(Reuters) – Autonomous delivery vehicle maker Nuro is shedding about 20% of its workforce after admitting that rapid hiring previously yr was a mistake, the corporate’s co-founders wrote in an email to employees on Friday.
“Shedding team members is all the time the last resort, but unfortunately it was needed after other options were exhausted,” the e-mail said.
The Silicon Valley-based startup, whose investors include Tiger Global Management, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Softbank Group Corp, had raised $600 million last yr at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
Nuro’s founders, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu, each worked on Google’s self-driving automotive project, later spun out as Waymo, before launching Nuro.
They said Nuro grew rapidly previously yr helped by an abundant supply of capital, but 2022 brought various economic challenges, including an impending U.S. recession and energy crises, forcing the corporate to chop costs.
“We doubled the dimensions of our team in lower than two years and significantly increased our operating expenses, assuming the funding environment would remain strong,” Ferguson and Zhu said.
“We made this call and take full responsibility for today’s circumstances,” they wrote.
The layoffs will affect about 300 employees; impacted staff shall be offered three months severance pay and other advantages, in accordance with the e-mail.
(Reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
