Autonomous supply car maker Nuro is shedding about 20% of its workforce after admitting that fast hiring prior to now 12 months was a mistake, the corporate’s co-founders wrote in an electronic mail to staff.
“Shedding workforce members is all the time the final resort, however sadly it was wanted after different choices had been exhausted,” the e-mail stated.
The Silicon Valley-based startup, whose buyers embody Tiger Global Management, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Softbank Group Corp, had raised $600 million final 12 months at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
Nuro’s founders, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, each labored on Google’s self-driving automotive challenge, later spun out as Waymo, earlier than launching Nuro.
They stated Nuro grew quickly prior to now 12 months helped by an ample provide of capital, however 2022 introduced a variety of financial challenges, together with an impending U.S. recession and vitality crises, forcing the corporate to chop prices.
“We doubled the scale of our workforce in lower than two years and considerably elevated our working bills, assuming the funding surroundings would stay sturdy,” Ferguson and Zhu stated.
“We made this name and take full duty for immediately’s circumstances,” they wrote.
The layoffs will have an effect on about 300 staff; impacted employees will likely be supplied three months severance pay and different advantages, based on the e-mail.
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