports brand is spinning out its game studio as well as its energy drink brand, Juvee.

OpenSpace

Conducted a round of layoffs, CEO Jeevan Kalanithi announced November 2. The number of employees impacted by the layoffs has yet to be reported.

Informatica

Is laying off 10% of its global workforce, the cloud data management company announced in its Q3 results November 1.

Splunk

Is set to cut around 500 employees CEO Gary Steele said in a message to employees November 1 ahead of its planned acquisition by Cisco.

October 2023

Bungie

Is laying off about 100 employees, CEO Pete Parsons announced 10/30. The Sony-owned game studio is also delaying two of its upcoming titles as a result.

Karat

Reportedly cut an estimated 10% of its workforce October 27 after the financial startup for creators raised a $70 million Series B round earlier this year.

Hippo

Plans to eliminate 120 roles, the company said in an SEC filing October 30.

Liberty Mutual

Plans to cut 850 members of its staff, the insurance company confirmed October 27.

Salsify

Cut 110 jobs and are moving some roles abroad, CEO and co-founder Jason Purcell announced October 25.

Slync

Is shutting down, months after its former CEO Chris Kirchner was arrested on fraud charges and sued the company to pay for his legal bills.

Shipt

Announced October 24 in a company statement that it laid off 3.5% of their workforce and will close many open roles.

Pebble

The X alternative previously known as T2 announced October 24 that it is shutting down its operations.

Nokia

Announced October 19 that it will cut up to 14,000 jobs, or 16% of its workforce, following a sizable dip in Q3.

Roblox China

Cut 15 roles on October 24, two years after the joint effort with Tencent abruptly paused its service.

Tropic

Eliminated 26 roles, CEO David Campbell confirmed in a LinkedIn post October 21.

Convoy

Is halting operations due to a “massive freight recession,” CEO Dan Lewis announced in a memo October 19, a week after laying off 20% of its workforce.

LegalZoom

Plans to lay off more than 100 workers in its sales division, the company disclosed in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter.

Plume

Laid off more than two dozen workers, TechCrunch learned October 18, about a year after the trans healthcare startup raised a $24 million Series B.

Google

Eliminated at least 40 roles in its news division, Google confirmed October 18.

Expedia Group

Cut around 100 jobs, Skift reports, in its second round of layoffs in recent months. The cuts reportedly impacted employees across data and AI.

Stack Overflow

Laid off 28% of its staff, more than likely impacting 100 people, the Prosus-owned company announced October 16.

Bandcamp

Eliminated 50% of its staff on October 16 after ownership changed from video game company Epic to music licensing platform Songtradr.

Confirmed October 16 that it will cut 668 more jobs, bringing the total to nearly 1,400 this year, with the bulk of the most recent cuts impacting those with R&D roles.

Flexport

On October 13 began laying off 20% of its workers, about 600 people, as it prepares for restructuring, and continues a cost-cutting campaign that began with rescinding offers and working to lease office space.

Qualcomm

Is cutting 1,258 jobs in two of its California offices. According to a filing with the California Employment Development Department, the semiconductor company plans to make the reductions in December.

Blue Origin

Laid off 40 people October 10, including software engineers and program managers, according to The Information.

Stitch Fix

Will lay off 558 employees after the personal styling subscription service closes a distribution center in Dallas.

Synapse

Confirmed October 6 that it had laid off 86 people, about 40% of the a16z-backed fintech company. Earlier in the year, Synapse laid off 18% of its employees after its growth slowed.

Bird

Issued a new round of layoffs after acquiring Spin, according to an email interim CEO Michael Washinushi sent to the company. The layoffs came one week after the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and the exact number remains unknown.

Qualtrics

Announced on October 4 that 780 roles are being eliminated and that “several hundred” roles are changing or moving locations in 2024.

Hopper

Is reducing its full-time staff by 30%, amounting to 250 job cuts, the company announced October 3.

Chainalysis

Announced October 2 that it is laying off around 15% of its workforce, affecting approximately 150 employees.

September 2023

IronNet

In a regulatory filing published September 29, the cybersecurity startup has ceased all business activities as it prepares for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and has laid off its remaining staff.

Naughty Dog

Is reportedly cutting at least 25 contract developers, two sources familiar with the situation told Kotaku.

Epic Games

Announced on September 28 that the Fortnite maker is laying off 16% of its workforce, amounting to 870 people.

Talkdesk

An impacted employee confirmed on September 27 that at least 140 people, if not more, were affected by Talkdesk’s third round of layoffs in less than 14 months.

Byju’s

Announced on September 26, the company plans to cut 5,000 jobs due to restructuring efforts. The startup has eliminated more than 10,000 positions in the past two years.

Roblox

Confirmed to TechCrunch on September 21, Roblox let go of 30 employees in its talent acquisition organization. No other teams are impacted.

Divvy Homes

Announced on September 11 that it is laying off 94 employees.

Sensor Tower

Announced on September 8 that it laid off approximately 40 people out of the 270+ at the company, including C-suite executives.

Roku

Announced September 6 that it plans to lay off approximately 10% of its workforce, representing over 300 employees.

August 2023

Malwarebytes

Announced on August 31 that it laid off 100 employees, mainly impacting corporate employees.

Twiga

Announced on August 21 that it is laying off 283 employees, or 33% of its workforce.

SecureWorks

Announced on August 14 that it will let go of 15% of its workforce, impacting about 300 employees. This is the company’s second round of layoffs this year.

