SeekOut Layoffs: US-Based AI Recruitment Startup Lays Off 30% of Its Workforce To Refocus and Prioritise Initiatives With Bigger Impact, More Value Addition
SeekOut laid off 30% of its total workforce last Thursday. The SeekOut layoffs were aimed to help the company refocus and prioritise initiatives that have bigger impact on customers and add more value to the AI recruitment business.
Seattle, May 21: SeekOut, known for AI recruiting, is a US-based startup company founded in 2015. The company identifies and matches qualified candidates for a particular job using artificial intelligence-assisted technology. According to a report, recruitment company recently laid off around 30% of the workforce. The decision to implement SeekOut layoffs was made to strengthen the company's financial position.
TechCrunch reported that 30% of roles were cut from the company last Thursday due to the SeekOut layoffs. The report mentioned that it was the second-time the AI recruiter laid off employees. First, the SeekOut laid off around 7% of its total workforce in October last year, leading to 16 people lose their jobs, as per the report by Geekwire. Back then, the company had around 200 total workforce. Walmart Layoffs Continue: Retail Giant To Lay Off 318 Employees at Edgerton Warehouse As It Moves Distribution Operations to Topeka in US.
SeekOut CEO Anoop Gupta and CTO Arvind Bala reportedly informed the employees in a letter that the company had been spending around $2 to earn $1, which led to a "significant cash burn" during the last fiscal year. Further, they said they need to put the company on a "sustainable trajectory". To do so, Anoop and Arvind said that they would have to resort to "significant employee reduction". The letter also informed employees that implementing SeekOut layoffs would help the company "refocus" and "prioritise" fewer initiatives with a greater impact on customers, adding more value to the business. Tenaris Layoffs: Europe-Based Global Steelmaker To Lay Off Nearly 120 Employees in Beaver County.
SeekOut had been around for eight years, and the report highlighted that it was valued at $1.2 billion as of January 2022 after raising $115 million in C Series round led Tiger Global Management firm. TechCrunch mentioned that SeekOut's revenue was significantly growing at a rate of 300% a year. The AI recruitment company's ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) was reported to be between $25 million and $50 million. In 2024, many tech giants have started laying off employees due to slow demand, financial crisis, and global economic downturn, but mostly due to restructuring their business. Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, Whirlpool, BYJUs, Paytm and Tesla initiated layoffs this year, leading to hundreds of people losing their jobs.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2024 04:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).