U.S. autonomous delivery vehicle startup Nuro cuts staff by 20%
(Reuters) – Autonomous supply automobile maker Nuro is shedding about 20% of its workforce after admitting that speedy hiring previously 12 months was a mistake, the corporate’s co-founders wrote in an e-mail to workers on Friday.
“Shedding staff members is all the time the final resort, however sadly it was wanted after different choices had been exhausted,” the e-mail mentioned.
The Silicon Valley-based startup, whose buyers embrace Tiger World Administration, 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 automobile mission, later spun out as Waymo, earlier than launching Nuro.
They mentioned Nuro grew quickly previously 12 months helped by an ample provide of capital, however 2022 introduced numerous financial challenges, together with an impending U.S. recession and vitality crises, forcing the corporate to chop prices.
“We doubled the scale of our staff in lower than two years and considerably elevated our working bills, assuming the funding setting would stay robust,” Ferguson and Zhu mentioned.
“We made this name and take full duty for in the present day’s circumstances,” they wrote.
The layoffs will have an effect on about 300 workers; impacted staff will likely be supplied three months severance pay and different advantages, in response to the e-mail.
(Reporting by Ann Maria Shibu in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)