CoinDesk

Announced on August 14 that it is cutting 16% of staff.

NCC Group

Confirmed on August 10 that it is making more layoffs, its second round of layoffs in just six months. The company declined to say how many employees are affected by this round of cuts. NCC Group cut 125 employees in February.

Rapid7

Announced on August 9 that it plans to lay off 18% of its workforce, affecting more than 400 employees globally.

Mobile Premier League

Announced on August 8 that it is laying off approximately 50% of its employees or 350 people.

Astra

Announced on August 4 that it has laid off 25% of its workforce since the beginning of the quarter.

Discord

Announced on August 3 that it has let go of nearly 40 employees or 4% of its workforce.

HackerOne

Announced on August 2 that it is laying off 12% of its workforce, approximately 50 employees.

Tekion

Announced on August 2 by Inc42, the startup laid off around 300 employees or 10% of its workforce. Of the 300 employees being let go, about 200 were from Tekion’s India office.

Planet

Announced on August 1 that it is laying off 117 employees, or 10% of staff.

July 2023

Dunzo

Announced July 19 that it is postponing employee salaries for a month and plans a new wave of layoffs as soon as July 20. Dunzo executives informed employees that they will likely be cutting over 200 jobs, in what will be its third layoff this year. The company has eliminated about 400 jobs this year so far.

Cameo

Announced on July 18 that it intends to lay off 80 workers.

Skill-Lync

Announced on July 13 that the Indian startup has laid off 20% of its workforce, around 225 employees.

Crunchbase

Announced on LinkedIn on July 9 that the company is laying off 52 employees.

Microsoft

Announced July 10 that the company is eliminating additional jobs a week after the start of its 2023 fiscal year. These layoffs are in addition to the 10,000 layoffs announced in January.

ClickUp

Announced on July 4 that it has laid off 10% of its workforce, about 90 people.

June 2023

Niantic

Announced June 29 that it laid of 230 employees — one year after it laid off around 90 employees.

Plex

Announced June 29 that it laid off approximately 20% of its staff, or 37 employees.

Grab

Announced the week of June 23 that it laid off more than a thousand people, or 11% of its staff.

Olx Group

Announced on June 20 that it has cut around 800 jobs globally. The news comes as the company started to close operations of its automotive business nit Olx Autos in some markets.

Mojocare

Announced on June 18 that the company will be laying off some 150 employees, a majority of the workforce.

Tada

Operated by Korean ride-sharing company Socar’s subsidiary VCNC announced on June 15 that it plans to let go of at least 50% of its staff or about 45 people at Tada.

Better.com

Announced on June 7 that it laid off its real estate team, it is not clear how many people were impacted.

Ursa Major

At least 14 people have been laid off from the rocket engine startup, announced on June 7. Ursa Major did not respond to TechCrunch’s inquiry into the layoffs, or the number of people affected. According to LinkedIn, 292 people are listed as currently working at Ursa.

Spotify

Announced June 5 that it will cut 200 jobs in its podcast unit, leading to a workforce reduction of 2%. This comes just a few months after the company announced a significant wave of layoffs.

May 2023

Taxfix

Announced on May 30 that it has laid off 20% of staff—120 employees.

JioMart

Reliance Retail’s online shopping platform laid off over 1,000 employees on May 22, and plans to cut as many as 9,900 more roles over the coming weeks.

Krebs Stamos Group

Announced May 18 that the consulting firm laid off six people. In April, the firm had 18 employees including the founders. On May 18, the site shows only 14 team members.

TuSimple

Announced May 18 that it is laying off about 30% of employees.

Prior to the layoff, TuSimple had about 550 employees in the U.S. and post reduction in force the company will have about 220, according to the company.

Nuro

Announced May 12 that it will lay off 30%, or about 340 employees across the company.

Announced May 8 that it is cutting 716 jobs, or about 3.6% of total employees, and will phase out its local jobs app in China. Despite reducing some roles, LinkedIn also plans to open about 250 new jobs on May 15.

Rapid

Announced May 5 that Rapid (previously known as RapidAPI) has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after letting go of 50% of its staff. Just 42 people remain at the company, down from 230 in April, dropping a total of 82% in headcount.

Meesho

Announced May 4 that it has cut 15% of its workforce, or 251 roles. This comes after its first round of layoffs, which eliminated 150 roles about a year ago.

Shopify

Announced May 4 that it is laying off 20% of its workforce, impacting more than 2,000 people. It’s also selling its logistics business to Flexport for roughly 13% in stock.

Bishop Fox

Announced May 3 that it laid off around 50 employees — or 13% of its workforce — on May 2.

Neato Robotics

Announced May 1 that Vorwerk-owned Neato Robotics is shutting down, with nearly 100 employees impacted by the move.

April 2023

Clubhouse

Announced April 27 that it has laid off more than 50% of staff. A spokesperson for Clubhouse declined to comment on the number of people impacted by today’s workforce reduction or the number of employees who remain at the company. Last October, Davison told TechCrunch that Clubhouse had close to 100 employees.

Dropbox

Announced April 27 that it would be laying off 500 employees or 16% of staff.

Amazon

Announced on April 26 that it is shutting down its Halo Health division, effective July 31, among other divisions. The layoffs are part of the 9,000 employees announced in March. Including the 18,000-person layoffs announced in January, this brings the total to 27,000 job cuts or 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce this year.

