Calm, San Francisco wellness unicorn, lays off 20% of staff
Quiet, the meditation and peace tech startup featuring a medley of superstar voices, has laid off a fifth of its staff members. The organization is headquartered in San Francisco and employs close to 400 people today, the Wall Avenue Journal claimed.
The impacted workforce have been laid off Thursday, a corporation spokesperson advised SFGATE. Laid-off staff members were being notified in one-on-a person meetings, in accordance to a enterprise-vast information.
“While some of you will be impacted, all of you will be impacted,” Serene CEO David Ko explained in the concept Thursday. “I can assure you that this was not an simple selection, but it is particularly challenging for a company like ours whose mission is centered on place of work mental health and wellness.”
Relaxed, like immediate competitor Headspace and digital treatment solutions like BetterHelp and Talkspace, capitalized on the new uptick in demand for psychological health and fitness care and wellness — a desire that was only intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. But Calm’s large attract over its competition was its reliance on mega-famous people, from boy-bander turned pop dreamboat Harry Models to actor Matthew McConaughey, to study “sleep stories” on the platform.
By 2020, it was valued at $2 billion — creating it a person of the premier unicorns in the mental wellness tech area. But it, much too, has been compelled to pare back again as a a lot more-constrained tech industry has found desire drop soon after profits — and employing — soared throughout the pandemic.
“We did not arrive to this final decision flippantly, but are confident that these improvements will assist us prioritize the upcoming, concentrate on growth and turn out to be a far more efficient corporation,” Ko mentioned.
A spokesperson did not supply added aspects on laid-off employees’ severance packages.
