One of the largest incubator's in the country has made the difficult decision to lay off staff due to the global pandemic of COVID-19.
Atlanta Tech Village has laid off half of its team members, according to Vice President Karen Houghton.
ATV is the fourth largest incubator in the country and a frequent gathering spot for those in the tech, startup and innovation community. Atlanta Inno received an anonymous tip on Thursday that a number of employees were laid off at the Village. We reached out to Houghton, who confirmed the news.
"It is with great sadness that I confirm Atlanta Tech Village made the incredibly difficult and agonizing decision to lay off half of our team members," she said. "We deeply care for our people, and parted ways with kind words and generous terms. Together we created a magical and impactful community for startups who are working hard to change the world through technology. COVID-19 brought an immediate and deeply negative impact on our business like it has with so many others. There was a full stop to our events, visitor parking and coffee shop revenue in addition to startups who are failing and contracting during this tumultuous time."
The news comes on the heels of several startups in the Atlanta community announcing layoffs due to the financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus. Last week, King of Pops, an Atlanta-based popsicle startup, announced it had let go of half of its staff just weeks before its 10th anniversary. TechCrunch reported earlier this week that Kabbage, a fintech lending platform for SMBs, furloughed a "significant" amount of employees on Monday. A spokerperson from Kabbage would not comment on the matter with Atlanta Inno.
ATV made the executive decision to cancel all public events at the incubator earlier this month to encourage social distancing before closing the incubator to the public completely.
"We are fully focused on supporting our founders, and are ready for the long road to rebuild and take back what COVID-19 has taken from all of us," Houghton said. "We may look a little different, but are still here and fighting the good fight alongside our incredible community."
Editor's note: While we don't enjoy bringing news of hardship during this tumultuous time, we will continue to monitor the economic effects of COVID-19 on our local community and do our due diligence to report to the public. If you know of a layoff, furlough, closure or bankruptcy happening in the Atlanta startup and tech community, you can submit an anonymous tip here.