Rapid

Announced on April 25, Rapid, previously known as RapidAPI, lays off 50% of its staff. The layoffs are believed to have impacted 115 people.

Anthemis Group

Announced on April 25 that it will lay off 16 people from its staff, or 28% of employees.

Lyft

Announced on April 21 that employees will learn whether they have a job or not via an email that will be sent out April 27.

Lyft layoffs to affect 26% of workforce, or about 1,072 people as promised on April 27.

Redfin

Announced April 13th that it has laid off 201 employees, about 4% of its workforce. This is the third time the Seattle-based real estate company has reduced its workforce since June.

Apple

Bloomberg reported on April 3 that Apple is laying off a small number of roles on its corporate retail teams.

March 2023

Netflix

Announced on March 31, Netflix confirms a “handful of layoffs,” which includes two longtime executives. The exact number of layoffs is unclear. Netflix is scheduled to report Q1 2023 results on April 18.

Roku

Announced March 30 that it is letting go of about 200 employees, or 6% of its workforce. The company had laid off 200 U.S. employees back in November.

Unacademy

Announced March 30 that it has laid off more than 350 roles, or 12% of its workforce — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November.

Shift Technologies

Announced March 29 that it laid off 30% of its workforce in Q1 2023.

Lucid

Announced March 28 that it is laying off 1,300 employees, or 18% of its workforce, to be completed by the end of Q2 2023.

GitHub

Announced on March 28 that it has eliminated over 100 jobs in the South Asian market, laying off virtually its entire engineering team in India. A GitHub spokesperson told TechCrunch that the layoff is part of the streamlining effort the firm had disclosed in February to cut roughly 10% of its workforce by end of Q1 2023.

Disney

On March 27 in an internal memo to employees, Disney revealed there will be three rounds of layoffs, the first beginning this week. The job cuts will impact approximately 7,000 employees, which was announced in February.

Salesforce

On March 24, Bloomberg reported that more layoffs could be on the way at Salesforce, quoting chief operating officer Brian Millham, who indicated that the company could be adding to the ongoing job cutting at the CRM leader and in tech in general. If the layoffs happen, it would come on top of the 10% cut in January.

Twitch

Announced March 20 that it will lay off 400 employees.

Amazon

Announced March 20 another round of substantial layoffs, this time 9,000 people are set to lose their jobs. TechCrunch is hearing that around 10% of today’s total came from AWS. As part of the new round of layoffs, Amazon is shutting down DPReview.

Livespace

Announced March 20 that it has laid off at least 100 employees, about 2% of the company’s workforce.

Course Hero

Announced March 16 that it has cut 15% of staff, or 42 people.

Klaviyo

Announced March 15 that it has laid off 140 of its staff across all teams.

Microsoft

As a part of its recent announcement to layoff 10,000 people, Microsoft laid off an entire team dedicated to guiding AI innovation that leads to ethical, responsible and sustainable outcomes. On March 27, Microsoft laid off 559 workers from its Bellevue and Redmond operations.

Y Combinator

Announced March 13 that it will impact 20% of staff, or 17 team members.

Salesforce…continued

Salesforce first announced that it was laying off 10% of the workforce in January, but some employees didn’t know until February. The week of March 10, more employees are just learning they have been laid off. Salesforce confirmed that these layoffs were part of the 10%.

Atlassian

Announced on March 6, Atlassian is laying off about 500 employees, or 5% of its total workforce.

SiriusXM

Announced on March 6, the company laid off 475 employees, or 8% of its total workforce.

Alerzo

The Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform had a headcount of more than 2,000 before a first round of layoffs in September 2022. Alerzo has laid off 15% of its full-time workforce, the company confirmed on March 6, leaving about 800 employees at the startup.

Cerebral

Announced March 1, the company is letting go 15% of it’s workforce — roughly 285 employees.

Waymo

Announced March 1, Alphabet’s Waymo issued a second round of layoffs this year. Combined with the initial cuts in January, the self-driving technology company has let go of 8%, or 209 employees, of its workforce.

Thoughtworks

Announced on March 1, the company laid off about 4% of its global workforce — approximately 500 employees.

February 2023

Twitter

Announced on February 26, the company laid off more than 200 employees, including Esther Crawford, Haraldur Thorleifsson and Leah Culver. Since Musk took over Twitter in October last year, the company’s headcount has fallen by more than 70%.

Poshmark

Announced February 24, Poshmark confirmed with TechCrunch that less than 2% of its workforce was affected, primarily in the U.S. The company employs roughly 800+ employees.

Green Labs

We do not have an exact figure of how many Green Labs plans to lay off its staff. Green Labs confirmed to TechCrunch that it is conducting a round of layoffs that could impact at least 50% of its workforce.

Chipper Cash

Announced on February 20, the African cross-border payments platform conducted a second round of layoffs just 10 weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce. Chipper Cash relieved almost one-third of its workforce, about 100 employees.

Evernote

On February 17 the company confirmed laying off 129 people.

Jumia

Announced February 16 that it cut 20% of its staff, or more than 900 positions across its 11 markets, in Q4 of 2022.

Convoy

Announced on February 16 that it is shuttering its Atlanta office and laying off workers as part of restructuring. This is the third time in less than a year that the company has laid off workers.

Sprinklr

Announced on February 15 that it will impact 4% of its global workforce — or more than 100 employees.

iRobot

Announced on February 13 that it will lay off 7% of its workforce, roughly 85 employees.

