Mental health and fitness and meditation app enterprise Headspace Health and fitness laid off 15% of its employees in its 2nd round of task cuts considering that December amid a wave of layoffs that proceeds to sweep the tech industry and further than.
In an internal memo to workforce Thursday morning, Main Government Russell Glass claimed the firm experienced “underestimated” how a great deal the current economic setting would have an affect on consumer habits but remained “committed to getting funds-movement beneficial in 2024 so that we aren’t reliant on outside the house funding to provide our members.”
The layoffs will have an impact on 181 workforce, Headspace spokesperson Sara Lindsey verified.
“These alterations will equip the corporation for the foreseeable future and pave a powerful path to profitability,” the firm explained in a assertion.
The bulk of the cuts were being built to the teams that develop material for Headspace’s meditation app, which has been downloaded much more than 70 million periods as of 2022, in accordance to Enterprise of Apps. The internal memo also outlined prioritizing the results of new initiatives in 2024, including a journaling aspect driven by artificial intelligence.
The Santa Monica-headquartered firm allow go of 50 of its 1,200 staff final December. Its competitor, Relaxed, laid off about 20% of its 400-man or woman employees in August. Quiet strike 135 million application downloads at the conclude of 2022, in accordance to Business enterprise of Apps.
Headspace was started in 2010 by Abundant Pierson and Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, and was a single of the 1st preferred apps for wellness and meditation.
The organization doubled its subscribers in 2020 as Americans’ mental well being was strained by a world pandemic and a divisive presidential election. Numerous of the app’s offerings aspect a smiling orange confront as Puddicombe’s voice walks buyers through guided meditation workout routines and breath function. Headspace also features an personnel guidance prepare for companies to provide psychological overall health advantages for staff.
In 2021, it took on the title Headspace Health just after becoming a member of forces with Ginger, which provides mental overall health coaches, in a merger worthy of an approximated $3 billion, Bloomberg noted. The corporation also acquired mental health and fitness businesses Glow, which targeted on inclusive wellness content, and Sayana, which used AI-ability chatting for person mood-tracking, in 2022.
The wave of tech layoffs that started past slide has ongoing in entire power, with Pokemon Go maker Niantic announcing Thursday that it was shuttering an L.A.-dependent studio and financial investment application firm Robinhood laying off 7% of its workforce, Insider claimed.