According to a memo to staff from CEO David Ko, Calm laid off 20% of its roughly 400-person workforce.
Calm's mission to make people happier and healthier has never been more tested over the past few years. We have helped millions of users navigate a lot of uncertainty. Ko said that we are not immune to the current economic environment as a company. In building out our strategic and financial plan, we revisited the investment thesis behind every project and it became clear that we need to make changes, including some difficult decisions, in order to ensure that the next 10 years of Calm are as successful as the first 10. Ko believes that the changes will help the company focus on growth and become more efficient, even though the layoffs were not an easy decision. He said that the future of the business would be discussed in-depth during an all-hands meeting on Friday.
Calm was founded in 2012 and was valued at $2 billion in December 2020 after raising $75 million in Series C financing. The investment round brought its total funding to $217 million, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from TPG, Insight Venture Partners, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Calm is the latest company to make adjustments in response to the current macroeconomic environment.
Walmart, Oracle and Robinhood were among the companies that cut jobs last week.
Other major companies that have laid off employees or slowed or paused hiring include Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Spotify, Netflix, Victoria's Secret, 7-Eleven, Coinbase and Redfin.