Twilio

Announced on February 13 that it will impact around 17% of its global workforce, about 1,400 people.

GitHub

Announced February 9, 10% of its staff will be impacted through the end of the company’s fiscal year. Before this announcement, which was first reported by Fortune, GitHub had about 3,000 employees.

Yahoo

Announced on February 9, 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its adtech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch.

GitLab

Announced February 9 that it’s reducing its headcount by 7%. The round of redundancies will impact around 114 people, though that specific figure is dependent on its actual headcount as of February 9.

Affirm

Announced on February 8 that it is reducing its staff by 19%, or about 500 employees, and shutting down its crypto unit.

Zoom

Announced the cut of 15% of its staff, or 1,300 people on February 7.

VinFast

VinFast has not shared how many employees have been cut, but a LinkedIn post from a former employee said “nearly 35 roles” were affected. Announced on February 6.

Dell

Announced February 6, impacting 6,650 people, or 5% of worldwide workforce.

Getaround

Announced February 2, 10% of staff — about 42 employees.

Announced February 2, 150 employees impacted. This is the second job-cutting move within weeks of the first round in December 2022.

Rivian

Announced on February 1, cutting 6% of its workforce for the second time in less than a year.

January 2023

SoFi Technologies

Announced on January 31, cutting 65 jobs, or about 5% of its 1,300-person workforce. First reported by The Wall Street Journal.

NetApp

Announced on January 31, impacting 8% of its staff — about 960 people.

Groupon

Impacting another 500 employees announced on January 31. The company said this new set of layoffs will be spread across the first two quarters of 2023.

Impossible Foods

Reportedly affecting 20% of its staff, over 100 employees, Bloomberg reported first.

PayPal

Announced on January 30, about 2,000 full-time employees, or 7% of its workforce, were affected.

Arrival

Announced on January 30, with a newly appointed CEO, slashing 50% of its workforce — 800 employees globally.

Waymo

The self-driving technology unit under Alphabet quietly laid off workers on January 24, according to The Information and several posts on LinkedIn and Blind. It’s not yet clear how many of Waymo’s staff will be affected.

Spotify

Announced on January 23, impacting around 6% of its global workforce — around 600 employees.

Alphabet

Google’s parent company announced laying off 6% of its global workforce on January 21, equating to 12,000 employees. These cuts impact divisions such as Area 120, the Google in-house incubator and Alphabet’s robotics division, Intrinsic.

Fandom

The entertainment company announced an unspecified number of employees impacted across multiple properties on January 20. According to a report by Variety, the company employs around 500 people, and the layoffs have affected roughly 10% of its staff across different sites.

Swiggy

Announced plans to lay off 380 jobs on January 20 and shut down its meat marketplace.

Sophos

Announced on January 18, 10% of its global workforce, about 450 people were let go.

Microsoft

As announced on January 18, 10,000 employees will be impacted.

GoMechanic

Laid off 70% of its workforce on January 18.

Clearco

Announced on January 17, impacting 30% of staff across all teams.

ShareChat

Announced on January 15, ShareChat laid off 20% of its workforce — or over 400 employees — just a month after eliminating more than 100 roles.

SmartNews

Announced on January 12 a 40% reduction of its U.S. and China workforce, or around 120 people.

Intrinsic

Alphabet’s robot software firm, Intrinsic, is laying off 40 employees TechCrunch confirmed on January 12. Amounting to around 20% of the headcount.

Greenlight

The fintech startup offering debit cards to kids laid off 104 employees on January 12, or over 21% of its total headcount of 485 employees.

Career Karma

Learning navigation platform Career Karma laid off another 22 people on January 12 across its global and domestic workforce.

DirectTV

Announced on January 12 plans to lay off about 10% of its management staff on January 20.

Informatica

Reported on January 11 that it will lay off 7% of it’s workforce, or 450 staffers globally.

Carta

Announced on January 11, the equity management platform cut 10% of its staff. Judging by LinkedIn data, the layoff could have impacted around 200 employees.

Citizen

Impacting 33 staff members on January 11.

Coinbase

To cut 950 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce, and shut down “several” projects, announced on January 10. This is the second round of major layoffs at the crypto exchange, which eliminated 18% of its workforce, or nearly 1,100 jobs last June.

SuperRare

The NFT marketplace is cutting 30% of its staff, announced on January 6.

Amazon

Announced on January 5, eliminating more than 18,000 roles. This announcement extends a previously announced round of layoffs in November of 2022. On January 19, the company announced it would end AmazonSmile.

Salesforce

Announced on January 4 that it’s cutting 10% of its workforce, impacting more than 7,000 employees. A month later, some Salesforce employees had just found out they were also a part of the 10% layoff announcement.

Vimeo

Announced on January 4, cutting 11% of its workforce.

Editor’s note: Natasha Mascarenhas has contributed to this compilation.

Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Shinkei's humane, quality-preserving fish-harvesting tech could upend the seafood industry | TechCrunch

May 1, 2024 3:49 AM0

Harvesting fish is an inherently messy business, what with being at sea, the slippery creatures wriggling around and everything else. Shinkei is working to improve it with an automated system that more humanely and reliably dispatches the fish, resulting in what could be a totally different seafood economy.

On many fishing vessels, fish are left to suffocate on the deck, flopping about and injuring themselves, resulting in a higher likelihood of bacterial infection, shorter shelf life and worse taste.

