As the spread of the novel coronavirus disrupts industries worldwide, Boston-based Bevi, which makes smart water dispensers for offices, has laid off more than 30 employees, primarily on the revenue side of the business.
The company's current headcount stands at 120.
Launched in 2013 with a resolution to substitute disposable bottles with beverage dispensers, the MIT spinoff startup raised $35 million in Series C financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners last year, bringing its venture funding to a total of $63 million.
"Due to the large-scale shutdown of offices across the country and current inability to maintain our growth rate, we made the painful decision to lay off more than 30 employees," Bevi CEO Sean Grundy said in an email. "This was my worst day as CEO of Bevi. This is a strong and impressive group who drove Bevi's rapid growth over the past few years, so we hope to be in a position to hire our team back someday."
Grundy said Bevi is now focusing on R&D and operational improvements to help the company bounce back than its users return to work.
Bevi dispensers are hooked up to an existing water line, and provide still, sparkling and flavored water on demand. Users can also add and mix flavors to their selection using an intuitive touchscreen.
The startup's clientele includes companies like Apple, Netflix, GE and Lyft. In an interview with BostInno in 2019, Grundy said that Bevi planned to set foot in metropolitan areas across North America including Austin, Houston, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.
Bevi, however, isn't the only hospitality startup laying off its staff. Boston-based corporate catering startup Alchemista had to furlough 90 percent of its staff, bringing its headcount to four — including co-founder and CEO Christine Marcus.
"We were having the best quarter in the company's history, since its inception in 2012," Marcus told BostInno. "From that we went to every single client shutting down and working from home."
When BostInno spoke to Marcus in 2019, the startup was poised for an expansion to New York City with 18 full-time people on the team, along with a small army of part-time hospitality professionals who would interface with new restaurants. Alchemista's only client "at work" right now is Moderna Therapeutics, the Cambridge-based biotech working on a COVID-19 vaccine.
"We were getting ready to hire significantly," Marcus said. "We were interviewing 10 to 15 people, and even extended offers to some folks."
At a time of lingering uncertainty, Marcus plans to make improvements to bounce back stronger.
"I wouldn't have dreamed that this would happen," Marcus said. "The best thing I could do was use this time very effectively. We have a bunch of cool projects in the pipeline, and I am now using this time to hone in on those things."
As layoffs and job losses mount in some hard-hit industries like travel and hospitality, some economists say the nation's unemployment rate could approach 13 percent by May. By comparison, the highest jobless rate during the Great Recession, which ended in 2009, was 10 percent. Already in Massachusetts, 148,000 residents applied for unemployment last week. That number was nearly a 19-fold increase over the previous week's 7,449 unemployment claims.
