DataRobot, the Boston-based enterprise AI company, has significantly reduced its workforce amid economic uncertainty due to the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The company confirmed the layoffs but declined to answer questions about how many employees were laid off and in what departments, saying instead that the layoffs had affected employees across business areas and regions.
Posts by laid-off employees on LinkedIn show that the cuts affected teams in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Brazil, and employees on the software engineering, marketing, customer success, sales and data science teams were let go. The Boston office was home to 250 full-time employees as of October.
"It is incumbent upon every strong business to regularly evaluate teams and internal investments to ensure it is best positioned for the future," a spokesperson said in a statement emailed to BostInno. "This is especially important when market conditions change. As part of this effort and given the uncertain economic climate as a result of the pandemic, we have decided to streamline areas to realign with our current business focus and go-to-market strategy."
The spokesperson also said DataRobot had offered severance packages and outplacement services to employees who were let go.
The spread of the novel coronavirus has roiled the economy, and Boston startups are no exception. BostInno reported on Friday alone that smart water dispenser developer Bevi, corporate catering startup Alchemista and car-sharing company Zipcar had made significant cuts to their workforce. Within the last week, travel startups Lola.com and Wanderu have also made cuts.
Many of those workers will join the growing ranks of those filing for unemployment: a record-shattering 3.3 million Americans last week, nearly 150,000 of whom were Massachusetts residents.
DataRobot announced just last week that it was partnering with Amazon Web Services to provide its enterprise AI platform free of charge to anyone interested in using it to help with the coronavirus response effort. The platform, DataRobot's flagship product, creates production-ready machine learning models and enables customers to deploy, monitor and manage them at scale.
In September, the startup raised a $206 million Series E round. That investment reportedly made the company a unicorn as it passed the $1 billion valuation threshold.