A Japanese technique called ike-jime is one alternative, amounting essentially to a spike through the brain rather than a drawn-out, dirty death. But it takes a certain amount of expertise, and a person can only handle so many fish. That’s where Shinkei comes in: automating the process so that the fish don’t suffer and the resulting meat is longer-lasting and of higher quality.

When I last talked to the company in 2022, it was deploying its first prototypes onto vessels to be tested in the unpredictable marine environment. The machine holds the fish in place, identifies the species and shape, and from there can determine where exactly the brain is, which it spikes quickly and accurately. That’s the end of the fish, though it still needs to be exsanguinated, which occurs directly afterwards in an ice bath.

Founder Saif Khawaja told me that in the time since then, Shinkei has refined its machines to be more reliable, moving away from a water-based spike to a mechanical one, along with other improvements one makes when going from a prototype to a production unit.

The improved machines can also be attached in a modular way, allowing parallel processing streams, and the computer vision stack that analyzes the fish on the block is being improved, with new fish types being added as well.

And of course the company has raised money: $6 million that should help it go from pilot to production. The goal is to have 10 machines in actual use by the end of the year. Shinkei is also working on a second machine that performs a second operation, essentially destroying the spinal cord so there’s no trace of the central nervous system left — one step closer to a fillet.

A prototype Shinkei machine on a fishing boat, left. Co-founder Saif Khawaja, right. Image Credits: Shinkei

Khawaja sees Shinkei, and the automation of that technique and ike-jime, as potentially the start of a major shift in the seafood economy. It isn’t just that he hopes a more humane harvesting method catches on — there are a number of knock-on effects that could be far-reaching.

The thing about the seafood industry is that there’s a tremendous amount of waste, no doubt partly due to the oceans being considered an inexhaustible resource. They aren’t, by the way! And overfishing is driving many fish toward effective extinction.

One part of this waste is that fish simply don’t last long as a premium product. We’ve all seen the signs: fish, market price, delivered this morning. Because tomorrow, that fish will only be good enough to serve grilled up with sauce or in a salad, and the day after that it’s compost or animal food.

Consumers and restaurants accept this the way we once accepted that milk had to be delivered every few days because it went bad. When packaging technology made it possible for milk to last for weeks rather than days, that changed our relationship with it. Similarly, when in the ’70s, humane slaughter of cows was mandated by the FDA, that became the new standard, including the costs and changes to the supply chain that went with it.

A fish harvested using Shinkei’s system, top, and traditional, bottom — showing tissue damage and contamination that will lead to faster deterioration. Image Credits: Shinkei

Khawaja hopes that a similar transformation is underway in seafood. Fish killed via ike-jime rather than other ways last far longer, retaining their premium taste and texture for perhaps a week rather than a day or two. The whole degradation process is slowed.

That means a restaurant may not have to buy as many fish, a quarter of which it will throw away perhaps, but will pay more for fewer higher-quality fish that last longer. That kind of shift can make entire industries change.

For instance, over the last few decades we have seen a huge amount of meat-processing labor shifted overseas. Khawaja mentioned that a billion pounds of salmon alone were sent to China to be processed, because it doesn’t make financial sense to do it here where people demand higher wages.

If the value of a single fish rises, and it is easier to process it locally, that may cause the economics of overseas processing (kind of ridiculous to begin with) no longer make sense. The fish can be caught here and stay here, and all the jobs associated with the industry can as well.

Higher-value fish may also put negative pressure on overfishing. If a boat can make the same amount of money on 700 fish as it once did on 1,000, that changes things as well. Fewer boats will need to collect far beyond legal or ethical levels just to survive as a business.

“This is an efficiency net gain for the whole supply chain,” Khawaja said. “I really think that within seafood the problems are particularly pronounced, and a lot of these jobs are dangerous. I worked as a deckhand and almost died! I don’t want this to be a wholly automated supply chain, but to take away dangerous jobs and let the skilled labor forge their new environment.”

The funding round was led by Cantos, along with 8VC, Impatient Ventures, Susa Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, Ravelin Capital, Red & Blue Ventures, Undeterred Capital and existing investors.

Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

How European disability tech startups are leveraging AI | TechCrunch

April 30, 2024 10:37 PM0

Making life better for people with disabilities is a laudable goal, but accessibility tech hasn’t traditionally been popular among VCs. In 2022, disability tech companies attracted around $4 billion in early-stage investments, which was a fraction of fintech’s intake, for example.

One reason is that disability tech startups are often considered too niche to attain business viability — at least on the scale that venture capital demands. By definition, they are assumed to be building for a minority. However, some startups in the space have also begun serving the wider population — and throwing in some AI always helps.

Both cases are a balancing act: The wider business case needs to make sense without losing sight of the startup’s mission statement. AI, meanwhile, needs to be leveraged in a non-gimmicky way to pass the due diligence sniff test.

Some accessibility-focused startups understand these necessities, and their strategies are worth a look. Here are four European startups doing just that.

Visualfy

Image Credits: Visualfy

Visualfy leverages AI to improve the lives of people with hearing loss. The Spanish startup is focused on safety and autonomy — this includes a sound recognition AI that recognizes fire alarms and the sound of a baby crying at home. “AI is crucial for our business,” CEO Manel Alcaide told TechCrunch last month.

The firm offers consumers an app that also serves as a companion to Visualfy Home, its hardware suite consisting of three detectors and a main device. It also entered the public sector with Visualfy Places — it’s no coincidence the startup recently raised funding from Spain’s national state-owned railway company, Renfe.

One reason Visualfy is gaining traction on the B2B side is that public venues are required to provide accessibility, especially when health and safety are on the line.

In an interview, Alcaide explained that the devices and PA systems Visualfy will install in places like stadiums could also monitor air quality and other metrics. In the EU, meeting these other goals could help companies get subsidies while doing the right thing for deaf people.

The latter is still very much top of mind for Visualfy, which is set up as a B Corp and employs both hearing and non-hearing people. Incorporating deaf individuals at all steps is a moral stance — “nothing for us without us.” But it is also common sense for better design, Alcaide said.

Knisper

Image Credits: Audus Technologies

People with full hearing disability are a smaller segment of a large and growing group. By 2050, 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss. Due to a mix of reasons, including stigma and cost, many won’t wear hearing aids. That’s the audience Dutch B2B startup Audus Technologies is targeting with its product, Knisper.

Knisper uses AI to make speech more intelligible in environments such as cinemas, museums, public transportation and work calls. In practice, this means splitting the audio and mixing it back into a clearer track. It does so without increasing background volume noise (something not every hearing aid company can say), which makes it comfortable for anyone to listen to, even without hearing loss.

A former ENT doctor, Audus founder Marciano Ferrier explained that this wasn’t possible to achieve with similar results before AI. Knisper was trained on thousands of videos in multiple languages, with variations such as background noise and distorted speech. This took work, but Audus is now leaving the development stage and focusing on adoption, managing director Joost Taverne told TechCrunch in February.

“We are already working with a number of museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,” said Taverne, a former MP and diplomat who spent time in the U.S. “We also do audiobooks with a Dutch publishing house, where we make the audio book of Anne Frank’s diary accessible for people with hearing loss. And we now have the solution for the workspace.”

B2B go-to-market is not an easy route, so it makes sense for Audus to focus on clients like museums. They are often noisy, which can make audio guides hard for anyone to hear. Using Knisper’s technology to make them more intelligible brings benefits to the general public, not just those with hearing loss, which makes adoption easier.

Whispp

Image Credits: Whispp

Fellow Dutch startup Whispp also focuses on speech, but from a different angle. As TechCrunch reported from CES earlier this year, its technology converts whispered speech into a natural voice in real time.

Whispp brings electronic larynx voice boxes into this millennium

Whispp’s core target audience is “a currently underserved group of worldwide 300 million people with voice disabilities who lost their voice but still have good articulation,” its site explains.

For instance, individuals with voice disorders that only leave them able to whisper or use their esophageal voice; or who stutter, like CEO Joris Castermans. He knows all too well how his speech is less affected when whispering.

For those with reduced articulation due to ALS, MS, Parkinson’s or strokes, there are already solutions like text-to-speech apps — but these have downsides such as high latency. For people who are still able to articulate, that can be too much of a tradeoff.

Thanks to audio-to-audio AI, Whispp is able to provide them with a voice that can be produced in real time, is language agnostic and sounds real and natural. If users are able to provide a sample, it can even sound like their own voice.

Since there’s no text in the middle, Whispp is also more secure than alternatives, Castermans told TechCrunch. This could open up use cases for non-silent patients who need to have confidential conversations, he said.

How much users without voice issues would be willing to pay for Whispp’s technology is unclear, but it also has several monetization routes to explore with its core audience, such as the subscription it charges for its voice calling app.

Acapela

Image Credits: Acapela Group

Whispp highlights the need some have to store their voice for later use. Known as voice banking, this process is what Acapela hopes to facilitate with a service it launched last year.

Acapela Group, which was bought by Swedish tech accessibility company Tobii Dynavox for €9.8 million in 2022, has been in the text-to-speech space for several decades, but it is only recently that AI changed the picture for voice cloning.

The results are much better and the process is faster too. This will lower the bar for voice banking, and although not everyone will do it yet, there may be demand for individuals who know they are at risk of losing their voice after getting diagnosed with certain conditions.

Acapela doesn’t charge for the initial phase of the service, which consists of recording 50 sentences. It is only when and if they need to install the voices on their devices that users have to buy it, either directly through Acapela or via a third party (partner, reseller, a national health insurance program or other).

Besides the new potential unlocked by AI, the above examples show some routes that startups are exploring to expand beyond a core target of users with disabilities.

Part of the thinking is that a larger addressable market can increase their prospective revenue and spread out the costs. But for their customers and partners, it is also a way to stay true to the definition of accessibility as “the quality of being able to be entered or used by everyone, including people who have a disability.”

Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

Sam's Club's AI-powered exit tech reaches 20% of stores | TechCrunch

April 30, 2024 8:59 PM0

Amazon may be scaling back its AI-powered Just Walk Out checkout-free tech in its stores in favor of smart shopping carts, but Walmart-owned Sam’s Club says it’s turning to AI to speed up its own exit technology. Instead of requiring store staff to check members’ purchases against their receipts when leaving the store, Sam’s Club customers who pay either at a register or through the Scan & Go mobile app can now walk out of the store without having their purchases double-checked.

The technology, first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, has now been deployed at over 120 clubs across the U.S., which is 20% of the total number of Sam’s Club locations. Since rolling out, the company claims that it’s significantly sped up exits, as members leave the store 23% faster. The retailer plans to expand the tech to all its stores by year-end.

The system works via a combination of computer vision and digital tech that captures images of customers’ carts and then verifies payment for the items in their basket. Sam’s Club says AI is used in the background to speed up the process. The AI also learns and improves over time as thousands of exit transactions across locations are analyzed.

Before the technology was put into place, Sam’s Club members would have to queue up at the store’s exit to wait to have their receipts checked. The new solution keeps them moving along and frees up store staff to focus on other tasks.

The company also took a subtle shot at rival Amazon in announcing the expansion, noting that its technology arrives as “other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts” — a clear reference to Amazon’s pullback on Just Walk Out. In addition, Amazon had to fend off criticism that its AI tech had relied on human workers to review transactions. Amazon said machine learning had powered its technology and that contractors were only annotating the AI and shopping data to improve the system.

Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

neuroClues wants to put high speed eye tracking tech in the doctor's office | TechCrunch

April 30, 2024 12:54 PM0

The eyes aren’t just a window into the soul; tracking saccades can help doctors pick up a range of brain health issues. That’s why French-Belgian medtech startup neuroClues is building accessible, high-speed eye-tracking technology that incorporates AI-driven analysis. It wants to make it easier for healthcare service providers to use eye tracking to support the diagnosis of neurodegenerative conditions.

The company is starting with a focus on Parkinson’s disease, which already typically incorporates a test of a patient’s eye movement. Today, a doctor asks a patient to “follow my finger,” but neuroClues wants clinicians to use its proprietary, portable headsets to instead capture eye movements at 800 frames per second, after which they can run an analysis of the data in just a few seconds.

The 3.5-year-old outfit’s co-founders — two of whom are neuroscience researchers — point to high rates of misdiagnosis of Parkinson’s as one of the factors informing their decision to focus on the disease first. But their ambitions do pan wider. They paint a picture of the future in which their device becomes a “stethoscope for the brain.” Imagine, for example, if your annual trip to the optician could pack in a quick scan of brain health, and compare you against standard benchmarks for your age. According to the startup, which says it aims to help 10 million patients by 2023, eye tracking protocols could also help test for other diseases and conditions including concussion, Alzheimer’s, MS and stroke.

So how does the device work? Today, a patient looks through the headset and sees a screen where dots appear. A clinician then tells them to follow the dots with their eyes, after which the device extracts data that can be used as disease biomarkers by recording and analyzing their eye movements, measuring things like latency and error rate. It also provides the clinician with a standard value expected from a healthy population to compare with the patient’s results.

“The first scientific paper that is using eye tracking to diagnose patients is 1905,” neuroClues co-founder and CEO Antoine Pouppez told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview, noting the technique was initially used for diagnosing schizophrenia. In the 1960s, when video eye trackers arrived, there was a boom in research into the technique for tracking neurological disorders. But decades of research into the usefulness of eye-tracking as a diagnostic technique has not translated into widespread clinical uptake because the tech wasn’t there yet and/or was too expensive, said Pouppez.

“That’s where this technology comes from: The frustration of my co-founders to see that eye tracking has a lot of value — that’s been demonstrated in research that has been clinically proven on thousands of patients in research setups — and it’s still not used in clinical practice,” he said. “Doctors today use their fingers — and literally say ‘follow my finger’ — whereas an eye is moving at 600 degrees per second. You’re doing three eye movements per second. And so it’s very, very difficult — close to impossible — to evaluate how well you’re moving around [by human eye alone].”

Others have similarly spotted the potential to do more with eye tracking as a diagnostic aid.

U.S.-based Neurosync, for example, offers a VR headset combined with FDA-cleared eye tracking software it says can analyze the wearer’s eye movements “as an aid to concussion diagnosis.”The product is geared toward football players and athletes in other contact sports who face elevated risk of head injury.

There are also mobile app makers — such as BrainEye — pitching consumers on smartphone-based eye-tracking tech for self testing “brain health.” (Such claims are not evaluated by medical device regulators.)

But neuroClues stands out in a variety of ways. First, it says its headset can be located in a regular clinician’s office, without the need for a dark room set-up nor specialist computing hardware. It’s not using off-the-shelf hardware but instead developing dedicated eye-tracking headsets for eye testing designed to record at high speed and control the recording environment. The outfit’s founders further argue that by building its own software, neuroClues enjoys unrivaled speed of data capture in a commercially deployed, non-static device.

To protect these ostensible advantages, neuroClues has a number of patents granted (or filed) that it says cover various aspects of the design, such as the synchronization of the hardware and software, and its approach to analyzing data. The startup is also in the process of filing an application for FDA approval and hoping to gain clearance for use of its device a clinical support tool in the US later this year. It is working on the same type of application in the European Union and anticipates gaining regulatory approval in the EU in 2025.

“We are the only one on the market today that is recording an 800 frames per second on a portable device,” said Pouppez, noting that the research “gold standard” is 1,000 frames per second. “There is no clinical or non-clinical product that is doing it at that frame rate, which meant that we had to lift barriers that no one had lifted before.”

Image credit: neuroClues

neuroClues, which was incubated in the Paris Brain Institute, expects the first eye-tracking headsets to be deployed in specialist settings such as university hospitals, so for use on patients who have already been referred to consultants. It notes the service will be reimbursable via existing health insurance codes as eye tracking tests are an established medical intervention. The company says it’s also talking to a number of other outfits in the U.S. and Europe that are interested in its hardware and software.

This first version of the device is designed as a diagnostic aid, meaning that a human clinician is still responsible for interpreting the results. But Pouppez said the team’s goal is to evolve the technology to serve up interpretations of the data, too, so the device can be deployed more broadly.

“Our goal is quickly to move down to bring that diagnostics capabilities to practitioners,” he told us. “We hope to be on the market with such a device in ’26/’27. And so to broaden up our market perspectives and really be in [the toolbox of] every neurologist in US and in Europe.”

The startup is announcing close of a €5 million pre-Series A round of funding, led by White Fund and the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator program. Existing investors Invest.BW, plus a number of business angels, including Fiona du Monceau, former Chair of the Board at UCB, Artwall, and Olivier Legrain, CEO of IBA, also participated. Including this round neuroClues has raised a total of €12M since being founded back in 2020.

Pouppez said it will be looking to raise a Series A in the next 12 to 18 months. “Our existing investors and the European Commission have already shown interest in participating, so basically i’m looking for a lead investor,” he added.

Software Development in Sri Lanka

Robotic Automations

As VC firms invest more in B2B startups, Intuition is a new VC fund focusing on consumer tech | TechCrunch

April 30, 2024 12:04 PM0

In 2024, it’s hard to wake up without reading about yet another large funding round in an enterprise AI company. Intuition, a new VC firm based in Paris, is doing something radical and betting on consumer tech exclusively.

Behind the scenes, Hugo Amsellem (pictured left) and Etienne Boutan (pictured right) will be the general partners of this new fund. Hugo Amsellem has worked for Jellysmack and written about consumer tech and influencers for the past few years — including this very interesting piece on loneliness and how it affects consumer tech and culture.

Amsellem is also better known as one of the first employees of The Family, which was an iconic startup accelerator based in Paris. More recently, people have been talking about The Family because of the ongoing lawsuits against its co-founder Oussama Ammar. He has supposedly diverted millions of euros for his own profit.

Amsellem left The Family in 2019. When we talked about this part of his career, he’s both disappointed to see how things ended and wants to move on.

As for Etienne Boutan, he started his career as a professional basketball player. Before founding Intuition, he co-founded AI startup Heex Technologies.

The duo teamed up to raise an initial fund of €15 million ($16 million at today’s exchange rate). They have already invested in a handful of consumer startups in Europe and the U.S. after a first closing but they’re still actively raising for the fund.

They also recruited Axel Toupane (NBA champion), Eliott Kessas (co-founder of Daring) and Erika Batista (General Partner at On Deck Runway Fund) as venture partners.

“Hugo and I were amongst some of the most active early-stage investors in consumer startups in Europe and with the addition of Axel, Eliott and Erika as venture partners we wanted to make sure we could expand our coverage in the U.S. at the heart of consumer tech in San Francisco and culture in Los Angeles,” Etienne Boutan said.

The investment thesis for Intuition is quite simple. There’s a lack of consumer tech investment right now. That’s because investing in consumer and culture has historically been a bit risky for two reasons.

First, it’s hard to generate revenue when you’re working on a fun mobile app or the next big social network. It sometimes feels like you’re either working on the next unicorn or you’ll end up in the deadpool.

Second, there are a handful of consumer-focused tech companies that are simply dominating — Meta, ByteDance, Snap… Sure, some big tech companies like Meta, Google and Amazon acquired consumer companies to turn them into major consumer platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Twitch. But it feels like this acquisition window has closed.

“Working on consumer is really not cool these days because it’s been 5 to 7 years of failures in the consumer vertical, and there hasn’t been a lot of liquidity,” Amsellem told me.

“All the funds that have seen these under-performances and have had a huge amount of money to deploy because they’ve raised gigantic funds, they still say ‘yes, I’m doing consumer deals’, but they don’t say it too loud,” he added. “In fact, this is our opportunity.”

At the same time, many smart people are still working on consumer products — think about BeReal, Amo, Retro, The Browser Company, etc. Innovation hasn’t stopped and some of these companies will succeed.

And with the current pace of innovation in artificial intelligence, Intuition expects to see new interesting things happening in the space.

That’s why Intuition wants to help the next wave of consumer companies. The VC firm plans to invest anything between €100,000 and €500,000 at the pre-seed or seed stage. It will invest in more than 40 companies with its initial fund.

“There’s only one subject I want to work on, and that’s consumer and everything adjacent to consumer – everything that changes culture,” Amsellem said.

Intuition is VC + events

“I don’t think there’s room for a €30 million consumer fund focused solely on consumer products,” Amsellem said. Adding events on top of investment will grow Intuition’s revenue, which should help the firm when it comes to hiring a bigger team and making smarter bets.

So the company wants to create a community of people working on consumer and culture so that they can learn from each other and find the next big thing together.

Intuition is launching a series of events co-hosted with other key VC firms, such as Felix Capital (in London), a16z (in New York), Greylock (in Los Angeles) and General Catalyst (in San Francisco). Later this year, this tour will culminate with Intuition’s flagship event at Station F in Paris on September 20th.

This event strategy reminds me of Jason Lemkin’s SaaStr conferences. While SaaStr attracts 15,000 people for its main conference, Intuition is still at the start of its journey. The new firm plans to invite a few hundreds people for its first events. But it’s interesting to see that a VC firm is taking consumer tech seriously again.

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